Classic Carrot Salad

I love grated carrot salads! Will try this method, but also wanted to suggest one of my fave variations uses dried cherries or dried cranberries instead of raisins - either is particularly good presoaked in lime juice.

As my pantry is my witness, I keep juice-packed pineapple tidbits stored there just so I can make this kind of carrot salad. (Well...on occasion when making pizza I add them to peppers and onions on "a pie". But I will deny that in public.) I choose brown raisins here and yogurt over mayo. Seems plenty sweet to me without optional honey but your taste may vary. I prefer lemon zest to orange. And you'd be amazed what a difference fresh Farmer's Market carrots make grated for this.

A classic Israeli version,beloved by generations, omits the mayo or yogurt and honey, and instead adds a cup of orange juice, a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice and a few tablespoons of sugar. Refrigerate for a few hours and the juices combine into a delicious sauce. All measurements are, of course, approximate.

IMHO, you can’t beat David Liebovitz’s carrot salad. No mayo, raisins, or pineapple. Just EVOO, lemon, mustard, salt & herbs.

This salad improves with age. The raisins will plump up on their own after refrigerating overnight. A good addition is shredded coconut.

This is the best base recipe for carrot salad/ slaw EVER. White carrots looked beautiful with orange zest. Fage full fat yogurt. Followed another’s suggestion of craisins soaked in lime juice in lieu of raisins, but didn’t have enough limes so added juice of half an orange. Added other half orange juice to carrots. Omitted pineapple bc I had none. Simmered craisins in juices, cooled a bit then added to carrots while warm and refrigerated it all for an hour. Amazeballs 10/10

I love finely grated carrots and make carrot salad often. Lately, I have used Vidalia onion bottled salad dressing in place of mayonnaise and honey. It is a more complex flavor than mayonnaise and works very well with the natural sweetness of carrots. .

My version of this--not to criticize this one--is to use some sweet onion, omit the mayo, and dress simply with oil and vinegar or lemon juice. In addition to the raisins, I also add almonds or whatever nuts I have on hand.

Soak the raisins for 10 to 20 minutes before adding them to the salad. They plump up and add moisture and sweetness.

My mother, who managed restaurants/cafeterias from the 1950s-1980s, made carrot-raisin salads (along with many others) for the cafeteria line, mostly. She used mayo and applesauce for the dressing. I still make it to this day from her recipe on an index card.

Thank you fellow Times reader. Made this with some orange zest and lime soaked cranberries. Everyone raved about it! Definitely a keeper!

I second using orange juice in place of mayo/yogurt.

My mother's version of this salad added shredded coconut but no raisins. It was delicious.

A squeeze of lemon or lime juice, or a few tablespoons of (unsweetened) pineapple juice, gives this a little punch. My grandmother also added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Pecans would work.

Our family adds flaked coconut to this salad. It makes for a nice addition.