Fun with Carrots

It’s Jon’s birthday and I promised to bake him a carrot cake. I used the recipe from my upcoming cookbook, so I can’t share it here yet. But it’s really good — moist and delicious, with a soy cream cheese glaze. This cake was extra-special because it was made with our own freshly dug carrots from the garden. Some of our carrots are a tad small, so instead of grating them for the cake, I thought it would be easier to finely chop them in the food processor.

I needed two cups of carrots for the cake recipe, but ended up with nearly double that. Instead of just saving them to add to a salad, I decided to sauté them in a little olive oil and toss them with some steamed baby potatoes and fresh parsley. The fresh flavors were incredible and the carrots also added a great texture to the potatoes.

This got me thinking about all the great ways I could season these carrot bits for different flavor effects. Maybe next time I’ll sauté the carrots with some curry powder, or jerk spices, or maybe some cumin and coriander. Garlic and ginger would also be amazing, and pesto, of course, would be out of this world, like it is most any way you use it. I can see where these spiced carrot bits would also be good tossed with rice or quinoa.

It’s funny how sometimes a great new recipe can be inspired by the simplest thing — even finely chopped carrots.