Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Crushed Carrots | Canalside Community Food

This is a spectacular recipe: the combination of carrots, harissa, and lemony yoghurt is inexplicably delicious. It looks particularly lovely served on a blue plate, and makes an ideal accompaniment to another Ottolenghi showstopper: his warm lentils with tahini.

Crushed Carrots with Harissa and Nuts
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra to finish
1 tablespoon butter
1kg carrots, peeled and sliced 2cm chunks
200ml water
grated zest of 1 orange
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons harissa paste, or to taste
grated zest of 1 lemon divided into two portions
1 tablespoon lemon juice
150g Greek yogurt
25g shelled unsalted pistachios or cashews, coarsely chopped
Salt and black pepper

Instructions
Place the olive oil and butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and sauté for 6 minutes, stirring often, until they’re soft and take on colour. Add the water, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and cook for another 25 minutes, until carrots are completely soft and perhaps a little caramelised, and there is hardly any liquid left.
Transfer the carrots to a food processor, add 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, and blitz to form a coarse paste. Leave to cool, then add orange zest, garlic, harissa, one portion of the lemon zest and the black pepper to taste. Stir to combine.
Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, remaining lemon zest, and 1⁄4 teaspoon salt.
Spread the yogurt mixture on a blue serving platter and spoon the carrots on top. Sprinkle with nuts, drizzle with a little olive oil, and serve.

Recipe adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty More (2014).