The Gone But Not Forgotten Old School Salad With Carrot Cake Vibes

The number of ingredients a person can mix and match to create a classic Cobb salad, to dress up those Caesar greens so they're restaurant-worthy, or to otherwise invent a nearly new vegetable combo for every meal is virtually infinite. But the number of salads (and "salads") that one could recreate today is even greater when you factor in some largely forgotten throwbacks. Carrot and raisin salad is one such melange that isn't exactly popular among its peers at the moment.

The mingling of carrots and raisins likely sounds more like components of a mise en place for baking the perfect carrot cake than a ready-to-serve side dish. But carrot and raisin salads were not always pushed to the margins of cold plate menus. The erstwhile staple of the American South was once so common that it was actually a fast food item. There was a time when one could add the sweet fruit-and-veggie medley to their Chick-fil-A order, before the chain went on to blanket the nation in waffle fries, its most-ordered item. And carrot and raisin salad is still pretty replicable, should you want to taste it for yourself.

That decades-old Chick-fil-A recipe calls for the salad's titular ingredients, plus a bit of crushed pineapple, mayo, fresh lemon juice, and a little bit of sugar. Although said sugar is a fairly common addition to this dish, carrots and raisins are already plenty sweet on their own, so we'd be more likely to pull back on the sweetness than to amplify it.

Beginning with a base of shredded carrots and raisins, some citrus is still a good idea to bring those natural sugars into balance. A whisper of flaky salt would also help take any cloying edge off. Wonderfully bitter broken walnuts can also bring a more sophisticated depth of flavor, and why not add in some bright grapefruit zest? But wait, doesn't this all careen even further into actual carrot cake territory? Yes! But a dressing, like the expected mayonnaise, can walk that back, too. Something like a lemony vinaigrette with poppy seeds would also be a fresher adaptation, as would a miso-forward marinade left to chill a couple of hours before serving. All tossed together, and you'll have a surprisingly pleasant side dish fit for a dinner party.