This Carrot Sesame Salad is easy to make, full of flavor and the perfect way to use up excess carrots sitting in your fridge. It makes a great side dish for just about any protein, and it's easy to prep ahead of time.
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🥗 Why We Love This Recipe
- Easy prep: After you're done toasting sesame seeds and julienning the carrots, the rest of the salad is just mixing ingredients together. It's super simple with a delicious result.
- Use up those carrots: Tired of looking at those carrots sitting at the bottom of your fridge? This is a great way to transform your excess produce into a delicious salad.
- Great at a BBQ: This salad is a perfect complement to grilled foods like burgers, because it's crunch, fresh, and slightly spicy. It works well as a palate cleanser.
🥕 Ingredients
Here are the key ingredients you'll need to make this carrot sesame salad:
📋 Ingredient Notes
- Carrots: if you want to add some color to this dish, you can opt for rainbow carrots. Totally optional, though – regular orange carrots are great!
- Sesame seeds: if you have an allergy in the family, you can opt for sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or even peanuts. It won't be exactly the same, but either of those two options will do a good job of replacing the sesame seeds.
- Tamari: if you're not worried about gluten, you can opt for regular soy sauce instead of tamari.
- Basil: if you can find Thai basil, this is the perfect use for it! If not (we had trouble finding some), regular basil is just fine.
- Miso: we use a milder white or brown miso in this dressing instead of red miso, which tends to be quite a bit stronger. If using red miso, you may want to use a bit less.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
PREP: Heat a small pan to medium, then add 1.5 tablespoon sesame seeds and toast for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat once they’re lightly browned and fragrant.
(1 & 2) Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small blender or food processor and blend for 15-20 seconds. If you don’t have a small food processor or blender, whisk the miso and tamari together until there are no lumps left and then add the rest of the dressing ingredients and whisk until mixed well.
(3) Wash and peel carrots. Julienne the carrots and put in a large bowl. We used 1.5lbs or 680g of carrots in this recipe. Add chopped ¼ cup chopped scallions, 2 tablespoon cilantro, and 2 tablespoon basil and toss well to combine.
(4) Pour dressing over carrots and toss to coat well.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour to let flavors meld together. Serve topped with a few more toasted sesame seeds and some red pepper flakes.
💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
- If you're short on time and don't want to julienne the carrots, you can also see if your food processor comes with a julienne disk. Alternatively, you can use a vegetable peeler to make carrot shavings. You can also buy pre-shredded carrots for a super quick option!
- Be sure to keep a close on eye on the sesame seeds when you toast them, as they are notorious for burning quickly. You'll know they're done when your kitchen smells nutty and delicious.
- Storage: this is a great salad to meal prep, and you can dress the salad and then store in an airtight container for 2-3 days. You don't have to worry about storing the dressing separately, just dress and store.
Julienning is a way of cutting that results in long, thin strips. The best way to learn how is to watch this video as typing it out will make it sound more complicated than it actually is. You can also try out a specialized tool like this one from OXO.
I love this carrot sesame salad alongside a grilled protein, like these grilled tofu kebabs with peanut sauce. It's also GREAT as a slaw for burgers (veggie or regular).
🍽 Related Recipes
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Print📖 Recipe
Shaved Rainbow Carrot Sesame Salad
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Carrot Sesame Salad is full of flavor and the perfect way to use up the bag of carrots sitting in your fridge. It makes a great side dish for just about any protein, and it's easy to prep ahead of time.
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 ½ lbs (680g) carrots, peeled and ends trimmed
- ¼ cup finely chopped scallions
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1 ½ tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Dressing:
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 ½ tbsp low sodium Tamari (you can also use soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp mild white miso
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp finely minced fresh garlic
- 1 tsp of fresh ginger, grated
Instructions
- Heat a small pan to medium, then add 1.5 tablespoon sesame seeds and toast for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat once they’re lightly browned and fragrant.
- Wash and peel carrots. Then julienne the carrots and put in a large bowl. We used 1.5lbs or 680g of carrots in this recipe. Add chopped ¼ cup chopped scallions, 2 tablespoon cilantro, and 2 tablespoon basil and toss well to coat.
- Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small blender or food processor and blend for 15-20 seconds. If you don’t have a small food processor or blender, whisk the miso and tamari together until there are no lumps left and then add the rest of the dressing ingredients and whisk until mixed well. Pour over carrots and toss to coat well.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour to let flavors meld together. Serve topped with a few more toasted sesame seeds and some red pepper flakes.
Notes
Carrot prep: Julienning is a way of cutting that results in long, thin strips. The best way to learn how is to watch this video as typing it out will make it sound more complicated than it actually is. You can also try out a specialized tool like this one from OXO.
Carrots: if you want to add some color to this dish, you can opt for rainbow carrots. Totally optional, though – regular orange carrots are great!
Sesame seeds: if you have an allergy in the family, you can opt for sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or even peanuts.
Storage: this is a great salad to meal prep, and you can dress the salad and then store in an airtight container for 2-3 days. You don't have to worry about storing the dressing separately, just dress and store.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: No cook
- Cuisine: Asian-American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Bowl
- Calories: 114
- Sugar: 6.5 g
- Sodium: 204 mg
- Fat: 6.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 13.9 g
- Fiber: 3.7 g
- Protein: 2.2 g
Carol says
I loved this salad. Really good flavor and texture! I had almost everything in my pantry. Substituted coconut aminos for the tamari, omitted sugar and added salt. I wanted more kick, so added a dash of chili oil. Couldn't get fresh basil, so used parsley. Will get a julienne tool or mandolin before I make this again, because it took a long time with a knife. Thank you for posting, will definitely make this again.
Lexi says
Thank you so much, Carol! So glad you enjoyed.
Tanya says
Wonderful flavor!! Will def make it again and again!!
Lexi says
Thank you, Tanya! So glad you enjoyed.
Carrie Co-Dyre says
This recipe is great love it in spring summer especially with BBQ.
Lexi says
Thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed!
Meghan Tuttle says
I have made this salad three times so far and it's just so incredible. DO yourself a favor and make this ASAP!
Tawni says
Excellent salad! Can you be more specific for serving size? How many grams in 1 bowl?
Lexi says
Hi, the serving size is 1/6 of the recipe - hope that helps!
D'OnKaMiNoOr says
Very nice salad. I love trying new recipies to give new falvours to basics. We really enjoyed the asian taste of those carrots. Will do it again. Thanks for sharing.
Lexi says
So glad you enjoyed, thank you for your comment! 🙂
D'OnKaMiNoOr says
Just read your presentation and as you said you liked travelling and cultures i thought it would be interesting for you to know that your recipes are being tryed in Mauritius ! Isn't that amazing ? I always find it so incredible myself being cooking dishes suggested by people liveing veeeeery far from me !
Lexi says
That is so cool - we love to hear that!! Thank you for sharing!
DENISE says
Hi!!
They don't sell miso where i live. Can i leave it out or will it affect flavor? Thanks!!
Lexi says
Hi! Feel free to leave it out, but you may want to add a bit more salt since miso is pretty salty.
Beau says
Excellent dish, I really enjoyed it.
Lexi says
So glad you enjoyed, thank you for your comment! 🙂