This Sweet, Crunchy Carrot Salad Is Perfect for Spring

Carrots are an incredibly adaptable vegetable. In the colder months I love them roasted until carmelized and sweet or cooked on the stovetop and bathed in a buttery glaze. But once spring hits, I like to embrace their crunch and eat them raw, with recipes like this fresh carrot and raisin salad developed by our Birmingham-based test kitchen colleague Elizabeth Mervosh. In this salad, grated carrots and plump raisins are tossed with a creamy mayonnaise-based dressing, which gets a refreshing acidity from vinegar, orange juice, and lemon juice. The salad is topped with crunchy pistachios right before serving. Each bite is bursting with fruity, tart, sweet, and savory flavors. 

This slightly sweet vegetable side dish is just as great served at casual cookouts as it is at a formal Easter brunch. It takes only a few minutes to prepare and there’s no need to even turn on your oven. Here are a few tips to perfect it.

3 Simple Techniques for the Perfect Carrot and Raisin Salad

1. Shred the carrots for the best salad. For a salad with just the right amount of crunch, Elizabeth recommends shredding the carrots. She found in testing that carrots cut other ways just didn’t work as well: Grated carrots were too mealy and were lost in the dressing, carrot ribbons were too slippery, and sliced raw carrots were too hard to bite through. Shredding the carrots is best for a pleasantly crunchy salad. While you can do this on the holes of a box grater, butto prevent sore muscles and scratched knuckles, we recommend shredding the carrot with the disc attachment of a food processor. 

2. Take a few minutes to plump the raisins. Raisins in this salad add a welcome pop of sweetness. But to make them even better, we found that microwaving them with a simple dressing of orange juice, vinegar, and honey plumps the raisins to produce a more tender texture, and letting the raisins marinate briefly in the warmed juice mixture infuses them with bright citrus flavor. Once the raisins are drained, we don't let that flavorful juice mixture go to waste—it’s whisked with lemon juice, more honey, and mayonnaise to complete the dressing.

3. Serve the salad immediately. Once the carrots, raisins, and pistachios are tossed with the dressing, we recommend serving the salad immediately. The salt in the dressing will begin to leach moisture from the carrots over time, creating a soupy salad with a wet puddle at the bottom. If a puddle does form before serving, just drain off some of the excess moisture or toss the salad again to redistribute the liquid right before serving.

On the large holes of a box grater, shred carrots. Alternatively, carrots can be shredded with disk attachment of a food processor. You should have about 3 1/2 cups shredded carrots.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, whisk together orange juice, vinegar, and 1 teaspoon honey until combined and honey dissolves; add raisins and toss to coat. Microwave on high until orange juice mixture is hot and bubbling, about 45 seconds. Let sit, stirring every 5 minutes, until raisins are plump and softened, about 15 minutes.

In a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl, drain raisins, reserving the orange juice mixture in the medium bowl; set raisins aside. Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, and remaining 2 teaspoons honey into the reserved orange juice mixture.

Add carrots, plumped raisins, and pistachios, and toss to coat. Serve immediately. 

Special Equipment

Microwave-safe small bowl, box grater or food processor with shredding disk attachment

Make-Ahead and Storage

The carrots can be shredded and refrigerated in an airtight container up to 2 days before making the salad.

We strongly suggest tossing the salad right before serving, but leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Note that the salad will become more watery as it sits, and you may need to drain excess liquid before serving.