We Just Found Our New Favorite Way to Make Carrots

“This is excellent!”

<p>Brie Goldman/Allrecipes</p>

Brie Goldman/Allrecipes

We don’t know about you, but we’ve been seeing Korean carrot salad all over our social feeds lately and it’s given us a serious carrot craving.

While it’s not necessarily new, this salad has been gaining a lot more popularity on social media thanks to the TikTok user @dzaslavsky who has posted about the salad several times on her account, garnering millions of views and nearly just as many comments. Danielle frequently shares the carrot salad that her great-aunt makes and drops off for her in repurposed jars (side note: how sweet!), calling it “super garlicky,” “spicy,” and “delicious,” making for a “drop-the-mic” moment.

Many comments came in about how her videos have made them want to try the dish—“I don’t understand how I can crave something I’ve never had“—and demanding the recipe, so we knew it was time to explore this salad a bit more. Luckily, we have a recipe for Korean Carrot Salad on Allrecipes, and spoiler alert: it’s not from Korea at all.

What Is Korean Carrot Salad?

The dish Danielle is posting about is Korean Carrot Salad, or Morkovcha (also known as Koreyscha Sabzili Salat in Russian). It's a simple side dish that was believed to have originated in Central Asia with a population of Korean emigrants living in the Russian Far East. The dish grew in popularity and spread throughout the Soviet Union, eventually gaining an international following. It is essentially a version of kimchi made with what was available at the time, which was carrots.

To make the salad, carrots are grated into super thin strands by using a mandoline (or a box grater or food processor), then marinated in a vinegary mix with coriander and cayenne pepper to offer lots of flavor and add some heat.

Allrecipes member Linda says, “This is excellent! So different, and so many different flavors blended together perfectly.”

France C
France C

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How to Make Korean Carrot Salad

Since this is a simple salad, it doesn’t require a lot of ingredients to get the job done. You’ll need carrots, garlic, onion, vinegar, oil, sugar, and spices.

To make this salad, simply add the julienned carrots to a bowl with minced garlic before making the vinegar mix (vinegar with sugar and salt) in another bowl. In this Allrecipes user version, you add one additional step: cooking the carrots a bit with the onion, coriander, and cayenne pepper. Toss with the vinegar mixture and place in the refrigerator for a few hours (or overnight) to marinate. Keep in mind, this salad can be enjoyed after only four or five hours, but is best when left to marinate for 24 hours, according to the recipe author.



Recipe Tip

According to the recipe author, ”To get it right, you MUST use a mandoline to julienne the carrots into long, thin strands like spaghetti.”



Tips and Substitutions for Korean Carrot Salad

While you can use jarred, minced garlic one Allrecipes member said they suggest fresh; “The first time I made it, I used prepared minced garlic instead of fresh—big difference. Go buy a real head of garlic and mince the 3 cloves by [hand].”

The recipe calls for two and a half teaspoons of salt but some Allrecipes members said they reduced the salt to their liking and it still came out great. Allrecipes community member Nadya also wrote that they substituted lemon juice for the salt and it was “very close to a flavor of a carrot salad I used to buy in Russia.”

If you have leftover carrots from an Easter carrot cake or just bought a few too many bunches at the farmer’s market, give this trending salad a try and see what all the hype is about.

Read the original article on All Recipes.