Our Carrot Salad recipe uses just a few simple ingredients to create a delicious and balanced side dish that’s perfect to serve during holidays or when you just need a break from the classic green salad.
The Best Carrot Salad
There’s something magical about throwing a handful of ingredients in a bowl, topping it all off with some homemade salad dressing, and getting a lovely side dish that’s novel enough to serve during the holidays but simple enough to make any day of the week. This is one of our newest simple salads that makes fresh carrots the star of the show!
Looking for More Fresh Salad Recipes?
Then you’ve got to try our Seven Layer Salad Recipe. It’s fresh, nostalgic, and perfect for a crowd.
What You Will Need
- honey – Just a bit to add sweetness to the dressing.
- extra virgin olive oil – The base of the vinaigrette.
- white wine vinegar, dijon mustard & fresh lemon juice – Quick and easy flavor boosters.
- kosher salt & ground black pepper – Just a bit to heighten all of the natural flavors in this easy salad.
- matchstick carrots – You could use a julienne peeler, but we bought our matchstick carrots from the store to save on time.
- fresh kale – We love this hearty green as it keeps well in the fridge over multiple days.
- raisins – Adds subtle pops of sweetness.
- goat cheese & walnuts – We love the bold flavor of the goat cheese paired with the crunchy texture of the walnuts.
- green onions – For a little color and some mildly sweet onion flavor.
How To Make Carrot Salad
Gather and measure all of your ingredients.
Matchstick vs. Julienne vs. Grated
We tested this recipe three ways and ultimately landed on matchstick carrots to save on time and because their hearty texture can hold up to the dressing. We grated raw carrots and found everything to be too wet once mixed with everything else. Julienned carrots work, but it’s just more time consuming than the store bought version.
Put all of the honey vinaigrette ingredients into a small bowl or mason jar and mix everything together.
For easy tossing, add the carrots, kale, raisins, goat cheese, and green onions into a large salad bowl and drizzle it all with your homemade dressing.
Give your carrot and raisin salad a good toss and enjoy immediately!
Storage
This is a great recipe to meal prep at the beginning of the week. But hold on adding the dressing until you’re ready to eat.
Recipe FAQs and Tips
- How to prepare carrot salad? We prefer to use pre-shredded carrots (or matchstick carrots) from the grocery store. We experimented with shredding the carrots using the large holes of a box grater, but we found that this pulled the moisture out of the carrots, making them wet vs. crunchy.
- Is a raw carrot salad good for you? We’ve included the nutritional information in the recipe card below so that you can decide if this recipe meets your nutritional needs.
- leftover carrot salad – Once dressed, this salad is best consumed the day of making. It could probably last a day longer in the fridge, but it won’t have the same crispness as day one.
Made this carrot raisin salad and loved it?! We would love it if you would take a minute and leave a star rating and review – it is also helpful if you made any substitutions or changes to the recipe to share that as well. THANK YOU!
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Carrot Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Counter Top
- Cuisine: American
Description
Our fresh Carrot Salad recipe is served up with a homemade Honey Vinaigrette dressing for the perfect side dish!
Ingredients
Honey Vinaigrette:
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- pinch of kosher salt
Carrot Salad:
- 3 cups matchstix carrots
- 1–2 cups fresh kale, chopped
- 3/4 cup raisins (regular or golden)
- 1/2 – 1 cups goat cheese, crumbled
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (more, if desired)
- 1/4 cup green onions, sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Make Dressing: Put all of the Vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Assemble Salad: Add all of the salad ingredients to a large bowl for serving.
- Combine: Pour the Vinaigrette over the top of the salad and give it a good stir to combine.
- Serve: Enjoy immediately with your favorite main dish!
Notes
- Carrots: we recommend using store-bought matchstix carrots. You can peel and shred your own carrots but they tend to get a little mushy.
- Salad Dressing: our simple Honey Vinaigrette is so easy and delicious, but you could also use your favorite store-bought salad dressing.
- Salad Ingredients: feel free to adjust any of these amounts to your personal preference.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 oz
- Calories: 250
- Sugar: 12.9 g
- Sodium: 405.7 mg
- Fat: 16.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 18.1 g
- Protein: 10.1 g
- Cholesterol: 20.9 mg
Stefanie T says
Fabulous side dish. I loved the matchstick carrots with kale. I’ve never tried that combo before. The honey vinaigrette was also delicious. Thank you Erin for a great recipe!
Erin says
So happy to hear that, Stephanie!