The first time I had Copper Pennies was when visiting a friend's parents in Alabama one weekend several years ago. Her step-mom made them, and I had to make sure to get the recipe before I left. Served cold, this is a very refreshing salad, but if you want, you could certainly serve them hot as a side dish, then refrigerate the leftovers to have the rest as a cold salad.
I did tweak the recipe a bit. I have reduced the sugar by half, decreased the oil (and switched to canola), increased the Worcestershire, and added some black pepper and Sriracha for a little heat. I also skip the step of par-cooking the carrots. That seemed counter-intuitive to me since you will be pouring a hot liquid over them anyhow. I like my carrots to still be crisp, so pouring the hot liquid over them cooks them just enough to take the raw crunch off of them.
INGREDIENTS :
2 lbs carrots
1 lg sweet onion
1 green bell pepper
1 can tomato soup
1/4 c canola oil
1/2 c sugar
1/4 t black pepper
3/4 c white vinegar
2 T Worcestershire
2 T Sriracha
- Peel and slice your carrots into coins, setting them in a heat-resistant bowl with a cover.
- Dice the onion and add it to the carrots.
- Dice the bell pepper and set aside.
- In a small pot, combine the tamato soup, oil, sugar, black pepper, vinegar, Worcestershire, and Sriracha and bring to a boil over med-high heat.
- Stir and let boil for about a minute to make sure the sugar has dissolved and the tomato soup had broken down and incorporated into the other ingredients.
- Pour the hot soup mixture over the carrots and onions, stirring to coat well.
- Lightly cover the bowl to allow the residual heat to cook the carrots and onions a bit.
- If you like your peppers to be soft, go ahead and add them while the sauce it hot. Because they cook more quickly, I prefer to wait until the mix has cooled to just above room temp to add them.
- When cool enough to refrigerate, cover and chill.
