First, say Hi to your new favorite salad. Second, lemon season is around the corner. During the next 10 months, I won’t be buying lemons, I would be picking them from the trees in my neighborhood. I always joke that I’m going to title my next cookbook “The Lemon Thief.” I don’t go into people’s yards, but if their tree is leaning over the sidewalk and is bursting with fruit, I borrow some. Sometimes I don’t have to because some generous neighbors leave a paper bag with fruits outside their fence.

We have two lemon trees, but the one in the back yard is old and lonely, while the front yard tree is young and lively yet stingy with fruits. It has only produced two lemons in the four years we’ve lived here. I use lemons daily in salads, dips, cakes, soups. I love their tangy flavor and ability to intensify, subdue or contrast sweetness, like in this simple salad. Lemons are the most vital ingredient in this crisp, refreshing salad.

If I were poor, I would have been living on this salad (assuming I could pick lemons). The sunflower seeds add extra crunch and nutty flavor though they could be skipped or replace with another type of toasted seeds or nuts such as pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almond.

No matter how much of this salad I make, we always finish it. And if it doesn’t, I am not worried because I know the next day the teenager will devour it.

The only downside to this salad, though not a deal breaker, is grating the carrots. Grating 4 pounds of carrots on a box grater is work. Grating with the good food processor is easy breezy. I would have bought one just for this salad. It’s so worth it.