By Leslie Brenner
It’s always great to have a pretty little something in your back pocket you can whip up quickly on the fly — a dish that doesn’t require a trip to the supermarket. For home cooks in France, the simple salad known as carottes râpées (literally “grated carrots”) fits that bill. Everyone owns carrots!
The problem is that the way most people make it, carottes râpées is kind of dull, as carrots subjected to a box grater behave like wood shavings. But use a vegetable peeler to shave the carrots into ribbons, and suddenly you’ve got a gorgeous salad that actually eats beautifully. Rags to riches on a plate!
We wrote about the dish last summer. Dressed with sunny lemon, it’s even nicer as a winter salad, wonderful to serve before a big pot of something rich and homey, like beef bourguignon, or coq au vin, or a saucy vegan bean stew.