Carrot and Apple Slaw with Chevril Vinaigrette

A simple side salad designed to pair with my recent Scallops with Sorrel Butter, this is so easy — and quite frankly healthy as well — that you may want to find other things to pair it. In fact, the recipe is so easy, it hardly even needs a recipe.

The inspiration came from the young carrots I received in my last CSA share and a desire to get apple on the plate in some way to work with the sorrel butter. I also had a beautiful bush of chervil growing in my garden and given the success of my recent raw fennel slaw, I was confident the flavours would work. The rest of the vinaigrette I wanted to keep simple, however; I didn’t want anything that was going to challenge those flavours or pull away from the scallops … and I wanted a crisp shock of colour on the plate. The result was half a squeezed lemon, a teaspoon of salt and a dollop of agave syrup for sweetness to pull it all together. Really, you hardly need more of a recipe than that, but I’ll still provide one.

You’ll note the long thin strips of apple and carrot in the pictures. This I did using a mandolin which is more for aesthetic effect than anything. A food processor or even a hand grater will work just as well, albeit with a different visual presentation. Let the whole thing sit in the fridge for a few hours and you have a beautifully marinated salad with no fat, lots of crispness, and natural sweetness that will surely have you eating more and more.

Prep time:   10-15 minutes
Servings:     6-8

Coleslaw

INGREDIENTS:

• 6-8 fresh “medium” new carrots, grated
• 1 organic tart apple (e.g.Granny Smith), coarsely grated
• 1/2 a lemon, juiced
•  heaping tablespoon lightly packed fresh chevril, coarsely chopped
• 1½ teaspoons agave syrup (to taste)
• pinch salt (to taste)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash well the carrots and slice them with the grater or mandolin and add them to a large non-reactive bowl.
   Repeat with the apple and add to the carrot.
   Mix well.
   
   Add the lemon and the chopped chevril.
   Mix again, add agave and salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate fro a few hours until ready serve.
   

Serves 6-8 as a side salad.