Spring Baby Carrots are a Treat
When the produce is so gorgeous it calls out to you, you just need to get it home and bring it to its full expression of greatness. That’s why I made Roasted Baby Carrots with Carrot Top-Pistachio Pesto.
Simple is good. Especially when it comes to the freshest vegetables, straight out of the ground. That’s why I snatched up these gorgeous baby carrots at the Farmers Market. Full of sweet carrot flavor, these little gems need no cheffy tricks or ingredients. No, with fresh, fluffy greens, they came with their own sauce.
Once I got them home, I immersed them in cool water to loosen the soil clinging to them, and let them drink up a little water if they were thirsty. Then, I trimmed and stems about 3/4 inch from the tops of the carrots, so they would look pretty when roasted. Then, the only real effort on my part was rubbing each one with a nubby towel to rub off a little skin and any remaining dirt. That was it.
Roasted Baby Carrots are Sweet and Tender
Olive oil, salt and heat were all I needed for the carrots. While they roasted, I made a quick pesto from the greens, pistachios, garlic, oil and salt. You can feel free to use another nut or seed, whatever you have on hand. I could have made a quadruple batch, with all the nice greens on that bunch, and kept the leftover bit in the fridge, to use all week long. I opted to use the greens like parsley in my salads and soups this week.
Roasted baby carrots were the star of our dinner, and there were no leftovers!
I hope your Farmers Market has some beautiful baby carrots for you this week, so you can try this dish.
Roasted Carrots with Carrot Top-Pistachio Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 bunch tiny new carrots cleaned, with greens
- 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup pistachios
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.Clean the carrots, trim the stems to 1/2 inch long. Measure 1/2 cup of the freshest leaves. Scrub the carrots with a terry towel. Place on a sheet pan, drizzle with a bit of the olive oil and roast for 10 minutes, then turn the carrots and roast for 10 minutes longer, depending on the size of the carrots. They should be very tender and browned.
- In a spice grinder or food processor, grind the pistachios, carrot tops and garlic until finely minced. Add salt and oil, process to desired smoothness. Add more oil if too thick to drizzle.
- Serve the carrots drizzled with the pesto, and more pesto on the side for dipping.
