Copper penny salad (sweet and sour carrot salad)

Copper penny salad is one of my all-time favourite summer salads. Tender carrot rings with sweet peppers and onions in a tangy sweet and sour sauce make a perfect accompaniment to any outdoor grill or barbeque.

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Sweet and sour carrots

I just love this copper penny salad. It’s made with sliced carrots smothered in a tangy sweet and sour tomato-based sauce, and is the perfect salad to serve alongside your favourite grilled or barbequed meat. You could also take a bowl of this salad to work for a light refreshing lunch.

When I lived in South Africa, there was always a big bowl of copper penny salad served at all summer get-togethers, and it was always one of the first to get eaten.

I think you’ll love it too!

• it only takes minutes to prepare and then you just let it stand in the refrigerator overnight for the flavours to develop.
• it stays fresh (in the refrigerator) for over a week or you can freeze it in meal-sized portions and just defrost it before you need it.
• you don’t need any fancy ingredients. It’s made with pantry staples that you probably already have in your cupboard.
• this salad travels well. You can make it at home and then take it with you to your next potluck or gathering. It’s perfect served at room temperature so you don’t have to worry about keeping it chilled.

Copper penny salad is so named because the carrot rings are said to resemble old-fashioned copper pennies!

Another favourite South African recipe for carrots is this recipe for glazed carrots, otherwise known as Vichy carrots. These are not served as a salad, but are served alongside a roast.

Recipe information

Recipe information

• Prep time – 30 minutes
• Cooking time – 20 to 25 minutes
• Yield – makes 12 cream horns
• Calories –
• Main equipment – Cream horn molds. If you don’t have any you can buy them from Amazon, or make your own from paper plates and aluminium foil (instructions provided below).

Ingredients

• Carrots – peeled and sliced into thin rings. You can use normal orange carrots, or you could use yellow or purple carrots too. Once sliced, you should have about 2 cups of carrots.
• Yellow pepper (capsicum) – this recipe is traditionally made with green peppers, but I prefer the taste of yellow peppers. You can use red peppers instead if you prefer. The peppers should be deseeded and cut into approximately 1cm or half-inch dice. This should be about 1 cup of onions.
• Onions – these should be peeled, and diced as per the peppers. This should be about 1 cup.
• Sunflower oil – for frying the vegetables
• Cornflour (cornstarch) – for thickening

For the sauce

• Tomato passata – this is sold in jars or bottles in the supermarket, and is just fresh tomatoes which have been blended into a thick runny paste. Not to be confused with tomato ketchup!
• Vinegar – this adds the tartness.
• Sugar – for sweetness. I used white granulated sugar
• Mustard – for the tang. I used Dijon mustard, but you could also use English mustard or even wholegrain mustard.
• Worstershire sauce
• Salt and pepper for seasoning to your own taste.

Instructions

Copper penny salad is really easy to make. You just fry off the vegetables, boil up the sauce and combine the two together. Job done!

• Peel the carrots and slice into rings. Wash the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes and cut into small dice. Peel the onions and dice into 1cm or half-inch pieces.

• Heat the sunflower oil in a work or large frying pan and stirfry the vegetables gently for about 7 minutes until they just start to soften (image 1 above). The vegetables should be tender, but still crisp. Don’t allow them to over-cook.
• Transfer the vegetables to a serving bowl.
• Place all the ingredients for the sauce into a small saucepan (or you could use the wok that the vegetables were cooked in) and bring to the boil (image 2 above).Boil for 2 minutes.
• Mix 1 heaped teaspoon of cornflour with 1 tablespoon of cold water and stir into the sauce, and boil for one minute longer. This will thicken the sauce slightly.
• Pour the hot sauce over the carrots and mix to combine (image 3 above).
• Allow to cool and then cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. Allow the salad to come to room temperature before serving.

You could serve the salad immediately, once it has cooled, but allowing the carrots to marinate in the sauce does improve the flavour.

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Questions

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Other salad recipes

If you liked this recipe you may like to try some of my other salad recipes too.

• Salmon and red pepper pasta salad with corn
• Orzo pasta summer salad
• Potato salad with homemade mayonnaise
• Smoked salmon pasta salad with homemade ranch dressing
• German meat salad (fleischsalat)

The recipe

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