Carrot, tahini and toasted hazelnut salad with mint

Salads can be simple and delicious. It is about the right texture and flavours coming together.

This salad is for the carrot lover. The carrots add a lovely bright colour, especially if they are heritage carrots and crunchy texture. This is offset by the creamy and tangy tahini dressing and the hint of nuts. Simple, elegant and healthy, this is a lovely salad.

Sabrina Ghayour is a chef, TV celebrity and cookbook author. She has published several cookbooks, yes I have most of them, with absolutely amazing recipes. I have just got this book and started cooking through the recipes, they are amazing, and most of the recipes are super simple, like this salad. You will see more recipes from both this book and from this fantastic chef.

For more wonderful recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Zest and juice of 1 lime or 1/2 lemon

Salt, to taste

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Water, as needed

For the salad:

4 carrots, heritage coloured carrots preferred

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

A handful of mint, lightly torn

To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients with enough water to a consistency of heavy cream. Mix well to get rid of any lumps in the tahini to make a smooth dressing. Store in the fridge till needed.

Wash the carrots well. Cut the carrots into 2-inch pieces. Using a mandoline cut the carrots along their length into long slices on the thinnest setting.

Toss the carrots and onions with olive oil.

When ready to serve, add 2 teaspoons of the dressing to the bottom of a plate. Spread out in concentric circles to form a spiral and cover the whole plate. Top with some of the carrot mix, mint and hazelnuts. Add a few small drops of the dressing scattered on the carrots.

Serve with extra dressing on the side.