Carrots: a Super Versatile Veggie

Heleen Meyer shows us how to make the most of carrots. The naturally sweet flavour of carrots allows you to do so many things with them, whether they are raw or cooked. You can boil, blanch, stir-fry, roast and even bake with them.

Grated carrots are fabulous to add that natural sweetness and bulk to a fish cake or meatball mixture, mince or soups and even a slaw. Add thick slices to stews for some added colour and texture or chop it finer and add to a savoury rice dish. Carrots that are cut into ribbons using a vegetable peeler, look beautiful in a salad. This basic veg is a crunchy element to add to a lunchbox or to enjoy as a snack dipped into hummus, cottage cheese or guacamole.

Add a little extra punch to cooked carrots by seasoning them with different flavours. Orange, aniseed, cumin, dill, fennel, ginger, and curry powder are just a few seasonings that work well with carrots. Try Oriental flavours like soya sauce, ginger or lemongrass and sweeter seasonings like honey, cinnamon and nutmeg are perfect choices. In this recipe, caraway seeds are used and work exceptionally well, but you can replace them with cumin seeds if you prefer.

A tasty side

In this easy, delicious side dish, the naturally sweet taste of carrots and sweet potatoes is even better when these veggies are roasted in the oven. Serve this simple but very flavourful side dish with braaied fish, pork or grilled chicken.

Roasted carrots & sweet potatoes

Recipe by Heleen Meyer, adapted from Make five/Maak vyf

Serves 6

250 g small carrots, whole

250 g medium carrots, peeled and quartered length-wise

4 small sweet potatoes in the skin, cut into wedges

3 cloves garlic, sliced

45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil

10 ml (2 tsp) caraway seeds

15 ml (1 tbsp) honey or soft brown sugar

handful fresh mint leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Place all the ingredients, except the mint, in a large mixing bowl and mix to coat the veggies with oil.
2. Place the veggies on a large baking tray lined with baking paper and roast 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. The time will depend on the size of the veggies. Serve with fresh mint.

Tips

1. Use this recipe to roast butternut in the same way.
2. Use cumin seeds if caraway seeds are not available. It will give a completely different flavour but will be just as delicious.

Image by Adel Ferreira, for LiG Tydskrif. Visit Heleen’s website for more recipes like this.