Vintage Copper Penny Salad With Campbells Tomato Soup.

Enjoy a taste of the past during this summer’s BBQ season with this vintage Copper Penny Carrot Salad recipe. This classic marinated salad with simple ingredients like carrots and Campbell’s tomato soup requires minimal prep time, promises maximum flavor, and makes it the perfect addition to summer gatherings. Plus, it’s a great make-ahead marinated salad recipe that ensures you can enjoy it all week.

This is a fun salad to have at least once in your summer lineup. The carrots are easy to prepare into rounds, thus making ‘copper penny carrots.’ The easy marinade takes only a few simple ingredients. Once the salad is marinated, it tastes tangy and sweet with a slightly crunchy bite. You can’t go wrong with a new salad in your summer lineup. 

I stumbled across this recipe while perusing old cookbooks many years ago. My kids loved the name, and it just stuck around because it’s so inexpensive and easy to make. It originally called for green bell pepper, but since my family isn’t too keen on green peppers, we’ve switched those out in favor of red. The red bell peppers are sweeter with less bitterness than the green bell peppers. 

If you love a good marinated salad, try my four-bean salad recipe with celery seed. It’s a winner!

Why you will love this copper penny carrot salad recipe

It’s budget-friendly. With a few simple, low-cost ingredients, you can prepare a sizeable marinated salad that lasts through the week!

It’s quick and easy. The longest prepping time is spent peeling and cutting the carrots into cute rounds. If you have a mandolin that can handle carrots, that step will be faster, too. 

Excellent sweet and tangy flavor. A bit of acidity with your meal can help aid digestion and cut through heavier grilled meats. This salad is perfect for the summer BBQ season. 

Let’s Start Prepping This Old Fashioned Recipe

First, we want to prepare the marinade in a large bowl. It’s a simple blend of five ingredients. Measure the vinegar, white sugar, salt and oil and then add the Campbell’s tomato soup and dry mustard. Mix it well and set aside to prepare the vegetables. 

This is a really basic veggie blend of carrots cut into thin rounds, red onion rings, and red bell pepper. If you want to be more creative, you can add celery, too. Once the vegetables are prepped, you can simply add them to the salad bowl and then stir it up well. 

Try to sink all the veggies into the marinade and cover tightly with plastic wrap before chilling in the fridge. The salad should sit for a minimum of 8 hours to absorb the flavors. So, if you have a BBQ event planned for the evening, make this in the early morning or the day before. 

If you don’t want the solid crunch of the carrots raw, you can parboil them. That is, cook them for a short period of time, 5 minutes, in a rolling boil. Then, run them under cold water to reduce their temperature before adding them to the salad. This will create more tender carrots, taking a bit of the crunch away. 

That’s really all there is to this vintage recipe, so go ahead and whip it up for yourself. It may become one of your favorite summer recipes. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Carrots: Provide the main vegetable base for the salad, offering a sweet and crunchy texture.

Red Bell Pepper: Adds a vibrancy as well as a sweet, slightly tangy flavor to complement the carrots.

Red Onion: Offers a sharp and spicy flavor, adding complexity to the salad.

White Sugar:  Sweetens the marinade, balancing the acidity and enhancing the flavor profile.

Vegetable Oil: Helps to coat the vegetables evenly and adds richness to the marinade.

Dry Mustard Powder: Provides a subtle spicy kick and depth of flavor to the marinade.

Campbell’s Tomato Soup: This adds a unique sweet tomatoey flavor acts as a base for the marinade, enhancing the overall taste of the salad.

Salt: Balances the sweetness of the sugar while enhancing the overall flavors. 

White Vinegar: Provides acidity to the marinade, helping to tenderize the vegetables and brighten the flavors.

Substitutions And Add-ins For This Marinated Carrot Salad

Carrots should stay the same; however, you can experiment with different garden varieties from the farmer’s market. Nantes carrots are a particular favorite of mine. 

Red Bell Pepper: For a similar sweetness and color variation, you could substitute yellow or orange bell peppers. Alternatively, you can use green pepper. 

Red Onion: You could substitute this with sweet onion or shallots. Alternatively, green onions can add a milder flavor with a bit of freshness.

White Sugar: Natural sweeteners like honey can be used. NOTE: Some sweeteners like brown sugar and maple syrup can overpower the lighter sweet tomato flavor and alter the end result of the salad too much.

Vegetable Oil: This ingredient can be replaced with canola or sunflower oil, not olive oil or a strong-flavored oil. The taste should be mild so as not to compete with the tomato soup flavor. 

Dry Mustard Powder:  Dijon or prepared mustard can be used as substitutes, providing a similar flavor profile with more tanginess. Remember that these have added vinegar, so use it sparingly. 

Campbell’s Tomato Soup:  You can substitute with tomato paste diluted with water or another brand of condensed tomato soup. 

Salt: You can use variants like sea salt or kosher salt as substitutes for table salt. 

White Vinegar: This ingredient should remain the same. It has the proper acidity and mild flavor to work with the other ingredients in the marinade. 

Add-ins for this salad could include sliced celery, green beans, or snow peas. It’s a great recipe to marinate any crunchy raw vegetable, really, so go ahead and experiment with your vegetable medley in the easy marinade. Marinated vegetables make a great side dish for family dinners. 

Expert Tips, Serving And Storing Suggestions

Tip #1: Choose Fresh, Quality Ingredients: Opt for fresh, firm carrots and vibrant, crisp bell peppers. Quality ingredients are needed to achieve your salad’s best flavor and texture.

Tip #2: Uniform Slicing: Aim for uniform slicing of the carrots, red bell peppers, and red onions to ensure even marination and a consistent texture throughout the salad.

Tip #3: Marinate Overnight: While the recipe calls for an 8-hour marination period, let it sit overnight for even better flavor development. This extended marination allows the vegetables to absorb the marinade flavors fully, resulting in a more robust and delicious salad.

This Copper Penny Carrot Salad is a great side dish for classic summer dishes like potato salad and grilled pork chops. Its refreshing flavors and vibrant colors complement the heartiness of the main course, making it a perfect addition to any BBQ spread.

Store the marinated Copper Penny Carrot Salad in a covered salad bowl or Rubbermaid. It can be kept for a long time (4-5 days), allowing you to enjoy its delicious flavors throughout the week. Freezing the Copper Penny Carrot Salad is not recommended.

If you’ve tried this Copper Penny Carrot Salad recipe, we’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback by rating the recipe and leaving a comment below. Your insights and experiences can help other home cooks discover the deliciousness of this vintage favorite. Don’t hesitate—let us know how it turned out for you!