As the weather warms up or cools down, that should not mean that turning on the oven to roast vegetables or eating green salads or steamed broccoli are the only options to eat wonderful seasonal vegetables. Instead look to your grill – stove top grill pan or even an outdoor barbecue to quickly transform vegetables into smoky and irresistibly colourful versions of themselves. Carrots are one of my favourites on the grill with their charred caramelised flavour needing just a squeeze of citrus, fresh herbs and a drizzle of good aromatic oil to compose a simple but delicious side dish.
I fell in love with grilled carrots last year, when I some family members dropped by at my place and decided to stay for dinner. I had enough ingredients for the quinoa loaf for protein dish and couple of bunched of carrots and some zucchini. I had this creative spell to grill the carrots and replace the carrots in quinoa load with zucchini for a change. It turned out to be a delicious meal without the stress of pre-panning meals and the rush to shop before cooking. Smoky and sweet, the charred carrots are absolutely addictive when with a miso-sesame dressing, or almost any combination of fresh herbs and citrus juice.
If you don’t have a grill pan or outdoor grill, you can also char the carrots in a cast iron pan to achieve a similar effect. Either way the recipe takes about ten minutes to make and turns out to be a softened snap and sweet dish of carrots with smoky flavour that I just can’t get enough of.
Serves: 4
Grilled Carrots with Infused Olive Oil
Ingredients
- 2 bunches baby carrots scrubbed and washed
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp pine nuts to serve
Instructions
- Crush 1 twig of thyme in olive oil in a small bowl and set aside.
- Dry roast pine nuts in a frying pan, griddle or under the grill until light brown.
- Trim fibrous ends from the baby carrots.
- In a bowl toss the carrots with a drizzle of oil and 1/4 tsp salt and the other thyme twig crushed.
- Preheat grill pan or outdoor grill over medium-high heat.
- Place carrots on the grill and cook until the carrots caramelise and develop sear marks (4-5 minutes). Flip and grill for another 4-5 minutes until charred all over. Carrots will be softened with a bit of crunch in the middle.
- Transfer the grilled carrots on a serving platter. Sprinkle salt and pepper and drizzle lemon juice and the thyme infused olive oil on the top.
- Serve warm or at room temperature sprinkled with roasted pine nuts.
Recipe Notes
Other acid and herb or spice combinations such as lime juice + coriander, balsamic vinegar + continental parsley, and orange juice + cumin also compliment grilled carrots really well. Another wonderful seasoning miso-lime dressing adds a great Asian flavour to the char grilled vegetables.
