Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Mezze-style Carrots
The honey helps make the carrots glazed and sticky, as well as sweet. The sharp tahini-yoghurt sauce contrasts well with this.
Honey Roasted Carrots with Tahini Yoghurt
Serves 2-4 alongside other dishes
Ingredients
for the roast carrots
1.3kg carrots
60g runny honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted in a dry pan and lightly crushed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted in a dry pan and lightly crushed
7g whole thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon salt
several grinds of black pepper
1½ tablespoons coriander leaves, roughly chopped (to garnish)
for the tahini-yoghurt sauce
1 garlic clove
pinch of salt
40g tahini
130g thick yoghurt (Greek or kerned is ideal but whole-milk plain yoghurt will work too)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Preparation
Prepare the carrots: Heat your oven to 200C. Peel the carrots. If they’re thick cut them into smaller batons of about 2cm by 6cm. Put them in a large bowl with all the other carrot ingredients aside from the coriander leaves. Mix them well and then spread them in a single layer on one or more baking trays. Put them in the oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring a few times, until they are soft and glazed. Remove them from the oven.
Prepare the tahini-yoghurt sauce: While the carrots are cooking prepare the tahini-yoghurt sauce: crush the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle. Transfer the salt-garlic mix to a small bowl and whisk in the other ingredients. Taste and see if you would like more salt or lemon juice.
To serve: spread the carrots on an attractive platter, and top with a few spoonfuls of the sauce and the coriander leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature with the remaining sauce on the side.
Recipe adapted from Guardian, 12 April 2013.