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Last week..was it really last week? Maybe not, but anyway, I wrote about the Mediterranean Diet and its health benefits. I suggested a book: Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health and just to illustrate how wonderful it is, with regularity I will be posting easy delicious, fresh recipes from the book for you to enjoy and cook at home.

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Who doesn’t have some extra carrots lying around, or a jar of olives. Or if you are like me, a jar of Harissa….if you do, you can make this salad in minutes. The hardest part is waiting the ½ hour for the flavors to marry!
This is an incredibly flavorful and delicious salad. With so many textures and tastes it is a symphony for your mouth. This kind of dish is what makes me fall in love with food all over again and makes me giddy with excitement upon eating it. All of my favorite things in one dish, sopped up with a warm pita bread and life just doesn’t get any better. Well, maybe it does if you add a nice glass of Shiraz into the picture! I am going to be running around like a crazy mad woman for a few days getting ready for my class, so I leave you with this to carry you through! This is also my entry for Salad Stravaganza! Go check it out to enter your favorite salad!

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INGREDIENTS:

6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into thick rounds
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp caraway seeds
sea salt to taste
1 TBS harissa
2 TBS water
¼ cup brine cured black olives (like Kalamata), pitted
¼ lb feta cheese, crumbled
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 TBS red wine vinegar

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METHOD:

Bring a pot of water to boil, add the carrots and cook for 5 minutes, just until they are starting to get tender. Drain, running cold water over the carrots to halt the cooking. Chop the carrot rounds very coarsely.
In a mortar, pound the garlic to a paste with the caraway seeds and salt. Dilute the harissa with water. If the olives are large, chop them coarsely.
In a bowl combine the carrots, garlic/caraway paste and diluted harissa. Mix together well. Add the oil and vinegar and toss once more to mix well. Sprinkle the cheese and olives over the top. Set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to develop the flavors. Stir again before serving.

Serves 6