
This is a classic salad of southern Spain, in particular the southernmost tip and also typical of Gibraltar, known as ‘zanahorias aliñadas‘, which literally means marinated carrots.
The carrots are cooked first, then cooled and marinated in olive oil and vinegar. However I have an aversion towards vinegar (there aren’t that many things I don’t like) so I tend to marinade most salads with lemon juice instead, but the choice is yours, it can be done both ways.
It may seem that having raw garlic in a salad may be a little strong flavoured but together with the smokiness of the sweet smoked paprika and the sweetness of the carrots, the flavours balance out perfectly. This can be had on it’s own but it is usually served as an accompaniment to other dishes or as part of a starter.
Ingredients
- 500 g of carrots
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1½ tsp smoked paprika (heaped)
- 1 glug of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large pinch of coarse salt
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or the juice of half a lemon
- 1 lb of carrots
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1½ tsp smoked paprika (heaped)
- 1 glug of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large pinch of coarse salt
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or the juice of half a lemon
Instructions
- Peel the carrots and boil them whole in a pan of boiling water until they are soft but not mushy.
- Drain and transfer to a bowl of cold water with ice to stop the cooking and cool them down.
- Once cool enough to the touch cut them into slices and add to a bowl.
- In a mortar add the clove of garlic with a good pinch of coarse salt and pound it with the pestle until the garlic has ground down but not that it has been crushed to a mush. It needs to resemble finely diced garlic, but doing it in the pestle and mortar releases more flavour.
- Add the smoked paprika to the mortar, with the oil and the vinegar/lemon, mix well and pour onto the carrots and mix well.