Saturday, July 14, 2007

Carrot, Avocado and Cashew Salad

Despite the frequent meteorological evidence to the contrary, this is summer time, and so I had my nose once again in Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer recently. Whilst there, I met a few old friends, including her recipe for a carrot and peanut salad. I have sympathy with the lady when she says "the only way I stop eating [this] is by having someone prise the bowl out of my hands". Quite understandable. But nothing is sacred, least of all recipes, and so I decided to play around with this a little, adding some more contrasts.

To the sweet, crunchy carrots I added instead cashew nuts - more subtle in flavour, slightly waxier in texture than the peanuts - and some smooth, creamy avocado. In the dressing, so as not to overpower the fruit, I used lemon juice instead of vinegar to add sourness, and a few pink peppercorns, mainly because I bought them last week in Fortnum and Mason's and wanted to use them, but also because a little heat was needed and the pink flecks look beautiful against the rest of the colours.

  • 200g carrots (unpeeled weight)
  • 1/2 medium avocado
  • 90g roasted, salted cashew nuts
  • juice of 1/2 a large lemon
  • 1/2 teaspoon pink peppercorns

  • Peel and chop the carrots in to short batons. Peel the avocado, slice into 1/2cm semi-circles then in 3 lengthways. Place the carrots and avocado in a bowl and add about a third of the cashews whole. Very roughly chop the remainder of the nuts (just in half is good enough) and throw in the bowl. Bash the peppercorns around in a pestle and mortar a little, then add to the rest of the ingredients. You probably don't need salt as the cashews will contribute enough. Squeeze over the lemon juice, mix well, and enjoy!

    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    This sounds fantastic! I will have to make it once the weather warms up. Yum!

    Eleanor said...

    It is delicious! A really good variant (possibly actually my favourite) is to get rid of the pink peppercorns and use a bit of mustard instead, preferably wholegrain, but English would work too if that is all you have.