French Carrot Salad
31 Comments
Updated Aug 08, 2024
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This bistro-style French carrot salad is a simple, yet elegant combination of crisp julienned carrots, green onion, and fresh herbs, tossed in a bright honey mustard dressing.
Why You’ll Love This Carrot Salad
Years ago I enjoyed this carottes râpées (grated carrot salad) while traveling throughout France. And I’ve been obsessed with it ever since! It’s widely available in most French markets, as well as corner bistros and restaurants. I even grabbed pre-packaged to-go versions in the supermarket in Cannes! Its popularity is comparable to an American coleslaw or broccoli salad with its veggie-forward crunch and tangy sweet dressing. The classic French version is inherently delicious, so I didn’t want to futz around with it too much, but here’s why I’m confident you’ll love it too!
- It’s easy to make: There are just three main ingredients plus the dressing. It doesn’t get much easier than that! And I’ll give you options for grating the carrots.
- It’s delightfully elegant: The French are fabulous at turning simple ingredients into something extraordinary (like this ratatouille or salad lyonnaise), and this carrot salad is no different.
- It’s perfect for meal prep: I love to make a batch at the beginning of the week and enjoy a small portion each day for a healthy veggie-boost. Plus, the dressing soaks into the carrots as it sits.
French Carrot Salad Ingredients
- Carrots: A traditional French carrot salad is made with orange carrots, but feel free to use rainbow carrots for a colorful twist.
- Green Onion: A couple of green onions adds beautiful color contrast, but you could also use chives or shallots for an equally delicious flavor.
- Fresh Herbs: The roughly chopped herbs are key! I’m using fresh parsley, but you could also use cilantro or other tender herbs.
- Honey Mustard Dressing: This is a simple blend of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, Dijon mustard, salt, cumin, and a pinch of black pepper.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
Ways To Prepare The Carrots
There are different ways you can prepare the carrots, depending on personal preference and which kitchen tools you have:
- Julienned carrots: This method produces the longest and most elegant strips of carrots. And it’s how I prepared them in the photos you see here. Just use the julienne side of a vegetable peeler to shave strips off the carrot.
- Grated carrots: For the easiest approach, you can use the grater attachment on a food processor or a standard box grater. The food processor is faster and produces longer pieces while a box grater produces smaller, shorter pieces. But either way works!
Helpful Tip: You can save time by prepping 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.
How To Make Carrot Salad
Prep the ingredients. After you’ve julienned or grated the carrots, sliced the green onions, and chopped the fresh herbs, add them to a large mixing bowl. Then, in a separate small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.
Toss together. Pour the dressing on top of the carrot salad and gently toss it all together. If you’d like, you can garnish with extra herbs before serving. Pro tip: I recommend making this salad 1 to 2 hours ahead of time to allow the carrots to soak up all that delicious dressing!
Storage Tips
This French carrot salad will last 3 to 4 days in the fridge. The carrots will become less crisp over time, but the salad will still be delicious for several days.
More Ways To Cook With Carrots
- Roasted Carrot Hummus: The best creamy carrot-based appetizer.
- Carrot Ginger Soup: The perfect soup for something warm and spiced.
- Honey Glazed Carrots: A holiday side dish favorite.
- Gluten-Free Carrot Cake: This one gets rave reviews every time.
- Grilled Fish Tacos with Citrus Carrot Slaw: If you love this salad, you’ll love this slaw.
If you make this carrot salad,, I’d love to know how it turned out in the comment box below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’re hungry for more healthy food inspiration (and exclusive content), join my free newsletter.
French Carrot Salad
Description
Video
Equipment
- Y Peeler A great and easy tool to prep the carrots for this salad.
Ingredients
- 1 pound carrots, peeled
- ¼ cup roughly chopped parsley or cilantro
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced on a diagonal
Carrot salad Dressing
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Julienne the carrots. Use a vegetable peeler to julienne the carrots and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.
- Add everything to a mixing bowl. Add the green onions and parsley to the mixing bowl, then pour the dressing on top. Toss it together until it's well combined.
- Serve. If you'd like, you can garnish with additional freshly chopped parsley before serving.
Lisa’s Tips
- If you don’t have a vegetable peeler (with a julienne side) you can use either a grater attachment on a food processor (this is for a Vitamix) or standard box grater.
- Storage tips: This French carrot salad will last 3 to 4 days in the fridge. The carrots will become less crisp over time, but the salad will still be delicious for several days.
Nutrition
©Downshiftology. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Recipe originally posted October 2022, but updated to include new information and photos for your benefit!
Delicious recipe, I love it. thanks for sharing:)
What can replace the honey?
Happy you loved it! You can use any liquid sweetener to replace the honey, like maple syrup.
This looks so yummy. I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Kari – Hope you love this carrot salad!
Made this tonight using fresh herbs from my herb garden and it is delicious! A simple recipe, yet so good. It does take a little getting used to a y peeler.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Sharon! And yes, the peeler does take a bit more time, but it produces those beautiful shreds. :)
Such a delicious salad and so easy to make. Great now but will be even better tomorrow. I used shallots as I did not have green onions. Will make this again for sure.
Hi Sandra – Happy to hear you love this French carrot salad!
Wow this salad is fantastic, and so easy to make. I followed your example from earlier this week and added some grilled chicken…. next level delicious. It will be on repeat for sure. Thanks for all the great recipes and inspiration.
So happy you loved it, Tracy! And that’s awesome that you added the shredded chicken as well. It’s such a versatile recipe!
Awesome looking salad. And thanks for the nutritional stats. But, how many servings does this salad make – 1 or for more?
Hi Karen – this recipe makes 4 servings. Enjoy!
I made this delicious salad and we loved it. The hardest (most involved) part was julienning the carrots, but worth every mouthful. I took a portion but my husband took the salad bowl!! I made it according to the directions but had some left over fresh dill and added that; PERFECTION! Please keep the great recipes coming.
Hi Linda – It’s a bit of a process. But like you said, totally worth it in the end!
Forgot about this carrot salad. My mom added raisins to it for a bit of extra flavor.
Hi Nadine – Raisins are a lovely addition to this carrot salad!
Remember that sweet carrot salad your grandmother used to make with raisins? This one is the healthy adult version and so yummy!
Hi Sara – Happy to hear you love this French carrot salad!
Did you use the fine or medium grater attachment? Thank you
You can use either, it’s personal preference.
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.
That’s a great idea, Ann! My mom loves her salad shooter as well, haha.
added a bit more lemon pepper and mustard, a bit less oil, turned out awesome
Thank you Lisa, it looks & reads delicious! Do you think the spiraliser would work?
I think the spiralizer might create thicker pieces, which is not ideal for this salad. A grater is best!
I usually dislike most salad dressings but this one is amazing! It’s so versatile and I use it for everything.
Glad you’re loving the dressing in this salad!
Delicious love getting my veggies in
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!
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.
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 💕