An ode to the carrot

In yesterday’s post about cooking under lockdown, the bloggers profiled in the story said that they could always find carrots at the supermarket because nobody really liked them. One of our favorite cookbook authors begs to differ. Yotam Ottolenghi just penned a missive extolling the virtues of the ‘anything but humble’ root vegetable.

Ottolenghi posits that carrots are loved by everyone from “toddlers clutching the little batons to grown-ups at holiday feasts, where a gleaming platter of roasted carrots radiates a deeper, more complex type of sweetness.” He also points out that for most of the vegetable’s history, they were not orange, and he explores the myths and legends that have sprouted about carrots in the past few centuries (sorry, they are not going to improve your eyesight).

They will, however, provided a pop of color and a dash of sweetness to any meal. Ottolenghi provides a recipe for whole roasted carrots, and the EYB Library contains other gems like these Member favorites:

• Curry-roasted carrots with carrot top gremolata [Kay Chun] from Dinner Special by Food & Wine Magazine (pictured above)
• Spicy Moroccan carrot salad from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
• Spicy tahini, butter and maple glazed carrots from Short Stack Vol. 23: Tahini by Adeena Sussman
• Roasted carrot tart with carrot-green pesto  from EatingWell Magazine
• Italian carrot cake (Torta di carote) from Super Tuscan by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar
• Maple glazed carrots with smoky walnut gremolata from A Good Carrot
• Butter-braised carrots and fennel with orange zest from The Washington Post by Molly Stevens