I was reminded by a recent routine doctor visit that one should increase plants in one’s dietary choices. Okay, what do I have available to work with to create veggies and fruits for meals? Carrots and frozen blueberries. Needless to say I did not use the blueberries in a salad, but set them to thaw to make a crumble later. In the past I had enjoyed carrot salads and I decided that a French carrot salad would be worthwhile. So I looked in my Jacques Pepin Essential cookbook and found several carrot salads and had to choose. So I chose this one even though I did not have sunflower seeds, nut oil, or red leaf lettuce! Nor sherry vinegar! I planned to serve this on a bed of spinach.

• 3-4 cups shredded carrots; this was about 6 small to medium; peel first
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds as substitute for the sunflower seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed garlic; 2 teaspoons sounded like too much
• 1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 5 Tablespoons canola oil; I should have used olive oil but didn’t

I peeled the carrots and used a food processor to shred them. I chopped the onion, this was 1/2 of a smallish Vidalia. I put these in a bowl with the sesame seeds. I mixed the dressing ingredients and poured over to mix and set this in the fridge to meld the flavors. Aren’t I fancy!

I served this over chopped fresh spinach. It was tasty but a bit dry. So I fixed another portion of the dressing (olive oil this time) and mixed it in. This will then dress the greens instead of leaving them a tad dry.

And it was good. However, another lesson: Hubby does not particularly care for carrot salads. He might like the sweeter version using orange juice and raisins.