carrot salad with tahini and crisped chickpeas
I have been gushing in the margins about carrot salad (pardon! ) since I made it for the first time four years ago. It’s exquisite in its simplicity, just lemon juice, olive oil, a pinch of sugar, some salt, pepper, and rough-chopped parsley, all applied in that old-fashioned taste-as-you-go method that basically guarantees it will be perfectly seasoned when you’re done. (You do this with everything you cook, right? Yeah, I forget too.) And this week, as the carrots are towered high at markets, was the week I finally wanted to give it its due. But then I started thinking about we talked about in the early days of 2013, which we finished with a lemony-tahini swirl and topped with cumin and sea salt roasted chickpeas and how fantastically filling it was, a real meal in a bowl, and decided we needed a fresh spring-summer spin on it.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 12 of 13 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 12 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Pistachio | 1 oz (28g / ~49 kernels) | 159 |
| Chickpea | 1/2 cup canned (120g) drained | 134 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Tahini | 1 tbsp (15g) | 89 |
| Carrot | 1 medium (61g) | 25 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Cumin | 1 tsp ground (2.1g) | 8 |
| Chili | 1 tsp (2.7g) | 8 |
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas, or 1 15-ounce can, drained and patted dry on paper towels
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 pound carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup shelled, salted pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
- 2 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and red pepper flakes to taste