Roasted carrot salad with chamoy

If you need to capture Ixta in a single foodstuff, look no further than chamoy. It’s made of pickled fruit (tick for pickle), lime juice (tick) and chilli (tick) and it hails from Mexico (one big massive tick). It is sweet, salty, sour and spicy – all at once – and it has a dramatic effect on any ingredient you pair it with: meat, fish, vegetables and even fresh fruit. Traditional versions can range from liquid to a paste-like consistency. Our (very) untraditional take on chamoy uses sumac and Aleppo chilli, and dried instead of pickled apricots. It’s a combination that works well, but feel free to experiment with other dried or fresh chillies. Double the chamoy recipe, if you like, and keep half in the fridge for up to a week, ready to use as a marinade or condiment for roasted vegetables, chicken or pork. The carrots can be roasted and dressed the day before, if you want to get ahead, and finished with the herbs, extra apricots and nuts when you’re ready to serve. This is great as part of a vegetarian spread (see p. 304), and also alongside fatty cuts of meat, such as pork belly or duck breast.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 240°C fan.

Step 2

In a large bowl, mix the carrots with the oil, maple syrup, 1 teaspoons of salt and a good grind of pepper.

Step 3

Spread them out as much as possible over two large, 40cm x 30cm, parchment-lined baking trays and roast for 18 minutes, tossing the carrots and swapping the trays halfway through, until the carrots are nicely browned but still retain a bite

Step 4

While the carrots are roasting, blitz all the ingredients for the chamoy with V ten spoon of salt in a spice grinder (or the small bowl of a food processor)

Step 5

Mix the carrots with the herbs and sliced apricots and transfer to a serving planter, Tinish with the almonds and the remaining oil and lime juice, and serve