carrots: sauces, dips, recipes? strange sauce or dip for veggies?

[alkapal]

snacking at a bbq today, i ran my raw baby carrots through my bbq sauce (combo of cattlemen's brand "sweet" version
http://www.cattlemensbbqsauce.com/OurSaucesNaturalSweet.aspx

plus texas pete sauce
http://www.texaspete.com/product_hot_...

it was really good! try it; you'll be surprised what a great combo it is.

1. do you have interesting carrot sauces? recipes in general? dips for carrots?

2. what about other non-creamy veggie dips?

3. any other odd, unexpectedly good veggie & sauce combos?

thanks!

[alkapal]

there's a good combo of carrots and beets that i had on a salad bar last night (i mixed it together). 'twas julienned pickled beets and carrots, and a ranch-y/sour-cream-y dressing. then i thought that this is a traditional recipe. so, i looked it up, and i think this would be it: http://www.innatdanbury.com/pdf/Marin...

[alkapal]

look at this delicious "silk road carrot ginger stir fry": http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/s...

[chef chicklet]

Favorite cooked carrot recipe, is steamed carrors with dill, make a creamy white wine sauce with dijon mustard, adding butter to thicken the sauce.
Ladle a puddle on a plate, then swirl the carrots through the sauce with each bite. Yikes, I love this. Er...were you looking for a low cal recipe?

[greygarious]

Sliced carrots braised in apple cider. Remove when tender, then boil cider down to a glaze, with a splash of vinegar (cider, balsamic, whatever) to balance the sweetness, a pat of butter if you wish, and stir the carrots back into the glaze before serving. Also good for other root vegetables.

A regional chain brings Copper Pennies to the every table. These are cold cooked carrots, thickly sliced, in a sweetish dressing of - I think - minced onion, bell pepper, ketchup, and oil. There are numerous variations of this dish online. Colorful and tasty.

[goodegg333]

I love to make a wasabi-mayo to dip carrots (or any other veggies) in. Be sure to use a good and strong wasabi, and it will turn out great!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...

[alkapal]

goodegg, that is intriguing. i see the recipe is featuring asparagus. doesn't the wasabi overpower the asparagus?

[lexpatti]

Can only add that we had a perfect breakfast this weekend, where Carrot Cake Waffles took hubby right over the edge. I haven't found a recipe but maybe playing in the kitchen could reproduce it. :-)

[alkapal]

carrot cake waffles! am i in heaven?

here's a lot of recipes: http://www.google.com/search?client=s...

[Gooseberry]

to be honest, in my household, carrots are the go-to snack when we come home from work and are ravenous. usually involves a pathetically inefficient wiggling of said carrot under a running tap, hasty topping and tailing, usually with teeth, followed by a generous dip in the cream cheese container, standing in front of the fridge.

However, when food rage isn't pushing carrot consumption into urgency, I like to make various dips, for various things (roasted potato slices, quartered hard boiled eggs, carrots, etc), such as aioli, skordalia, skeletor, yoghurt and mint, sweet chili and mayo.

[courtney.hami]

For a Iron Chef type dish (that you know, celebrates the flavor of carrot) I like to do a spicy tomato carrot ginger soup.
butter/oil for initial saute
garlic
ginger
crushed red pepper flakes
shallots or a 1/2 a mild yellow onion
1 can of crushed tomatoes or 1 container of the pomi tomato puree (enough to just cover the carrots in a soup pot)
lots of carrots, chopped

take butter/oil warm in bottom of soup pot over medium heat. add finely chopped ginger, shallots, garlic, and a dash or two or three of crushed red pepper flakes. saute until fragrant/ onions are getting translucent. add carrots and toss them around in the pot. Then add tomato puree and a bit of water (use your judgment) and salt/pepper or a bit of buillon for depth of flavor. (ok fine, you can also use chicken broth). simmer until carrots are easily mushed with back of spoon.

puree soup in a blender or preferably puree the soup by using a food mill (italian: passa verdura).

serve.

