Carrot salad with yogurt is one of the greatly respected rakı companions. Mainly for this reason, that it's highly associated with consumption of alcohol, it's made rarely at homes by women who do not want to cause an increase in rakı consumption of their husbands, because any reason is a good reason to have rakı. Therefore, carrot salad with yogurt is made usually for big dinner parties or special occasions like New Year's eve or bayram dinners. However, you can find this simple yet delicious meze (appetizer/starter/hors d'oeuvre) at every pub that serves rakı, especially at seafood pubs. Surprisingly carrot salad with yogurt tastes even better at sloppy pubs than it does at home although it's most probably made with a low quality oil, you're lucky if it's olive oil at all, and yogurt. Yet again rakı fixes every imperfection.
serves 2 to 3 people
4 cups of grated carrot
1 cup plain yogurt, preferably whole milk yogurt
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
salt
1 tbsp mayonnaise (optional)
-Heat oil in a skillet and add grated carrots. Stir until carrots are wilted.
-Put carrots in a bowl with yogurt, garlic, dill, and salt. Mix well.
Serve with crusty bread with any kind of meat.
note: At people's houses this meze is made with yogurt, but at pubs they sometimes use mayonnaise to thicken it up.
