Roasted carrots with chilli & pomegranate

December 16, 2018

Here's another recipe from Simple, something I picked out to boost a meal of leftovers. It's carrots, roasted fast and hot in a dressing of butter and chilli, then finished off with a squeeze of citrus juice and a scattering of pomegranate seeds. 

Its simplicity lies in its capacity for substitutions: we lacked harissa but found regular pureed chilli, fell back on lime juice in the fridge instead of buying a lemon. And though it's not vegan as described, vegetable oil and maple/golden syrup are obvious alternatives that would make it so. Pomegranates aren't exactly pantry ingredients or easily substitutable, but they should always be considered an optional Ottolenghi flourish.

We enjoyed this so much (and had so many leftover pomegranate seeds!) that I made it twice in a week, successfully impressing some visiting family on the second round. It's a nice reminder that it's sometimes worth adding an extra five minutes and grab of household ingredients to roasting veges; something we do weekly with just salt and pepper.

Roasted carrots with chilli & pomegranate
(slightly adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's Simple)

800g baby carrots
20g butter
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons rose harissa or other chilli paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
generous squeeze of lemon or lime juice
seeds of half a pomegranate
salt

Preheat an oven to 230°C.

Wash and trim the carrots; slice them lengthways if they're very thick. Place them in a large baking dish.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then turn off the heat. Whisk in the cumin seeds, honey, chilli paste and olive oil. Pour this dressing over the carrots and toss them around to evenly coat them.

Roast the carrots for about 15 minutes, until they're beginning to brown but still firm. Squeeze over the lemon/lime juice and scatter over the pomegranate seeds, then serve.