Russian Korean Carrot Salad Morkovcha - Gala in the kitchen (2024)

Korean carrot salad is so popular in Russia so we even make our own name Morkovcha ( Морковь по-корейски салат ). Almost every housewife makes it. Morkovcha is a delicious, refreshing appetizer or starter. The salad is great with meat!

Why do I call it Russian? According to many sources online, this salad is created by Korean emigrants, who live in Russia for generations. You may don’t know the fact, that Russia is not only a huge country territory but also has a lot of people with different roots living in Russia for many generations. An example is the Korean population. By reading a lot online, I learned that Korean people in Korea don’t have this salad and never heard about it. What is actually not surprising to me, for example, Jewish delicious bagel with cream cheese and lox is known mostly in the USA. I have a friend who lives in Israel and when I asked her about the bagel, she never heard about it. Bagel with lox and cream cheese is one of the most desirable breakfasts in my family!

When I was leaving in Krasnodar, South Russia, we had a large selection at the farmer’s markets of Korean salads, homemade by Korean-Russian sellers. Every seller has pride in the product. Salads were with different vegetables and delicious. My family favorite was carrot salad and cane salad. Of course, every seller has their own secret recipe. I tried so many recipes to make myself Korean carrot salad but to be honest, can’t able to make it so tasty myself like from my favorite seller from Farmer Market called “Sennoi Rinok”. Maybe, the reason is no right carrot. I heard from local farmers that people selling this salad, but only certain kinds of carrots are sweet and moist.

This Korean salad is so popular in Russia, so we have a special kitchen gadget called Korean carrot salad grater and spices mix on the market widely available. I brought my grater from Russia a long time ago and with time it brocked but I kept it as a memory. I took this photo and throw away my grater finally, now I have my memory here. Spices for Russian Korean salad are available in Russian stores in the USA. The recipe below has not required these store-made spices mix.

I use this carrot salad in other dishes as well. I added it to spaghetti squash and some salads. It has spice and compliments so many dishes.

1 1/2 pounds (700 g) carrot

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup vegetable oil without taste

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 onion

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or white vinegar)

For this carrot salad, the cut is so important. The carrot needs to be in the cut square, not a ribbon. We can use different kitchen gadgets, I just mention a few options to Jullien a carrot.

1. You can to Jullien carrot with a good knife. Cut base on the carrot for stability and slice. Next step, Jullien carrot. This methodis the most time-consuming for me. However, each piece carrot will be just perfect.

1. Add salt to carrot and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Discard carrot juice (or use for something else in cooking). Check carrot for salt, add if you need it.

*Don’t marinade carrot with carrot juice, it really makes difference.

2. Cut onion into big pieces and try to cut with the center part, so onion wedges stay together when cooking. The onion wedges will be easy to remove from oil. Remove skillet from stove andpour boiling oil on garlic.

We infuse oil with onion flavor and discard onion after. If you on a budget, useonion .

Tip

If you don’t like to waste food, use just the bottom of the onion to infuse the oil. We usually don’t use the bottom but don’t throw away it, keep it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. We can also use it in stocks for flavoring or infuse the oil for extra flavoring for cooking.

Place carrot salad in a refrigerator overnight.

Enjoy!

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