The first time I had these marvelous marinated carrots was several years ago at my Mom’s one Thanksgiving — she called them copper pennies. I’m not sure where she got her recipe, but after one bite I was hooked! The carrots are slightly cooked and mixed with green peppers, onions and celery to give this salad a nice crunch. Add a tangy marinade and chill overnight and you have a colorful, healthy and tasty salad that is good as a side dish or can stand alone as meal on its own.

There are a number of recipes for these great carrots on the Internet and I came up with this one based on how Mom makes them as well as my own personal tastes. I love celery and many of the recipes I saw did not include it, so leave it out if you want and increase the amount of green peppers instead.

Ingredients (6 large servings)

• 1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced into penny-like rounds
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup white vinegar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ can (10 ¾ oz.) condensed tomato soup
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• Several shakes Worcestershire sauce
• Sea salt to taste
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• ½ cup celery, diced medium
• ½ cup green pepper, diced medium
• ½ cup sweet onion, diced small

Preparation

Bring a pot of water to boiling, add the carrots and cook for 4-5 minutes. You want the carrots to be tender but still firm. Remove from heat, drain and rinse with cold water until the carrots have cooled.

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar, soup, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and mix together until well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the marinade from heat and let cool for 15 minutes or so.

In a large bowl, mix together the carrots, celery, green pepper and onion.

Pour the marinade over the veggies, stir well, cover and refrigerate overnight so that the flavors have a chance to blend together.

Serve as a side dish or as a main meal.

Bon appétit!

Eat, drink and be merry!

Follow Kel’s Café on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kelscafe