Indian Carrot Salad

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This very easy carrot salad is a recipe from a great cookbook, Six Spices, a simple concept of Indian cooking by a local Madison author, Neeta Saluja.

2 cups grated carrots
1 green chili, seeded and diced (if you prefer spicy leave the seeds in)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
2-3 teaspoons canola or sunflower oil*
1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 dry red chili
4 to 5 fresh curry leaves**

Place carrots, green chili, and lemon juice in a bowl. Mix well. Heat oil in a small frying pan. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds. Cover the pan and remove it from the heat. When mustard seeds stop popping, return the pan to the stove. Add red chili and curry leaves. Immediately pour the seasoned oil over the carrots and cover. After 1 minute, mix well and store in an airtight container. This can be done the night before you want to serve it.
Just before serving, add the salt and sugar; mix it well. This will help to maintain the salad's crispness.

Notes: *I've been using a cold-pressed locally produced sunflower seed oil that I like a lot.
**Depending on where you live you might not have access to fresh curry leaves. I'm able to buy them at a small Indian grocery store. According to the Asia Food Glossary: Curry leaves are as important to Asian food as bay leaves are to European food, but never try to substitute one for the other. Either you have them or you just have to skip it. If you get too many to use right away you can freeze them.

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