Roasted Carrot Salad Recipe with Avocado and Croutons ? Strangely Delicious

This is one recipe that has actually sat in our queue for a while – I wasn’t sure that I wanted to post it, but eventually decided to.  It’s certainly a delicious sounding dish when you look at it, and it was good, though I think it would’ve been even better if we had worked a little bit harder on making the dressing right – perhaps even incorporating some avocado and the sour cream into the dressing…ok, enough of my tangent…let me explain what I mean:

First of all, roasted carrots are delicious.  Hell, I think all root vegetables that you season well and roast in the oven for a while are pretty damn hard to beat…but carrots have a special place in my heart.  I’ve loved them since I was a kid, when my Mom used to poach them and then mix them with some butter, salt and a touch of honey.  I’ve begun to experiment with some other methods of cooking the vegetable, and this recipe deals with some smoky, sweet, savory flavors in it’s seasoning.

Once the carrots are roasted, we took the croutons from the no mayo Caesar Salad post that Aimee did a while back and add them to the salad, along with some creamy avocado and lettuce.  I recommend the carrot/avocado combination for sure, but I might serve those two on their own without the rest.  In any case, here’s what we did:

~1 lb. organic carrots (can be varying colors) – washed
2 avocados – peeled, cored and sliced into generous sections
3-4 slices of good sourdough, ciabatta, baguette or foccacia bread – something you like!
1-2 hearts of romaine lettuce – roughly chopped

Small handful of Sesame seeds
Small bunch of Thyme – leaves picked and chopped
4 cloves fresh garlic – roughly chopped
2 Tbsp. whole cumin seeds
1 Tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
Around 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp. sour cream
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. honey
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and fresh black pepper

Start with the carrots, as they’ll take the longest to cook.  Boil a pot of salter water and preheat the oven to 375 F.  Once the water is boiling, add the carrots (cutting some of them on a bias it they’re large) and cook for around 10-12 minutes until they basically cooked through.

Meanwhile, toast your cumin seeds in a separate pan until they’re fragrant and then transfer them to a mortar and pestle and crunch them up.  Add the chili flakes, salt and some pepper and continue to combine.  Finally add the thyme, lemon zest and 2 cloves of the garlic and combine further along with a small splash of olive oil and vinegar – you want sort of a paste consistency that will nicely coat the carrots.

Drain the carrots once they’re cooked and mix them in a large bowl with the spice mixture that you prepared.  Then place the carrots on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes or until they’re colored to your liking (I like my carrots a bit darker…).

While the carrots are roasting, prepare the croutons and the dressing.  Cut your bread into medium cubes and start a pan over medium heat and add a good glug of olive oil.  Add the other 2 cloves of garlic and cook them until they’ve turned a light brown color, then remove and add the bread.  Cook the bread, letting it get coated by the oil until it’s turned a nice golden brown, then kill the heat and season with some salt.  You can also read about cooking croutons in the Caesar Salad post.

You can also prepare the dressing at this point too.  Simply add the mustard and lemon juice to a small bowl and mix together.  Then chop/mush up the cooked garlic and and add that to the dressing.  Add some salt and pepper and the honey and whisk together.  You can then add the sour cream and whisk in a drizzle of olive oil to emulsify.  This should leave you with a creamy vinaigrette – adjust seasonings to taste.

Combine the avocado, roasted carrots, croutons and romaine lettuce and mix with the dressing.  Toss in the sesame seeds and serve.  You can [optionally] finish with a little more sour cream on top.  Enjoy!