What to Cook When You Have too Many Carrots

Carrot and quinoa fritters; lazy white bean and carrot soup; roasted carrot, radicchio, Manchego and almond salad

I ended up with an absurd amount of carrots in my fridge this week.

This is (some of) how I used them…carrot cake still to come!

My kitchen in February…

Roasted Carrot, radicchio, Manchego and almond salad

Lazy Carrot and White Bean Soup

A recipe that is as lazy as the dish itself, seems only appropriate.

Grab a deep-ish roasting tray. Cut up 3-4 large carrots, 1 onion and a stick of celery. Toss with salt and olive oil and throw them all in a 400F (200C) oven. After 30 minutes throw in 3 cloves of garlic, skin and all. Wait until veg is gently caramelised, very soft and smells really good. Squeeze the garlic out of the skin, throw away the skin. Add some white beans (about 2 cups) and their cooking liquid (see this post for bean cooking method)and put back in the oven until it is all gently bubbling. Give it a rough purée (I live on the wild side and used my stick blender straight into baking tray, happy to report not much splashing) season to taste then spoon it into a bowl and top with herbs (I had dill) and plain yogurt, harissa if you have some.

Apologies for the blurry night-kitchen photos...1) soup mix cooked and ready to blend; 2) post blend- I like to keep it a little textured

Carrot and Quinoa Fritters

These are a kind of mash-up of a falafel and something I used to make from a Hare Krishna cookbook. Like many things I cook, they came about by having an odd assortment of things that needed using in my fridge. They make a great little snack or cocktail appetizer or a filling for a pita wrap with some herby yoghurt and shredded cabbage, maybe some cucumber and raw onion if you fancy. They also happen to be vegan and gluten free as well as delicious and not full of questionable ingredients…a kind of unicorn in the world of dietary restrictions!

I like to use this as a base for using up odd things in my vegetable drawer…today I added the tops from a bunch of radishes, washed well and finely chopped. I added a little extra chickpea flour and water to cover the extra filling. Grated beets are also good in place of the carrots, you can substitute the curry powder for caraway, cumin or fennel seeds too or omit the spices altogether (beet with caraway is a good combination, especially if you use sour cream rather than yoghurt for the dip).

To make the quinoa, I always cook at least a cup at a time, then use any leftovers in a salad throughout the week: Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add a large pinch of salt and a cup of quinoa. Cover and turn down the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep covered for another 10 minutes. Stir to fluff and then cover for another 5 mins.

When cooking these, don’t skimp of the oil. You will use as much, if not more oil, if you try to just put a little in the pan. You also won’t achieve the delicate crisp exterior if you skimp on the oil, making for a fritter that is stodgy and dry rather than crisp and moist. Contrary to popular belief, olive oil is perfectly good for deep or shallow frying, provided it doesn’t get too too hot- which frankly is pretty hard unless you walk away and forget about it. 350F (180C) is a pretty sweet spot for frying these, though I never bother with a thermometer.