A Carrot Salad For The Last Days of Autumn

Jump to the InstaRecipe if you’re in a rush and/or don’t want any Dad Advice! 

December 15, 2023.  Dear Kids– It’s that time of year again when I give you my favorite recipe from another! This year it’s my rendition of the carrot salad found in “Six Seasons- A New Way With Vegetables” by Joshua McFadden, an excellent cookbook I’ve had on my shelf since it was published.  Still, I would have probably never come across the recipe if Mom and I hadn’t been so fortunate as to have it deliciously prepared for us by friends who recently had us over for dinner. 

Not only is this salad wonderful during the last days of autumn, it’s actually perfect andy day of autumn or winter, for that matter, if you ask me.  A kaleidoscope of colors to remind you of the falling or fallen leaves and an array of flavors to remind you of how delicious good food can taste. With the addition of beans it’s also hearty enough for a light lunch or dinner.

One of the best parts and biggest surprises of the recipe is the arugula which came from The Mom’s Autumn Garden- yes, believe it or not (I didn’t until recently) you can grow tender greens in the autumn- even with below freezing temperatures! On top of that, it’s the most delicious arugula I’ve ever tasted.

The natural sweetness of the apricots and roasted carrots are complimented nicely by the brightness of the red onion, lemon and vinegar; while the savoriness of the arugula, grains, beans, pistachios and ricotta, with pops of heat from the pepper flakes, round out every bite rather well. 

Diet:  Vegetarian, Vegan Option

Prep Time: 15 minutes (most of prep can be done while carrots and grains cook)

Cook Time:  15 minutes or longer depending on grain (cook carrots and grains at same time)

Servings: 4

GET YOUR STUFF OUT

• 2 cups or so of your favorite cooked or leftover grains, like farro or quinoa
• 1 pound rainbow or other carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into bite sized chunks
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1.5 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste (mixed use)
• 1/4 red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios
• 2-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, mixed use
• 1-1.5 cups good quality whole milk ricotta
• 1/3 large red onion, peeled, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 8 ounces (from a 15 ounce can) white beans, like cannellini
• 1 cup parsley leaves from a large bunch
• 4 ounces total baby arugula and/or watercress
• 1 lemon, cut into quarters
• 3 tablespoons light colored vinegar, like cider, white wine or rice
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta, optional

COOK AND PLAY

Play “Autumn In New York” by Billie Holliday and “fall” in love with this recipe.  

1. The Main Grain.  Preheat oven, with middle rack, to 375°. Cook up or warm up to room temperature your grains- I had leftover tri-color quinoa, so it took no time at all!

2.  Taste The Rainbow of Carrots.  While grains cook or warm, toss carrots on sheet pan with oil, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt and 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, spread out evenly on sheet pan and roast in oven until tender, with bits of brown- about 15 minutes depending on size of carrots.

3.  Prep List. While carrots roast, dice up apricots; toast pistachios, whisk 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil into ricotta; thinly slice red onion; drain and rinse cannellini beans; clean, stem (discard stems, keep leaves) and chop parsley; and clean and dry arugula or watercress. 

4.  Plate It Up.  Spread a 1/4 cup or so circle of ricotta in the center of each serving plate, place a 1/2 cup scoop of grains around rim of circle. Add parsley and greens to a large bowl, then squeeze in juice of 2 lemon quarters (no seeds though), drizzle in 1-2 tablespoon olive oil- or to taste- sprinkle in 1/2 tsp. kosher salt and toss- taste and add more lemon juice and/or salt as you wish. Place even portions of salad next to grains around rim of circle. In empty greens bowl, toss carrots, apricots, pistachios, beans and red onions with vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt- taste and add more vinegar and/or salt as you wish. Top greens with mixture. If you like, drizzle on more olive oil and sprinkle on some feta- I did, but after I took the picture.

THE LECTURE

The Autumn Garden.  It’s nice to have farmers in the family for many reasons- I only wished they lived closer to us. One reason in particular is that they showed The Mom how to garden in the autumn as pictured and explained above and in more detail here– and I mean, even in the part of the autumn that has temps in the teens from time to time. I was certainly skeptical here in the very north of the northeast, but every morning after a frost when I expect to find the arugula and spinach Mom planted under the remay/reemay fabric back in October withered up into nothingness, I did not. In fact, the vegetation was just beautiful- lush, long rows of greeny goodness- I mean just look at that picture below I took today in the middle of December! 

As you know, The Mom is more of the gardner of the two parents (while The Dad stands in the role of Garden Grunt on a very limited basis), but I have to admit I love autumn gardening! It even inspires me to do more grunt work with it’s gentle rays of sunshine (or not) and cool winds coaxing me outside and into the garden on a regular basis not seen in the hotter months of the summer.  As an added bonus, there’s also the last bits of the unprotected sturdier garden offerings- brussel sprouts and curly and lactano kale (the kale actually has a pleasing texture from the freezing cold in my opinion). 

The Ricotta.  I absolutely abhorred ricotta for decades! Admittedly, what I consumed was exclusively cheap, supermarket brands that were over cooked in lasagna, manicotti, or stuffed shells and tasted and looked grainy to me- I mean “ricotta” translates to recooked, so cooking it a third time in lasagna or anywhere else is just asking for trouble! Then, not too long ago, I dolloped a quality brand of ricotta next to some pasta with meat sauce, sliding forkfuls of sauced pasta through the creamy goodness, and cue the hallelujah music- it was mind blowing! 

If you haven’t tried something like this, I implore you to give it a go. In fact, I often find myself daydreaming about what other foods I can adorn (whether by dolloping or schmearing) with good ricotta, so once I tasted the dollop of ricotta in this salad, needless to say I was hooked. As for my daydreams- some include dolloping ricotta on soft scrambled eggs with chives, atop baked ziti or lasagna just before serving; or schmearing on toasted sourdough with smashed spring peas, sliced summer tomatoes, sauteed wild mushrooms with a soft egg or roasted winter squash.

There’s a lot of bad ricotta in your supermarket dairy section, so try to avoid it. If you have a neighborhood Italian market nearby, you should go there and ask one of the nice people to point you in the right direction. As far as supermarket brands, here’s a taste test ranking from America’s Test Kitchen of four popular brands- ranked from first to worst- #1 Bel Gioioso #2 Galbani #3 Calabro #4 Organic Valley (this was said to taste of cottage cheese, which is not a good thing). Even before I found this review, I used the number one pick when making my salads- are you impressed? In the end, you really shouldn’t care what America’s Test Kitchen or The Dad think- just go out and try a few brands to figure out what you prefer and if you like it, that’s all that really matters.

Cooking Carrots.  As you already know, carrots come in all different sizes and that will determine how many carrots you need to equal a pound and how long you will need to cook those carrots to get them to your preferred tenderness. The first time I made this recipe I had a bunch of mostly uniform, but big, fat carrots and it took only four to equal a pound and about 18 minutes to get them tender to my tastes. The next time, the bunch was less uniform, shorter and thinner, as you can see below, and it took me eight carrots to equal a pound and about 12 minutes to cook to my tastes. If the size of the carrots vary, some of the smaller tips will be quite tender in order for you to get the larger chunks tender, but the contrasting textures and tastes add interest- if that’s too much interest for you, feel free to fish out the smaller pieces earlier if you want all bites to be consistent.

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