by Chef Adam Lambay
Cooked carrots aren’t a first choice for most people but that’s because they aren’t usually well prepared. But this carrot dish is the exception. With just sage and mustard seed Adam has infused these carrots with so much flavor and texture. They are tender, but not mushy. You’ll have a whole new appreciation for carrots. Eat your veg!
Ingredients:
2 lbs Fresh Carrots
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Tbsp Mustard Seeds
1/2 Cup Fresh Sage Leaves, packed, divided
Peel the carrots and cut them in half lengthwise if they are fat enough to cut in half. Those that are small like a finger you should leave whole. You might even have a few where the shoulders are big enough that you need to cut them into quarters. The goal is to have all the carrots about the same thickness so they cook evenly. I also like to leave a little bit of the green stem on for visual appeal.
You want to use a very heavy roasting pan. If you have an enamel coated cast iron roaster that works best. But go with your heaviest bottomed pot that has a tight fitting lid. Put it over very high heat and add your oil. It will seem like a lot of oil but it’s going to act as our flavoring agent. You add spice to oil and then the spices temper and create flavored oil and then that flavors whatever you’re cooking. You want your oil to get so hot you think, “I’m going to burn my house down!” When you see the smoke grab that heavy lid and get ready. As soon as you add the mustard seed immediately turn the temp to low. The mustard seeds are going to explode when they hit that oil so protect yourself and keep them in the pan with the lid. Immediately add the carrots and sprinkle with half the sage leaves and cover with the heavy lid. It’s really important to have a heavy lid because we need to capture the moisture in the carrots so they steam.
The carrots will take about 20 minutes on low heat in the heavy covered casserole. Resist the temptation to take the lid off to peak at them. You want to keep all that moisture in the pan. About 10 minutes into the cooking time quickly stir the carrots and immediately cover with the lid and then leave alone for another 10 minutes. After 20 minutes total cooking time you can check for doneness.
When the carrots are done turn off the heat and pull out the old sage leaves. Sprinkle with fresh leaves. Don’t eat the sage leaves as they are leathery but they do impart a lot of flavor and aroma.
Note: These would reheat really well. You could make these in the morning and take to a BBQ or potluck that afternoon or evening and just reheat.
Serves 8 – approx. 11g net carbs per serving.
Note: A Life Well Eaten follows diabetic educator guidelines for determining net carbs.
Suggested formula is total carbs minus half the fiber, i.e. 16g carbs and 4g fiber would be 14g net carbs. The food industry determines net carbs as total carbs minus fiber which would come in at 12g net carbs.