This is one recipe that has actually sat in our queue for a while – I wasn’t sure that I wanted to post it, but eventually decided to.  It’s certainly a delicious sounding dish when you look at it, and it was good, though I think it would’ve been even better if we had worked a little bit harder on making the dressing right – perhaps even incorporating some avocado and the sour cream into the dressing…ok, enough of my tangent…let me explain what I mean:

First of all, roasted carrots are delicious.  Hell, I think all root vegetables that you season well and roast in the oven for a while are pretty damn hard to beat…but carrots have a special place in my heart.  I’ve loved them since I was a kid, when my Mom used to poach them and then mix them with some butter, salt and a touch of honey.  I’ve begun to experiment with some other methods of cooking the vegetable, and this recipe deals with some smoky, sweet, savory flavors in it’s seasoning.

Once the carrots are roasted, we took the croutons from the no mayo Caesar Salad post that Aimee did a while back and add them to the salad, along with some creamy avocado and lettuce.  I recommend the carrot/avocado combination for sure, but I might serve those two on their own without the rest.  In any case, here’s what we did:

• ~1 lb. organic carrots (can be varying colors) – washed
• 2 avocados – peeled, cored and sliced into generous sections
• 3-4 slices of good sourdough, ciabatta, baguette or foccacia bread – something you like!
• 1-2 hearts of romaine lettuce – roughly chopped

• Small handful of Sesame seeds
• Small bunch of Thyme – leaves picked and chopped
• 4 cloves fresh garlic – roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp. whole cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1/2 a lemon
• Around 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 2-3 Tbsp. sour cream
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. honey
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt and fresh black pepper

Start with the carrots, as they’ll take the longest to cook.  Boil a pot of salter water and preheat the oven to 375 F.  Once the water is boiling, add the carrots (cutting some of them on a bias it they’re large) and cook for around 10-12 minutes until they basically cooked through.

Meanwhile, toast your cumin seeds in a separate pan until they’re fragrant and then transfer them to a mortar and pestle and crunch them up.  Add the chili flakes, salt and some pepper and continue to combine.  Finally add the thyme, lemon zest and 2 cloves of the garlic and combine further along with a small splash of olive oil and vinegar – you want sort of a paste consistency that will nicely coat the carrots.

Drain the carrots once they’re cooked and mix them in a large bowl with the spice mixture that you prepared.  Then place the carrots on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes or until they’re colored to your liking (I like my carrots a bit darker…).

While the carrots are roasting, prepare the croutons and the dressing.  Cut your bread into medium cubes and start a pan over medium heat and add a good glug of olive oil.  Add the other 2 cloves of garlic and cook them until they’ve turned a light brown color, then remove and add the bread.  Cook the bread, letting it get coated by the oil until it’s turned a nice golden brown, then kill the heat and season with some salt.  You can also read about cooking croutons in the Caesar Salad post.

You can also prepare the dressing at this point too.  Simply add the mustard and lemon juice to a small bowl and mix together.  Then chop/mush up the cooked garlic and and add that to the dressing.  Add some salt and pepper and the honey and whisk together.  You can then add the sour cream and whisk in a drizzle of olive oil to emulsify.  This should leave you with a creamy vinaigrette – adjust seasonings to taste.

Combine the avocado, roasted carrots, croutons and romaine lettuce and mix with the dressing.  Toss in the sesame seeds and serve.  You can [optionally] finish with a little more sour cream on top.  Enjoy!

Here’s another simple salad that I absolutely love to put together, and it’s especially convenient to make now in the midst of our kitchen remodeling project. The carrots combine with sweet summer corn (perfect and in season right now!) and creamy avocado to make a great combination of flavor. Paired with some delicious creamy lemon dressing, this is the quintessential summer salad to serve along side grilled meat or fish.

I first heard of this, I must admit, through an old Barefoot Contessa episode and it’s been tweaked a bit here to include some of my favorite vegetable combinations. I did take the Contessa’s advice here and included raisins in the dish, which I think adds some really great (interesting) texture and sweetness. But one of the best parts of this dish is that you can really combine any old fresh crunchy vegetables to this salad, a bunch of lemon and dressing and it will more than likely work out on the plate. I paired it with some pre-made spinach chicken sausage, which worked really well.

The quality of the carrots really help here to, try to buy yours from a local farmer’s market or at least try your best for locally grown, organic carrots – they’re the sweetest and most delicious!!!  Have fun with this recipe and improvise, I did!  Try adding some Madras curry powder to it too, a classic combination.  It’s a totally easy and delicious recipe to do:

Serves 4-5

• 2 bunches (about 2 lb.) of carrots – orange and/or yellow – Shredded on the medium holes of a box grater
• 2 ears of fresh sweet corn – see prep below
• 1 small head of broccoli – diced small
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup of large raisins, dark or golden
• 1 large Haas avocado – roughly chopped
• 6 green onions (scallions) – cut fairly thin on a bias
• 3-4 sprigs of tarragon – diced
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Salt and pepper

For the dressing:

• 1/2 cup good mayonnaise (Hellman’s preferred)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. freshly ground cumin seed – toasted and crushed in your mortar and pestle
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp. each of salt and fresh ground pepper

Start by chopping all of you vegetables.  Put your raisins into a small bowl and cover them with a little water while you prep the rest of your veg.  This will help them plump up a bit.  For the corn prep, slice off the corn kernels from the cob length-wise and then milk the cob.  To do this, flip your knife over to the butt-side and rub it up and down the cob.  This should produce a sort of milky, chunky liquid that you should add directly to the salad.  It’s full of awesome corn flavor!  When your vegetable prep is done, combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and add the lemon juice, tarragon and salt and pepper.

Next make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients listed and adjusting seasoning to taste.  You can also add some hot sauce to this if you want to add another element to the flavor of the dish.  Start dressing the vegetables with just some of your dressing and mixing to combine.  Doing the dressing a little at a time will prevent you from over-dressing the salad.  Add as much dressing as you desire, adjust seasonings and enjoy!