This salad dressing is inspired by the big salads at Yaffa Cafe in the East Village. Back in college my friends and I would go out to a bar and then (in truly New York style) go have a salad at Yaffa in the middle of the night. The salad consisted of romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts and chickpeas and was dressed with the most divine carrot/tahini blend. This is my stab at it, and although it’s not an exact duplicate, it’s still very tasty. It’s pretty thick, so it won’t pour like most salad dressing. I suppose if that bothers you, you could strain it through some cheese cloth to filter out the carrot chunks. Or use fresh carrot juice instead of whole carrots. This would also work well as a dipping or sandwich sauce.
Ingredients:
3 medium carrots
1/4 C tahini
5 Tbs lemon juice (1 large, or 2 small lemons)
1 Tbs Shoyu (soy sauce)
2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions:
Peel and chop carrots. Mince carrots in food processor. Add other ingredients and blend until smooth.
I’ve been looking for a good carrot-miso dressing and this might be it! I’m gonna try it out this week–thanks for the recipe!
Hey Jo, Do you think if someone wanted to thin it out…could broth work or maybe increase the liquids (oil, soy sauce, and lemon juice) – or do you think the best route would be to use carrot juice instead of carrot puree?
I have never had a carrot salad dressing…..I’m liking the idea of it. Looks good Jo!
Yum, that looks good. I’m always looking for something new to do with carrots
i made myself tahini lemon dressing for the first time the other day and it was awesome! a nice change from regular old balsamic & oil (although i still love it).
I suppose you could add more of both lemon juice and olive oil to thin it out a little, but fundamentally, the carrot bits will always be chunky. If you’re into a real liquid dressing, I think using carrot juice would be the way to go. But the thickness doesn’t bother me at all.
I used to love that salad at Yaffa cafe! I lived just around the corner in the late 1990s. It also inspired me to develop a carrot dressing recipe. But it’s been so many years since I had the salad there, that my carrot dressing is quite different. Can’t wait to try this one!
I used to live in the village and at Dojo and Yaffa everyday. Their carrot tahini dressing was the best I ever had and always wanted to know how to make it. Your a lifesaver. Thanks Again.
I know this is a million years later and chances are no one will read that but YES, that salad at Yaffa! And I could have eaten up the salad dressing with a spoon. sigh! thanks!
Here’s another million, but this was one of my favorites too – I added about 1 tbsp minced ginger – getting there…