[elainelena]

I make what is called "Korean Carrots" by my Russian family.
Basically, you shred carrots or buy the shredded ones (I buy those when i am preparing this for a party). Chop up lots of fresh cilantro, add some cumin seeds, some red pepper or cayenne, add to carrots in large bowl. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, slowly fry some chopped onions in a lot of oil, fry at low temp until the onions are browned. While this is frying, chop up tons of fresh garlic, place this on top of the carrots and pour the oil on top of it, leaving browned onions in frying pan. Mix all this together and add salt and some sugar or honey and small taste of vinegar.
Let it all marinate and YUMMMMMM YUMMMM this is good! (as you can tell, I kind of wing it, but this is my take on this delicious salad)

[alkapal]

courtney, your soup sounds like it would be good hot or cold. i love carrot and ginger together, and used to have a great recipe for a carrot ginger curry soup (only little bit of curry). finished with cream. used tons of sauteed onions witht the carrots. gosh, it was so delicious!!

elainelena, you only use the onion oil? do you crush the cumin seeds? sounds really good, especially the next day? (or does it make it?....)

[courtney.hami]

I love the soup (the carrots make it taste creamy even though it's basically fat free). If you're moving into baking for winter, I also have a bastardized recipe for carrot cake muffins which i swear by. I posted it on my work blog, so, rather than cutting and pasting... you can find it here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/cha...

[chefathome]

Aside from the usual I make a really good roasted carrot dip (contains a bit of cumin) as well as a roasted butternut squash dip. If you are interested I can post. Oh, and a white bean sage dip (more like a spread) that is great with crudites.

[Jetgirly]

I liked your idea so last night I roasted up some carrots (tossed with olive oil and a bit of honey) and roasted some garlic at the same time. I pureed the carrots and garlic with tahini, cumin, coriander, plain yogurt and lemon juice. It was a nice change from the hummous that I always keep on hand!

[lexpatti]

I made a recent indian curry carrot dip that was fantastic - this looks like the same recipe:
http://www.indianchild.com/Recipes/di...

[alkapal]

lexpatti, i'm seeing some ginger could be added into that, too. (one of my favorite soups: curried carrot with ginger. mmmm good.)

[torty]

As a dip like a homemade mustard sauce (proportions to taste) of dry mustard, Dijon, vinegar,and jam (orange marmalade is good, and homemade plum or currant are nice)

[TampaAurora]

I love dipping baby carrots in humus and/or fresh lemon juice.

[another_adam]

Not really an odd combination, but I often have a snacktime of carrots dipped in ssamjang (Korean hot pepper + miso sauce). I mix about equal parts of gochujang (korean pepper paste) and dwenjang (korean soy paste, a mild version of miso), mix in a dash of sugar or malt syrup, crushed sesame seeds and/or pine nuts, scallions, and sesame oil, all to taste. (You can also buy pre-mixed ssamjang, if you have a Korean grocery store handy)

In a completely different vein, I've always been a fan of the carrot + pineapple combination, and sometimes make a pickle of shaved or slivered carrots with a bit of pineapple preserves. I bet just dipping carrots in preserves could be good too!

[alkapal]

pickled carrots with pineapple. a new sweet and sour! yum.

haven't explored korean pastes and condiments yet. looking forward to it. is there a website you recommend for identifying products, ingredients, flavor profiles? thanks.

[Emme]

i used to make a healthy veggie terrine with a green broccoli layer, a white cauliflower layer, and an orange carrot layer. it was really pretty, tasty and really good for you. i think i have the recipe in one of my cookbook boxes... but it's really basic and behaves very well with adjustments and additions.

i've also done some interesting carrot mashes - carrots alone w/ cinnamon, salt, and butter is interesting. or turnips and carrots. or carrots, cauliflower and herbs. or carrots and caramelized onions and sage.

[alkapal]

at my fave local indian resto, the chef makes this chutney puree of carrots and celery, vinegar, and maybe some onion? right tasty with some chicken tikka kabob! i need to get that recipe from him. he is very friendly.

[Gooseberry]

are the carrots cooked and pureed, alkapal? I always like curry acompaniments.

[alkapal]

gooseberry, i believe they are raw, and it is a liquidy puree (definitely processed in the food processor or blender. very smooth.)

it is good with kabobs, esp. like chicken tikka, boti kabob, tandoori chick or shrimp. its good mixed with yogurt and used on salad, too. it may have some chili in it, but very little.

the sharpness counteracts/complements the smoky tandoor char.

