Carrot and Tahini Salad

Storing and Planning Ahead

Best within 2 hours. The dressing keeps refrigerated for a week; dress the carrot fresh.

Carrot and Tahini Salad: The Method

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1. Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic, salt and cumin. It will seize into a stiff paste — this is expected.

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2. Add the cold water one tablespoon at a time, whisking after each, until it loosens to the consistency of double cream.

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3. Taste. It should be sharper than seems sensible, because the carrot is sweet and will mute it.

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4. Put the grated carrot in a bowl and pour over two-thirds of the dressing.

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5. Turn it over with your hands rather than a spoon so every strand is coated without bruising.

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6. Pile onto a plate, spoon over the rest of the dressing, and finish with parsley, olive oil and sesame seeds.

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Worth Knowing

• Lemon before water. Adding acid last re-thickens the sauce.
• It seizes before it loosens. Keep whisking.
• Dress it just before serving — carrot weeps.

Behind the Recipe

Tahini seizes before it loosens, and knowing that is the difference between a smooth dressing and a curdled one. Whisking water into tahini makes it suddenly stiffen and look broken — keep going, keep adding water a spoon at a time, and it turns pale and pourable. Add the lemon first, then the water; doing it the other way round means the acid hits an already-loose sauce and thickens it again with nothing left to fix it.

Good Alongside

Grilled chicken · Flatbread · Green olives

Changing the Recipe

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Carrot and Tahini Salad Nutrition Facts

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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