Roasted Carrots with Harissa Labneh and Hazelnut Dukkah

This is a recipe that took me a little outside my comfort zone.  Middle Eastern flavors are definitely new to my palette; adjusting to the spices used and brand-new ingredients I’ve never heard of or tasted before has been an exciting, if not a little scary, adventure.  Let’s do this together!

I’ve never been a fan of cooked carrots.  Give me raw carrots all day with some veggie dip or to add to noodle bowls for some crunch, but leave the cooked carrots for someone who doesn’t care about what food tastes like.  I think I’ve had one too many mushy, flavorless experiences with boiled baby carrots to truly understand what a cooked carrot could really be.  The this recipe for example: we are going to roast them until the sugars begin to caramelize, but the carrots still retain some texture and snap.  I used the beautiful multi-colored carrots that sometimes show up in the stores or farmers’ markets, but you can definitely use all orange carrots if that’s what you can find.

Serve these beautiful sweet babies over a bed of cool and spicy harissa labneh, which is the perfect foil for the sweet carrots.  Remember that we’ve made both homemade harissa and labneh here before?  Perfect time to whip up those recipes in your own kitchen!

And dukkah is the condiment you never knew you needed.  It’s a toasted nut, seed and spice mixture that is perfect as an earthy and crunchy complement to just about anything.  This version has toasted hazelnuts, sesame seed, and cumin and coriander seeds.  You can change up any of the ingredients for new combinations-use a different kind of nut, add other seeds and spices…the options are endless.  Sprinkle on anything that needs some crunch or texture, coat fish or chicken in it, or mix it into vegetable sides or salads.  Experiment with it!

I think I’m starting to change my mind on cooked carrots.  Before this, I even made a to-die-for carrot tart that did some serious damage to my carrot-hating psyche.  I dream of living in a world where mushy boiled or steamed carrots have no place on our tables.

[tasty-recipe id=”31745″]