[goodhealthgourmet]

"i need to get that recipe from him. he is very friendly."
~~~~~~~
get on it! ;)

[alkapal]

when we went on saturday, chef was out on a catering assignment. ;-( (i could tell from my chicken tikka masala, too!)

[goodhealthgourmet]

someone posted this link to a moroccan roasted carrot spread on another thread yesterday, and i'm dying to try it. i think it sounds delicious...

http://www.freshdirect.com/recipe.jsp...

[alkapal]

ghg, did you mean to link something else?....this link you did is for fresh direct, and to order if you're in metro nyc.

[goodhealthgourmet]

it's a weird glitch with the site...i copied the link from someone else's post, and had the same problem, so i just typed in my NYC zip code, and voila! the recipe appeared. the second time i loaded the page it popped right up so i assumed it would be fine for you, but i guess it was cached on my hard drive.

here it is on another site...

http://yumminessnsues.blogspot.com/20...

NB: the recipe is originally from crescent dragonwagon's "passionate vegetarian" cookbook.

[alkapal]

ghg, that looks interesting. do you doctor the recipe? more garlic, e.g.?
(btw, i think my mom gave me that same haircut in 3rd grade as in the blogger's pic! the bangs are a dead giveaway....) ;-D

[goodhealthgourmet]

oh, i haven't made it yet. someone else posted it on another apps/dips thread a couple of days ago & it caught my eye. when i do make it, i'll definitely go heavier on the garlic & cumin...and i'd use smoked paprika instead of regular.

i'm starting a raw diet tomorrow - it's only for a week, long story - so it looks like i'll have to wait until at least next monday to try the recipe. if you make it before then, let me know how it turns out...i'm really looking forward to this one.

[alkapal]

i'm heading to the big apple manana, so i won't be making it soon. did you get your pro-kitchen in manhattan yet? i'd drop in to see you....

[goodhealthgourmet]

oh man, i never saw this! i wish i had known you were in town, we could have gotten together for a bite. no, i don't have the kitchen yet...sort of my own fault for mixing biz w/pleasure. i was dating someone whose family foundation was going to provide the seed money. we broke up...sayonara investors!

it'll happen eventually.

in the meantime, the reason i came back to this thread was to post about the carrot dip...i *finally* got around to making it tonight. of course i didn't follow the exact recipe - had to give it the ghg treatment & make some modifications ;) we'll see how it tastes tomorrow, it has to sit overnight to let the flavors marry, but a preliminary taste tonight was sufficiently delicious to have me thinking that some version of this will end up in the ghg product line.

oh, and i'm thinking that it would also be a terrific spread - on a smoked turkey sandwich, or maybe in a wrap with roasted chicken.

[alkapal]

also, stirred into hummus?

i haven't made it yet, but looking again at the recipe, and my original op inspiration (carrot with hot bbq sauce), i think a little tomato paste/bbq flavor component might be interesting -- also as a sandwich spread (not *quite* moroccan!)

sorry about the kitchen! you'll get there, and i'll come visit! ;-)

[goodhealthgourmet]

it's funny you said hummus. the dip turned out to be AMAZING, and i found myself looking for excuses to eat it...so at one point i mixed some with hummus!

my only complaint was that i wished it had more body to it...so i'm going to make it again this weekend, and puree in some cooked lentils or white beans to make it heartier.

btw, re: the smoky/bbq component, we def. think alike - i added a little harissa, subbed half pimenton de la vera for the regular paprika, and toasted the spices first to amp up the smokiness.

[alkapal]

try chickpeas, too, to "beef it up". or if would you use orange lentils, try adding some ginger, for a test case variation (moving it more toward india from n. africa....)

oh, oh, if you go that direction, try a sprinkle of garam masala and a touch of freshly ground toasted cardamom -- a smash with carrots. then, maybe pistachio and honey for a sweet savory dip....the *ever-permutating carrot spread*!

oh, hush up alkapal!!! ;-P

[alkapal]

please do, chefathome! esp. i love sage butter with stuffed butternut squash ravioli, soooooo, i wonder if the butternut squash recipe could be combined with the sage flavor in the white bean dip? or do a yin-yang presentation with the butternut dip and the white bean spread. so lovely for autumn!!

[maplesugar]

Usually a tzatziki from the local Farmer's Market or homemade hummus and if they're steamed just a bit of maple syrup and a dab of butter. I'll have to try bbq sauce although I'm not familiar with texas pete sauce - is there anything similar that might be available north of the border? TIA :)

[alkapal]

maplesugar, please see my edited post with link for texas pete (hot, but not too hot) sauce. with flavor (unlike tabasco). i'll bet cholula would be good, too.
http://www.firegirl.com/hs1105.html

[maplesugar]

Thanks alkapal! :)