This recipe for carrot raisin salad comes from one of my great-grandma’s cookbooks. It is a great side dish for so many entrees. You are going to love the hint of orange in the dressing.
My mom recently received some of her grandma’s cookbooks. Of course, I had to page through them.
I enjoyed seeing her handwritten notes beside some of the recipes. Plus it is always fun to see some of the older recipes that have fallen out of style.
There were definitely some funny sounding jello salads in the book. While we enjoy a lot of jello salad recipes, some of the savory ones people use to make are hard to wrap my brain around!
Anyway, I was having fun reading through some of the salad recipes and this carrot salad caught my eye. It had the carrots, raisins and mayo that you would expect.
However, it was the Tang that caught my eye. My husband loves the stuff.
It is also a hit in Tang pie and the tang fruit salad we found in the same cookbook. Using it in this dressing adds a hint of orange flavor and just enough sweetness. It really is delicious!
If you haven’t had a carrot salad before, you serve it a lot like you would coleslaw. It isn’t nearly as sweet as you would think.
There is just a bit of crunchy and a nice chew with a light creamy dressing. It is perfect with BBQ or bring it to a potluck and watch it disappear.
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I also like serving it as a side dish when we have breakfast for dinner. It feels like it straddles the line between the two meals nicely.
Carlee’s Tips and Tricks
It is better to grate your own carrots instead of buying the carrot matchsticks. The smaller gratings have a softer texture and soak up the dressing better.
I like using my rotary cheese grater to shred the carrots. However, a box grater or food processor would also make short work of the task.
If you have time to make the salad ahead of time, you don’t need to presoak the raisins. They will soak up any extra liquid that the carrots put off and plump up in the fridge. If you need to serve it right away, you might want to soak the carrots in a little bit of warm water before stirring them in.
As written, this salad is only lightly sweet. You can accentuate the sweetness and add more orange flavor by increasing the amount of Tang that you stir in. There is no wrong answer, add as much as you want.
If you want to, you can add some pineapple tidbits. Then you will have something very close to what Chick-fil-A used to serve.
That’s it! Now lets get to the recipe.
Great Grandma’s Carrot Raisin Salad
Ingredients
- ½ pound carrots about 6 medium
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons Tang powder
Instructions
- Peel and shred ½ pound carrots.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup mayonnaise, and 2 teaspoons Tang powder.
- Add the grated carrots and ½ cup raisins. Stir to coat.
- Cover and chill for at least an hour or two. Stir before serving.
Notes
- Feel free to add more Tang powder for extra sweetness and orange flavor.
- Pineapple tidbits are also a great addition if you want more fruit in the salad.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will last for several days.
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