Yotam Ottolenghi is my muse. I love his bold flavors, energetic spirit, and infectious love for food. This is a rather radical modification of a recipe in his latest book, Simple. Rose harissa is somewhat hard to find (I get it at the Cheese Importers in Longmont, Colorado), but regular harissa that you make yourself or buy will be totally delicious. This is great as a side dish, something to bring to a dinner party (whenever that happens again…), or to add a little heft to a night when all you’re serving is a big salad. I find this intensely flavorful dish to be totally craveable. And for me, as long as it’s healthy, I don’t think we should make/eat any food that’s not in the category of craveable. Life is too damn short to spend time making and eating food that’s just meh.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
• 1 pound carrots (Goes with out saying, but do try to always buy organic.)
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons rose harissa or regular harissa
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
Garlic Tahini Sauce
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 clove garlic, peeled (chopped finely if not using a food processor or blender to mix)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 pinch ancient sea
saltInstructions
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Wash and cut carrots in half lengthwise (if they are really big, you might have to quarter). Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, mix together cumin seeds, rose harissa, olive oil, and salt.
• Using a spoon or pastry brush, spread harissa mixture over carrots on baking sheet.
• Cook in preheated oven for approximately 12-15 minutes. Check at the halfway mark to see if they might need a little jiggle or turn.
• While carrots are roasting, make your
Garlic Tahini Sauce…
• Add all ingredients for the tahini sauce to a blender (I have a small attachment for my Vitamix that is perfect for small batches of sauces) or food processor and blend the hell out of it until super smooth. If you don’t have or don’t want to use an appliance (totally fine), just add tahini and finely chopped garlic to a bowl and whisk in lemon juice, water and salt until well mixed.
• Spread roasted carrots on a platter and drizzle tahini sauce. Great served either warm or at room temperature.
Annie Brown, of Boulder, Colorado, started blogging her favorite recipes at age 51. She’s the Director of Development at Rodale Institute, the global leader in regenerative organic agriculture research, farmer training and education.
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Yum, making it with tofu added tonight!
I added rae soaked cashews and saffron to the sauce. Recommended!