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Six O’Clock Solution: Harissa gives roasted carrots a spicy touch

This recipe comes from Vegetable Simple by Eric Ripert, the acclaimed French chef at New York’s Le Bernardin restaurant.

Tender young carrots will be pushing up soon, but meanwhile, storage carrots and those “baby” snack carrots are available. The latter are best eaten raw; they liven up coleslaw or tossed green salad. The big, older carrots can be simmered into something special, as Eric Ripert, the acclaimed French chef at New York’s Le Bernardin restaurant, demonstrates in this recipe from his new cookbook, Vegetable Simple (Appetite by Random House, $40).

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Ripert uses the spicy chili paste harissa, available in convenient tubes. Another easy idea is to coat the hot, cooked carrots with brown sugar, maple syrup or honey; you can also add finely chopped garlic. Or cook the carrots in chicken stock or apple juice, and add butter and salt just before serving.

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Use big carrots in this recipe, Ripert directs, because they take their time cooking and thereby absorb the flavourful broth.

Roasted Carrots With Harissa

Serves 4
1 tablespoon (15 mL) vegetable oil
4 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 medium dry shallot, sliced
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) harissa paste
4 large carrots, unpeeled
4 cups (1 L) carrot juice
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground white pepper
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10 to 15 fresh coriander leaves, thinly sliced
5 to 10 fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil

In a large cast-iron or ovenproof frying pan, heat vegetable oil over medium-low heat and cook garlic and shallot until they are soft and translucent, about two minutes.

Stir in cumin and harissa, and then add the carrots, carrot juice, and salt and pepper to taste, and cook over medium heat until mixture simmers, two to three minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C) and add pan, uncovered. Roast for 25 minutes, basting every five minutes.

Continue roasting without basting another five to 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

Remove from oven and transfer carrots to a serving bowl. Season cooking liquid to taste with salt and pepper, and pour over carrots.

Trim carrots with coriander, mint and a few drops of olive oil. Serve at once.

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