Arugula, Carrot, and Mint Salad

A very very simple salad that goes with pretty much anything. It's at home with sandwiches on a picnic, burgers in the back yard, aaaand lots of inside places with lots of other foods too!

Like many of the salads in The Myrtlewood Cookbook, this one can be adapted pretty easily, if you think about it in part like thiss: crunchy vegetable, spicy leaves, sweet herb, salty cheese, simple dressing. You could make it with kohlrabi, mizuna, basil, and feta. Or celery, escarole, parsley, and goat's cheese. And so on!

arugula sylvetta (the 'wild' kind that is small and jagged, but any kind will do!)
purple-skinned carrots
mint
flaky salt
black pepper
olive oil
lemon juice
grated parmesan or pecorino

Peel the carrots, discarding or keeping the skins depending on their toughness and cleanliness. Continue using the vegetable peeler to make sort of ribbons/strips. If you're working on this salad as part of a larger, more complicated meal, put your prepared carrots in water with lemon juice or vinegar. If not, just rinse them briefly to perk up the pieces. 

Wash and dry the arugula.

Pull the mint leaves from the stalks. Slice about half of them in half, keeping others whole. 
Combine the carrot slices and arugula. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice around the sides of the bowl. Toss the carrots and arugula around the edge of the bowl to get them properly dressed. Add flaky salt and a healthy cracking of black pepper. 

The kind of pecorino that has been aged with black pepper is great here, but can obviously be faked with just, y’know, cracking over a bunch of black pepper. 

Portion the salad into bowls, add the mint, toss once again, top with the sprinkling of cheese.