Roasted Carrot & Lentil Salad

For a taste of Morocco, with its vibrant blend of warmth, crunch, and freshness, this cumin-roasted carrot salad is a lunchtime feast for the senses. The dish is brought together with a parsley dressing and complimentary lemon zing, and finished off with a final spicy crunch from the dukkah.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Total Time50

Course: Lunch, Salad, Side Dish, Starter

Cuisine: Moroccan

Keyword: Carrot, Cumin, Dukkah, Parsley, Salad, Side Dish

Servings: People

Calories: 777kcal

Equipment

small blender

Ingredients

Salad

4 medium carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 cucumber
6 radishes
2 celery sticks
1 little gem lettuce (or other crunchy lettuce)
1 pepper (ideally not green)
2 spring onions
400 g canned lentils
2 tbsp dukkah plus extra to serve

Parsley Dressing

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
½ lemon juiced
1 small garlic clove
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
6 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven or airfryer to 180 °C.
First prepare the carrots by top and tailing them, halving them, and then cutting them lengthways into quarters. If they are large carrots you might want to cut them into 6 wedges. The carrot batons need to be an equal width.
Place the carrots in a bowl, add the olive oil, sprinkle with the cumin and season liberally.
Place on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven and roast for 30 minutes until they still just have bite. Or place in the basket of your airfryer and roast for 15 minutes. In both scenarios turn them around about halfway through cooking.
Whilst the carrots are cooking make the parsley dressing by placing all the ingredients into a small blender and process until you have a very fine, well mixed dressing. Season to taste.
Taking your mix of remaining vegetables and salad, cut into small chunks of around 1cm/0.5" dice, all apart from the spring onion which you can slice finely. You should have an array of lovely colours in bite size pieces. Place these into a medium sized service dish along with the drained and rinsed can of lentils.
When the carrots are ready, remove them from the oven or airfryer and cut into approximately 5cm/2” chunks and place on top of the raw veg. Pour the parsley dressing on top and give everything a good mix.
Finally, sprinkle over the dukkah and serve alongside some sourdough/flatbread/pitta bread and extra dukkah.

Notes

You can also peel and roast sweet potato in the same way as an alternative to the carrots.
If you don't have any dukkah you can try my recipe here or replace with toasted pinenuts - placed in a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat for around 5 minutes being moved regularly.
This salad would work well by replacing any of the vegetables with crunchy alternatives such as: finely sliced fennel or small florets of cauliflower.

Nutrition