Gajarachi Koshimbir (Carrot Salad with Mustard Seeds and Curry Leaves) Recipe

Considered one of my favourite methods to eat carrots once I was rising up was my mom’s vibrant gajarachi koshimbir, a well-liked salad of grated carrots with mustard seeds and curry leaves from Maharashtra, my house state on India’s west coast. She’d serve the salad to me as a part of a Marathi lunch or dinner of chapatis, rice, dal, greens, and yogurt. The tangy and acidic carrot salad paired nicely with the meal’s gentle, hearty carbs. My mother’s salad was a medley of sharp flavors and contrasting textures. The grated carrots soaked up the lime juice they had been macerated in; mustard seeds, onions, and peanuts offered crunch; the curry leaves heated in oil infused the salad with the depart’s distinctive earthy aroma; and the cilantro and grated contemporary coconut added a pop of colour, chew, and delicate sweetness. 

This salad is frequent in Maharashtra, the place it’s made with carrots or cabbage or each. I like my mother’s model a lot that I even included her recipe in my The Essential Marathi Cookbook.

As a caterer and culinary teacher in California, I’ve made gajarachi koshimbir many occasions for occasions and cooking demonstrations through the years, and through this time, I started referring to it as a mayonnaise-less “slaw” as a result of it is crunchy with an acidic chunk much like most slaws. Whether or not you name it a salad or slaw, it’s nice served alongside pasta or barbecue, and it additionally makes a scrumptious topping for meat sandwiches, like Vietnamese banh mi and even burgers. My model right here is an adaptation of my mother’s recipe with a couple of tweaks: I exploit much more lime juice and curry leaves than she did, and as an alternative of utilizing grated carrots, I favor thicker shredded carrots as a result of they maintain as much as the acidic dressing higher. Right here is make this refreshing salad at house.

Suggestions for Making Gajarachi Koshimbir

Attempt utilizing store-bought pre-shredded carrots. As a caterer, I usually made this salad for big teams, and I discovered that grating kilos of carrots grew to become tiresome. It was handy and faster to make use of retailer purchased shredded carrots, Even once I make a smaller portion at house, I nonetheless attain for this comfort merchandise. (The matchstick–shredded carrots from Dealer Joe’s are my favourite.) 

On prime of the time and arm power saved through the use of pre-shredded carrots, I discovered that as a result of the store-bought shredded ones had been barely thicker than the carrots I grated at house and extra constant in measurement, they retained their crunch after being marinated for hours within the lime juice and seasoned oil combination. In case you favor, you’ll be able to nonetheless grate the carrots your self with a field grater for this recipe. Simply make certain to retailer the salad in a cool place and serve it inside two hours of dressing, in any other case the carrots will flip unpleasantly soggy.

Let the salad sit. In contrast to many contemporary, leafy inexperienced salads, this carrot salad’s flavors will enhance with time because it sits dressed. Because the carrots and onion macerate with the sugar, salt, and lime juice, the flavors mix collectively, and the acidity from the lime juice softens the carrots and onions barely. 

Attempt utilizing a seasoning wok. A seasoning wok is a small wok that’s utilized in Indian cooking for toasting spices and for making seasoned oil blends. They often are constituted of thicker steel than Chinese language woks and might cook dinner longer over excessive warmth than skinny carbon metal woks with out the danger of burning. I usually use a seasoning wok at house to make spice blends for quite a lot of dishes. 

In case you don’t have a seasoning wok, a small, flat-bottomed saucepan works nicely. Whichever pan you select, after pouring the seasoning into the salad, make certain to place a few of the carrots into the seasoning pan, and use tongs or a spoon to push the carrots round, scrapping up the final bits of spice and taste from the pan, earlier than including again into the salad. It’s a easy method to be sure you get each little bit of the cooked spice mix into the meals.

Add asafoetida for an assertive taste. Asafoetida is a gum resin that drips off the roots of an herb referred to as ferula asafoetida, a central Asian plant within the celery household. It’s gathered after which floor right into a powder. Nuggets of it was once left in sacks of grain as a result of bugs stayed away from its robust aroma. Cooks in India discovered that its robust onion-garlic odor and taste was a welcome addition in lots of dishes. Within the Indian state of Maharashtra, the place my household is from, asafoetida-mustard-turmeric is commonly thought of the “holy trinity” of seasonings. My father did not like asafoetida’s pungent aroma, so my mom by no means cooked with it once I was rising up. However as an grownup I’ve grown to like its taste and at all times use it once I make a mustard seed seasoning, like I do right here in my carrot slaw.

Customise it along with your most well-liked greens. Generally, Mother made the salad much more colourful and hearty by including chunks of tomato and thinly sliced cabbage. Be at liberty to do the identical right here, or add shredded broccoli or brussels sprouts. All of those can be utilized together or used as alternate options to the carrot. If including different components, scale down the quantity of carrots to maintain the ultimate quantity of the salad components the identical. This ensures the salad will nonetheless be evenly coated within the lime juice and dressing.