Carrot Cucumber Daikon Salad with Cilantro Citrus Dressing

serving of carrot, cucumber and daikon salad.

Carrot Cucumber Daikon Salad with Cilantro Citrus Dressing

Delicate carrot, cucumber, and daikon radish ribbons are tossed in a nutty, citrusy cilantro dressing, emulsified with olive oil and red onion, and garnished with juicy feta and pine nuts!

Prep Time30

Cook Time0

Course: Salad

Cuisine: European-inspired

Keyword: carrot cucumber daikon salad, carrot cucumber salad, daikon salad

Servings:

Calories: 338kcal

Author: Kathy Marshall

Ingredients

Vegetables for salad

2 medium carrots
1 English cucumber see notes
1/4 daikon radish see notes

Dressing ingredients (makes more than needed, see notes)

1/3 cup olive oil
1 orange zest and juice
1/4 lemon zest and juice
1/4 cup red onion chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts raw or toasted your preference, I prefer raw
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves & stems
1/4 cup fresh dill
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Garnishes

2 oz feta
2 tbsp pine nuts raw or toasted your preference, I prefer raw
orange zest

Instructions

Prepare the vegetables

Wash vegetables, scrubbing the exterior, but do not peel them.
Use a vegetable peeler (or mandoline slicer if you prefer) to ribbon the vegetables.
Keep separate from one another for now.

Make the dressing

Roughly chop onions, cilantro and dill.
Grate the zest from 1/2 of the orange and 1/4 the lemon.
Squeeze the juice from the entire orange and the 1/4 lemon.
Place all ingredients in food processor, blender or use immersion blender to emulsify and puree the ingredients until they are smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings and the citrus ingredients to your liking.

Serve the salad

One way to serve the salad is to arrange the vegetable ribbons on a shallow serving platter by color as shown in top photo. The dressing is then drizzled over the top. Garnish with pine nuts and crumbled feta and zest a bit of orange or lemon over the cucumber for contrast there.
Alternatively, you can toss all the ribbons together, and dress and garnish as above, or you can toss the dressing into the ribbons and then garnish.

Notes

English cucumber- these are the long cucumbers with thin skin and that come wrapped in plastic. The delicate skins are nice to eat, and add green color to this dish. If you use a typical cucumber, you may find the skin to waxy to eat and may prefer not to make ribbons with the skin.

Daikon radish- these typically are all white, but if your store or farmer's market has the pink or purple ones, they look pretty in this dish, as I have used. They are usually a couple of inches in diameter and I only turn about 1/4-1/3 of it into ribbons for this salad to serve 4.

Daikon radish substitution- since they are not always available, you could sub with raw zucchini or summer squash ribbons, if you enjoy their raw flavor. You could also lightly blanch the zucchini or summer squash ribbons just slightly, then run under cold water to cool, if you don't like the raw veg flavor of them. You could also sub with basic radishes or gorgeous watermelon radishes, which can't be ribboned, but lend the great bite and flavor of radish.

Dressing- only half the recipe is needed to dress this salad but it is nice to have extra to drizzle at the table because it is so good and not oily.

The nutrition info is only accurate if 4 people eat all of the dressing, which you probably will not.

Nutrition