Mashed carrot salad

This recipe is adapted from Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Cooking, an attractive, square hardback that I bought for £1.99 in Sainsbury's 20 years ago. Roden tells you to slice the carrots and boil them; but I think that they are likely to turn a dull orangey grey if you do that. Instead, cut them into thick batons (slice horizontally into three or four pieces, and then cut each piece vertically into two or three), and cook them, covering the pan, in just a little water with a dstsp of oil. The pan may splutter. Add a drop or two more water from time to time, if the carrots threaten to catch.

3 medium carrots
1 dstsp olive oil, plus 2/3 tbsp
1 dstsp red or white wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic, crushed with a little salt
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted in a dry saucepan
Salt and pepper
Cayenne, to taste

Cook the carrots, as advised above and with the dstsp of olive oil, until soft. At the end of the cooking time, uncover the pan and boil off any surplus liquid. Mash the carrots with a fork. (I whizzed them in a small electric vegetable mill.) Stir in the other ingredients, and chill.

Claudia Roden recommends garnishing the dish with olives. You might also add some chopped parsley.

You might serve the salad alongside an aubergine dip, and hummous.