Creamy Carrot Salad with Braised Chickpeas

This vegan carrot salad recipe is a tale of two ingredients: chickpeas and carrots.

The chickpeas, when seeped in olive oil and spices and baked in the oven, become little golden nuggets of pure deliciousness; the carrots, when shredded raw, are a fantastic slightly sweet and colorful body for this salad, bright orange strands wearing a scrumptious lime-tahini dressing. And when these two incredible ingredients are combined together, springs forth a superb salad that is as delicious as it is beautiful as it is hearty, with differing textures, flavors, and temperatures.

Upon first glance, the braised chickpeas take the center stage, surrounded by a varied assortment of fresh veg. However, once you dive down into the depths of the chickpeas, underneath is a beautiful orange sea of shredded, tahini-covered carrots that lends a creaminess and unctuousness to everything else.

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Braising Chickpeas 101

Firstly, I’m not exactly sure if these chickpeas and the manner in which I cooked them for this vegan carrot salad recipe can be described accurately as, “braising.” However, it seemed vaguely descriptive of the process and end product itself, communicating well the appetizing, mouth-wateringly delectable taste these chickpeas embody afterwards, “post-braise.”

Traditionally, it’s the cheaper and tougher cuts of meat that are braised to render them more tender. In the spirit of parallels, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that chickpeas are basically the vegan, “cheap meat;” they’re super accessible, low-cost, hardy and packed with protein. But admittedly, they do need help to become the star of a dish.

Braising the little yellow beans in the oven transforms them in a similar way to traditional braised proteins, rendering them more flavorful, tender, and sophisticated than if they were straight out of the can. Simply put, this recipe is an excellent way to make $1.50 taste like a million bucks.

Here’s how to do it:

An Easy Step by Step

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Toss the chickpeas in plenty of olive oil and spices (recipe down below)

3. Bake them in a (9×9) baking dish until golden brown and tender, for about 30 – 33 minutes.

Quite simple and quite tasty atop this vegan carrot salad recipe.

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The Garnishes for This Vegan Carrot Salad Recipe

One thing that I love about salads in particular is that there are no right or wrong garnishes. Anything crunchy or at hand, pickled, canned, freshly plucked will work on this vegan carrot salad recipe, delicately ringed around the side of the bowl like a colorful, edible wreath.

What you see here in these pictures are

• pickled cucumbers
• fresh tomatoes and radishes
• lightly cooked curly kale (sautéed in olive oil for about 5 mins)

Basically, whatever I had available to me at the time. However, if I made this now it would look completely different. Maybe something like

• fresh sprout greens
• cut up, raw lacinato (smooth leaf) kale
• cherry or heirloom tomatoes
• pickled peppers or beets

You get it.

Make this salad yours by decorating the chickpeas and carrots (the two center points of the dish) with whatever you find pleasing, whatever you have available, and whatever you think complimentary to the main ingredients.

To be quite frank, you don’t need the garnishes; this vegan carrot salad recipe can stand on its own with just the chickpeas and carrots. However, I highly recommend the ornamentation of fresh and slightly cooked veg for more depth and intrigue.

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Tahini – Elixir of the Gods

Aside from the carrots and chickpeas, what makes this vegan carrot salad recipe really amazing and inviting and appetizing is the tahini dressing.

Tahini itself is quite the ingredient: bitter and creamy, and the easiest thing ever to mix it with citruses and water and make a quick, spectacular dressing that really completes a dish.

The basic formula for a good tahini dressing is as follows:

• some tahini, raw or roasted both work
• some citrus, such as orange, lime, or lemon
• some water, depending on the consistency you like – thick or runny
• some salt and pepper, to make the flavors pop

Mess around with the ratios of the dressing to really get one that suits your palate and preferences best.

The lime-tahini dressing in this salad compliments both the sweet raw carrots underbelly and savory braised chickpeas stratosphere. It unifies the two. Without it, the vegan carrot salad recipe would be lacking a much needed connection.

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Make It Your Own

Seriously, give this vegan carrot salad recipe a try, and employ your own twist on it, too!

Don’t sweat it if you don’t have every single ingredient. Like I said, you can customize this salad to fit your and your pantry’s immediate needs and means. The most important elements are the braised chickpeas and creamy shredded carrots, while the rest can be just about anything you’d like.

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I hope that you enjoyed this vegan carrot salad recipe. If you did, leave a comment and recipe rating before you go.

Also, check out these other delicious carrot recipes here, on my page Everything Carrots! And in the spirit of the duality of this dish, the other half being the chickpeas, I also have a page with a plethora of chickpea recipes here: Everything Chickpeas!

May you have good food in good company,

That Vegan Nephew

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