Honey-Roasted Carrots With Dates, Dandelions & Moroccan Dressing
This salad is a little bit Moroccan in inspiration, with its emphasis on the underlying sweetness of roasted carrots, fudgy nuggets of Medjool dates and a splash of orange fl ower water in the spicy dressing. We like to use a mixture of different coloured heirloom varieties of carrot, when we can fi nd them, but otherwise, we’ll use smaller Dutch carrots that come with their greenery still intact
Ingredients
- 60 g 2 ¼ oz hazelnuts
- 400 g 14 oz baby carrots (heirloom varieties, ideally), with tops attached
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 2 tbsp thyme leaves
- salt and freshly ground black
- pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot fi nely sliced
- 55 g 2 oz (2 generous handfuls) dandelion leaves or watercress leaves, well washed and roughly sliced
- 6 Medjool dates pitted and diced
- 80 g 2 ¾ oz soft goat’s cheese, roughly crumbled
Moroccan dressing
- 1 clove garlic crushed with
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp sweet paprika
- ¼ tsp Turkish red chilli flakes
- juice of 1 lemon
- drizzle of honey
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- splash of orange fl ower water optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 0C (400 0F).
- Scatter the hazelnuts into a small baking tray and roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, or until the skins darken and they start to smell toasty.
- Tip into a tea towel and rub away the skins.
- Chop the nuts roughly and set aside.
- Scrub (or peel) the carrots well, leaving the tops and wispy end bits attached.
- Make sure you winkle out any bits of soil that can lodge in and around the stalks.
- Arrange the carrots in a heavy-based roasting tin, drizzle with honey and pomegranate molasses, scatter on the thyme leaves and season well.
- Toss them with the oil and roast for 25–30 minutes, or until well browned and cooked through.
- A little crunchy caramelization around the skinny ends is a good thing
- Remove from the oven and set aside.
- While the carrots are roasting, make the dressing.
- Put all theingredients in a clean jar with a lid and shake together.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the shallot, dandelion leaves, dates and hazelnuts.
- Add the warm carrots and enough dressing to coat everything lightly.
- Add the crumbled cheese and serve straight away, ideally while the carrots are still warm.