Peanut Butter Carrot Salad

Lately, things have been pretty hectic here at Appetite for China. Recipe-testing for the cookbook is still in full force, and I have been finding myself eating 3 lunches a day. (Oof.) The site is also undergoing a much-needed redesign…nothing fancy, just a nice clean layout that’ll hopefully make reading and searching for recipes easier. In a couple of weeks I’ll also be at BlogHer Food 2011 in Atlanta, speaking on a panel called Off the Dish: Writing about Food in Travel, History, and Experience with Garrett McCord, Donna Pierce, and Amelia Pane Schaffner. It looks to be a pretty great line-up of events, and I will try my best to refrain from saying Hotlanta out loud at any point.

Speaking of hot, New York finally got a nice dose of spring weather after a pretty chilly April. A few nights ago my apartment got so warm that I started panicking about the narrow windows in my bedroom that can’t accomodate any normal air-conditioner. Will I just suffocate come July and August, when 90 degree days and 100% humidity become the norm? Is putting a bag of ice in front of a powerful fan really an adequate and practical alternative for falling asleep on muggy evenings? If I attempted to build this copper-wire “portable air conditioner, would I lose a finger?

I ended up spending the most of the night looking up actual portable air conditioners (pricey!) and trying to picture how they are hooked up. Tubes through the window? Big tanks of water? I was never meant to be an engineer. A trip to Home Depot this weekend to look at floor models is in order.

Until then, I will continue to toss together cold dinners. (It’s also a nice break from stir-frying, which I do every day for lunch/recipe-testing.) This appetizer was inspired by the carottes râpées I had bookmarked from David Lebovitz a while back. The carrot shreds are bigger, and instead of parsley, olive oil, and lemon, I modified the sauce for my cold sesame noodles to have the carrots coated with a peanut buttery and tart sauce. But the spirit of the salad is still the same. You can eat them as a proper dinner appetizer or have them as a late night snack. You can use a fork when others are watching, or, when alone, just swipe them out of the bowl with your hands.

“I do know sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than a simple pile of grated raw carrots, lightly dressed,” says David. I couldn’t agree more.

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Peanut Butter Carrot Salad

Makes 4 to 6 appetizer servings

• 4 to 5 carrots
• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chili sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 scallion, chopped

1. Peel and julienne the carrots.

2. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together the peanut butter and water until smooth. Stir in the soy sauce, cider vinegar, sugar, chili sauce, and sesame oil. (You can whisk everything at once, but separating the steps helps prevent the liquid from splashing too much.)

3. Toss the carrots with the peanut butter mixture until the carrots are evenly coated. Top with scallions and serve.

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More vegetarian recipes to try:

Cold Sesame Noodles

Chinese Tea Eggs

Sichuan Cucumber Salad

Tofu Almond Salad Bowl

Gobi Manchurian

Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Baked Eggs with Saffron and Cumin

Tagged as: Appetizers, Recipes, Vegetarian