Carrots with garlic persillade

I used a mix of orange and red carrots, leaving the skins on the red carrots for contrast.

If you think you don’t like cooked carrots, I understand. There are lots of cooked carrots in this world I don’t like either. Many of them are still lurking in those frozen vegetable mixes in the store, fairly flavorless orange blobs that get mushy on the outside before they get cooked on the inside. Those seem like a terrible thing to do to a formerly fresh carrot.

But after trying cooked carrots again as an adult in control of the recipe, they have their places in the food pantheon, either steamed, stir-fried to tender crisp or roasted to caramelly goodness. (Among my favorites is the Tunisian carrot salad from Jan. 1996 Bon Appetit.) This recipe was respectable, although I wondered what adding a little red pepper flakes might do ….

Fresh carrots with a garlicky persillade

Adapted from “The I Love to Cook Book” by Lauren Groveman

Ingredients:

3 pounds carrots, sliced on the bias

3 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup chicken stock or other broth

2 teaspoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter

Method:

Steam carrots, stopping the cooking a minute ahead of when they would be fully cooked. Drain and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. (I used a steamer bag to cook the carrots in the microwave and just plunked the bag into the freezer right away.)

Combine minced garlic and parsley. Stir in olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste.

Heat butter, sugar, stock and carrots in a large skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until the liquid evaporates, the carrots are fully cooked and you’re starting to see some color, about 10 minutes or so. Stir in persillade mixture and cook for another minute.

Rating: Fine enough. Decent counterpoint to a meat and potatoes meal.

Do ahead tips: You can mix up the persillade and steam the carrots the day before, then proceed with the skillet portion of the recipe.