Gajarachi Koshimbir (Carrot Salad with Mustard Seeds and Curry Leaves)

One of my favorite ways to eat carrots when I was growing up was my mother’s vibrant gajarachi koshimbir, a popular salad of grated carrots with mustard seeds and curry leaves from Maharashtra, my home state on India’s west coast. She’d serve the salad to me as part of a Marathi lunch or dinner of chapatis, rice, dal, vegetables, and yogurt. The tangy and acidic carrot salad paired well with the meal’s mild, hearty carbs. My mom’s salad was a medley of sharp flavors and contrasting textures. The grated carrots soaked up the lime juice they were macerated in; mustard seeds, onions, and peanuts provided crunch; the curry leaves heated in oil infused the salad with the leave's distinctive earthy aroma; and the cilantro and grated fresh coconut added a pop of color, chew, and delicate sweetness. 

This salad is common in Maharashtra, where it’s made with carrots or cabbage or both. I love my mom’s version so much that I even included her recipe in my The Essential Marathi Cookbook.

As a caterer and culinary instructor in California, I’ve made gajarachi koshimbir many times for events and cooking demonstrations over the years, and during this time, I began referring to it as a mayonnaise-less “slaw” because it's crunchy with an acidic bite similar to most slaws. Whether you call it a salad or slaw, it is great served alongside pasta or barbecue, and it also makes a delicious topping for meat sandwiches, like Vietnamese banh mi or even burgers. My version here is an adaptation of my mom’s recipe with a few tweaks: I use a lot more lime juice and curry leaves than she did, and instead of using grated carrots, I prefer thicker shredded carrots because they hold up to the acidic dressing better. Here is how to make this refreshing salad at home.

Tips for Making Gajarachi Koshimbir

Try using store-bought pre-shredded carrots. As a caterer, I often made this salad for large groups, and I found that grating pounds of carrots became tiresome. It was convenient and quicker to use store bought shredded carrots, Even when I make a smaller portion at home, I still reach for this convenience item. (The matchstick–shredded carrots from Trader Joe’s are my favorite.) 

On top of the time and arm strength saved by using pre-shredded carrots, I found that because the store-bought shredded ones were slightly thicker than the carrots I grated at home and more consistent in size, they retained their crunch after being marinated for hours in the lime juice and seasoned oil mixture. If you prefer, you can still grate the carrots yourself with a box grater for this recipe. Just make sure to store the salad in a cool place and serve it within two hours of dressing, otherwise the carrots will turn unpleasantly soggy.

Let the salad sit. Unlike many fresh, leafy green salads, this carrot salad’s flavors will improve with time as it sits dressed. As the carrots and onion macerate with the sugar, salt, and lime juice, the flavors blend together, and the acidity from the lime juice softens the carrots and onions slightly. 

Try using a seasoning wok. A seasoning wok is a small wok that is used in Indian cooking for toasting spices and for making seasoned oil blends. They generally are made from thicker metal than Chinese woks and can cook longer over high heat than thin carbon steel woks without the risk of burning. I often use a seasoning wok at home to make spice blends for a variety of dishes. 

If you don’t have a seasoning wok, a small, flat-bottomed saucepan works well. Whichever pan you choose, after pouring the seasoning into the salad, make sure to put some of the carrots into the seasoning pan, and use tongs or a spoon to push the carrots around, scrapping up the last bits of spice and flavor from the pan, before adding back into the salad. It’s a simple technique to make sure you get every bit of the cooked spice blend into the food.

Add asafoetida for an assertive flavor. Asafoetida is a gum resin that drips off the roots of an herb called ferula asafoetida, a central Asian plant in the celery family. It is gathered and then ground into a powder. Nuggets of it used to be left in sacks of grain because bugs stayed away from its strong aroma. Cooks in India learned that its strong onion-garlic smell and flavor was a welcome addition in many dishes. In the Indian state of Maharashtra, where my family is from, asafoetida-mustard-turmeric is often considered the “holy trinity” of seasonings. My father didn't like asafoetida’s pungent aroma, so my mother never cooked with it when I was growing up. But as an adult I’ve grown to love its flavor and always use it when I make a mustard seed seasoning, like I do here in my carrot slaw.

Customize it with your preferred vegetables. Sometimes, Mom made the salad even more colorful and hearty by adding chunks of tomato and thinly sliced cabbage. Feel free to do the same here, or add shredded broccoli or brussels sprouts. All of these can be used in combination or used as alternatives to the carrot. If adding other ingredients, scale down the amount of carrots to keep the final volume of the salad ingredients the same. This ensures the salad will still be evenly coated in the lime juice and dressing.