Moroccan Sous Vide Carrot Salad with Oranges
Boldly spiced sous vide carrot salad tossed with oranges and salty olives. It’s a refreshing, satisfying, and stunning Moroccan-flavored dish with rainbow colors.
I love sous vide carrots, especially heavily seasoned ones. The slow and precise cooking process infuses the flavors deeply and evenly, resulting in perfectly tender and utterly delicious carrots. They are great as sides and wonderful in salads. For example, this refreshing Moroccan-style carrot salad with rainbow colors brings bold flavors and a festive feel to your dining table.
Key Ingredients for Moroccan Sous Vide Carrot Salad
- We start by making a garlic-infused oil, something I always do for sous vide vegetables. In this case, the oil is also used in the salad dressing.
- Buy different colors of rainbow carrots from your local farmer’s market. They taste different from regular carrots. Yellow carrots have an earthy, sweet flavor with notes of celery and parsley. White carrots are relatively mild. Purple carrots can have a peppery flavor but can also be very sweet.
- We season the carrots with cumin seeds, fennel seeds, salt, and cayenne pepper and toss it all together with garlic-infused oil. This is where the Moroccan flavor emerges.
- Our salad dressing is made with orange zest, lemon juice, and salt and combined with the same oil as the base.
- Finally, we add blood oranges, baby arugula, and black olives to finish this gorgeous salad. If blood oranges are not available, you can use regular oranges.
Essential Equipment
- Sous Vide Machine (Immersion Circulator): The Anova Precision Cooker is my go-to machine.
- Sous Vide Container: I highly recommend Anova sous vide container, which comes with a rack and a lid. I used the rack to weigh down the carrots.
- Vacuum Sealer and Bags: For sous vide vegetables, I’d highly recommend using a vacuum sealer to effectively remove air and seal bags tightly. For my carrots, I cut two bags from an 8-inch 50-ft vacuum sealer roll from Avid Armor.
- Good Knife: Precise cutting is crucial, and a high-quality chef’s knife is invaluable. I used my Global Knife to slice my carrots.
- Kitchen Shears: I used 8” Wüsthof kitchen shears to cut the sous vide carrots directly in the mixing bowl.
Sous Vide Carrots Time and Temperature
The best time and temperature to sous vide most vegetables are 185°F (85°C) for 1 hour.
StreetSmart Sous Vide Tips
- Make-ahead magic: You can sous vide the carrots ahead of time and leave them in the fridge (still in their bags) until you are ready to make the salad. The carrots can last up to 7 days in the fridge.
- Roast the carrots instead: You can also roast the carrots in the oven at 425°F (220°C) for 30-40 minutes, tossing occasionally, until tender and caramelized. Allow them to cool to room temperature before making the salad.
I hope you like this recipe. Once you make it, please rate it and leave a comment to let other StreetSmart home cooks know how it turned out and what changes you made to suit your taste. A good recipe is meant to be passed along and evolve in our kitchen.
PrintMoroccan Sous Vide Carrot Salad with Oranges
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Sous Vide
- Cuisine: Moroccan
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Boldly spiced sous vide carrot salad tossed with oranges and salty olives. This is a refreshing, satisfying, and stunning Moroccan-flavored dish with rainbow colors.
Ingredients
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 pound rainbow carrots (about 8 medium) in different colors
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
- 1 teaspoon whole fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided, more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 medium blood oranges or regular oranges
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, more to taste
- 2 cups baby arugula
- 1/4 cup pitted, oil-cured olives, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Set up the sous vide: Preheat the water to 185°F (85°C) using a sous vide machine.
- Make the garlic-infused oil: Add garlic cloves and olive oil to a small and dry saucepan, covering the garlic with oil. Bring to a slow simmer over medium heat. Cook until the garlic is slightly brown and wrinkly, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Prepare the carrots: Rinse and trim the carrots. Slice them in the middle, then put them in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle cumin seeds, fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cayenne pepper all over them, and add 2 tablespoons garlic-infused oil with 2 cloves of garlic. Toss well.
- Vacuum-seal the carrots: Prepare multiple sous vide bags. Separate the carrots based on their colors. Arrange each color in a sous vide bag in one single layer. Vacuum-seal the bags.
- Sous vide the carrots: Once the water reaches the temperature, submerge the carrots and weigh them down. Set the timer for 1 hour.
- Prepare the salad: Zest an orange and add the zest to the remaining garlic-infused oil. Add the remaining salt and a squeeze of lemon. Mix well and set the dressing aside. Slice the top and the bottom of the oranges. Follow the curve of the fruit, slice away the rind and pith. Cut the oranges into segments and set them aside.
- Make the salad: Once the timer goes off, transfer the carrots into an ice-water bath to cool for about 10 minutes. Open the bags and pour the carrots and juices into the same mixing bowl. Use kitchen shears to cut the carrots into 2-inch long pieces. Add baby arugula and the dressing. Give it a toss. Add oranges and olives, and toss it again. Taste and add more salt or lemon juice if desired.
Notes
- You can also roast the carrots in the oven at 425°F (220C) for 30-40 minutes, tossing occasionally, until tender and caramelized. Allow them to cool to room temperature before making the salad.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 235
- Sugar: 12.8g
- Sodium: 568.7mg
- Fat: 16.4g
- Saturated Fat: 2.3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 23.8g
- Fiber: 5.9g
- Protein: 2.6g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
About the Author
Sharon Chen is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and author of the Complete Sous Vide Cookbook. She believes food not only brings healing but also connection. As the creator of StreetSmart Kitchen, she aims to make meal prep easier than ever and help you find balance, ease, joy, and simplicity in the kitchen as you improve your well-being.