In the last few weeks I’ve changed my style of food shopping slightly. Usually I only buy exactly what we need for each meal and it helps me 1. stick to the plan and not be swayed by unhealthy choices and 2. save money by just buying the necessary ingredients. But this month I have been writing “Fruit” and “Salad Items” on my shopping list instead and then buying as much as I fancy and filling the fridge full of goodies! At the beginning of the week I made a variety of salads using all of the different items I bought and then for lunch every day I had a serving of each in a lunch box. This also meant that I had plenty of variety by the end of the week to make something nice from what was left over.
This salad is perfect along side some green salad leaves and avocado, I also had it one day with a roasted aubergine, sun dried tomato and avocado pitta bread and they complimented each other perfectly.
Carrots are one of those ingredients that I always seem to have in abundance in the fridge! I love them grated in to a green salad to add a bit of colour or cut into sticks to snack on with hummous etc. This salad I have made takes the simple carrot to a whole new level! Carrot is best friends with Moroccan flavours so it was an easy decision to use Ras al Hanout as the spicing for this dish.
I also mixed in some agave and chopped dates for a sweetness which matched the deep spice perfectly!
Serves 4-6
1 Can Chickpeas
2 Celery Stalks
Small Bunch Parsley – leaves and stalks separated
1 tspn Ras al Hanout spice
3-4 Carrots
Small Handful (35g) Dates
1 tablespoon Agave/ Maple Syrup or Honey
In a frying pan cook the chickpeas, chopped celery and finely chopped parsley stalks in the spice for 5-6 minutes until the celery is cooked and the chickpeas have started to brown.
Grate the carrots into a large bowl and add the chopped parsley leaves, chopped dates, cooked chickpea mix and then stir in the tablespoon of syrup/honey.
This kept well in the fridge all week and then I just helped myself to a bit every day!
veghotpot 
Holy CRAP I just made it through my RSS Feed Reader backlog to get to “V”. I reckon you should change your blog name to “A” veghotpot as you would get your posts read more often ;). If my daughters don’t need to make a mercy dash to rehouse baboons in Gabon, we should be safe with the continuity for a while…but I can’t promise anything! Great salad by the way, it would even be delish here in our winter.
oooo I didn’t know it was done in alphabetical order, that’s interesting! That’s the great thing about carrots too, they can easily switch between seasons! This would be lovely in the winter next to a big bowl of tommy soup! x
Looks very nice. At least if you just go with a general theme of veggies and fruit when you shop you’re more likely to find seasonal varieties which are at their tastiest.