French Carrot Salad

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This bistro-style French carrot salad will make eating carrots exciting again! The combination of grated carrots with a honey Dijon mustard dressing is surprising magical.

French carrot salad in a large white bowl

Initially, I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted this carrot salad to turn out. I had a bundle of carrots, lots of herbs, and the cravings for a simple, healthy, vegetable-heavy salad. But then I remembered this bistro-style carottes râpées (grated carrot salad) I had at a cafe back in France years ago.

I mean, I’ve had grated carrot salads before. But the dressing in this one really stood out to me. The combination of lemon, honey, Dijon mustard, and especially cumin made this so delicious – to the point where I couldn’t stop at just one serving!

So today, I’ve recreated my favorite French carrot salad recipe for you to try in your own kitchen. This recipe is truly simplicity at its finest.

French carrot salad ingredients on a table

French Carrot Salad Recipe Ingredients

Luckily, you don’t need much for this French carrot salad. Just a few vegetables (namely, carrots!) and dressing ingredients that you probably already have on hand.

  • Vegetables: Grab a big bunch of the best-looking carrots and some green onions.
  • Fresh Herbs: Finely chopped herbs compliment the carrots so well. I’m using fresh parsley, but you could use cilantro as well.
  • Salad Dressing: A simple blend of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, Dijon mustard, salt, cumin, and a pinch of black pepper makes for the perfect dressing.

Find the printable recipe with measurements below.

Grating carrots in a food processor for French carrot salad

How to Grate Carrots For a Salad

There are two ways to grate carrots for this salad. You can use the grater attachment on your food processor (which is how I’ve done it today), or you can use a standard box grater. The food processor is faster and produces longer pieces, and the box grater produce smaller and shorter pieces. But either way works!

Once all the ingredients are prepped, toss together everything in a bowl – and that’s it, you’re done!

Helpful tip: You can save time by grating the carrots a day or two in advance. Just store them in a sealed bag or container in the fridge, making sure to squeeze out all the air.

French carrot salad in a large glass bowl

Storage Tips

This French carrot salad will last about 3 to 4 days in the fridge. But I recommend eating it sooner rather than later to avoid a super soggy salad.

Helpful tip: Make this carrot salad 1 to 2 hours in advance. This will allow the carrots to soak up all that delicious dressing!

More Healthy Carrot Recipes

There are so many health benefits to carrots. They’re fibrous, loaded with nutrients, a great source of beta-carotene, and so on. So give these other delicious carrot recipes a try!

Whenever you need a quick side salad to complete your meal, this French carrot salad is a winner. When you make it, let me know how it turns out in a comment below!

A large bowl of French carrot salad with a spoon

French Carrot Salad

5 from 4 votes
Prep: 20 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Lisa Bryan

Description

This French carrot salad recipe will make carrots exciting again! It's easy, zesty, slightly sweet, and lightly spiced with cumin.

Ingredients 
 

  • 1 pound carrots, peeled
  • ¼ cup roughly chopped parsley or cilantro
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced on a diagonal

Carrot salad Dressing

Instructions 

  • Grate the carrots. Using either a box grater or the grater attachment on a food processor, grate the carrots. Place in a large mixing bowl.
    A food processor with grated carrots for French carrot salad
  • Add greens. Add the green onions and parsley to the mixing bowl.
    Mixing French carrot salad in a mixing bowl
  • Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.
    A bowl of French carrot salad dressing
  • Stir it all up. Pour the dressing on top of the carrot salad and stir to combine.
    A large white bowl of French carrot salad

Nutrition

Calories: 156kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Sodium: 386mg | Potassium: 416mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 19324IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Salad
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Carrot Recipe, Carrot Salad, French Carrot Salad
Did you make this recipe?Mention @downshiftology or tag #downshiftology!

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About the author

Lisa Bryan

Lisa is a bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and YouTuber (with over 2.5 million subscribers) living in sunny Southern California. She started Downshiftology in 2014, and is passionate about making healthy food with fresh, simple and seasonal ingredients.

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Recipe Rating




13 Comments

  1. I have Salad Shooter which is great for doing just one carrot for just me. And I will make a batch of dressing but just use a bit of it for my single serving. Love this salad.5 stars

    1. I think the spiralizer might create thicker pieces, which is not ideal for this salad. A grater is best!

  2. This looks so delish!  Can you please offer some suggestions on what to serve this with as a side dish? Can’t wait to get the book, congrats!

    1. You can serve this with any meat or seafood really! Maybe a more simple flavoring though such as my baked salmon or any cooked chicken.

  3. This recipe is perfect!
    I love the carrot salad that you can buy in French supermarket but have never been able to get the dressing right.
    I left out the onions and parsley to just have a pure carrot salad and it tastes just how I love it 💕5 stars