Tri-Color Carrots with Ricotta and Toasted Seeds

I love rustic looking food, and earthy flavors. Which is one of the many reasons I love this dish!

The colors of the carrots play beautifully over the smattering of the white ricotta underneath, and are accented by the variety of nuts and seeds that dress the top.

Some people don’t like cooked carrots, because they end up being a bit bitter, or bland. Not these! These carrots are buttery, sweet, salty, and mouth watering!

Ingredients:

One bundle of tri or quad colored carrots.

Ricotta (as much as you personally might enjoy! I use about a full cup)

Honey (a drizzle, or about 1 tbs)

1/4 cup seeds variety (I recommend using chia, sesame, sunflower, pinenuts, and pumpkin)

2 1/2 tbs butter (divided)

Olive oil (just a drizzle)

Sesame seed oil (if available)

Salt & Pepper

If you want to impress with looks on this dish, you could leave the carrots as raw as possible, not peeling, and cutting just the greens off the top. I peeled and trimmed my carrots. It doesn’t make them as pretty, but I’d rather eat clean, and not have to work around parts of my food when I’m hungry!

Preheat oven to 350*.

Sauteé carrots

Heat a large, oven safe, pan to medium/high heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil, and 2 tbs of butter. Add carrots and toss in oil and butter until they are coated. Season with salt and pepper. The higher your heat the more you’ll get that pretty, rustic, char on your carrots! I also don’t toss my carrots constantly. I wait for a bit and turn them a couple to a few times part way through as they cook. Cook for about 5-7 minutes depending on how thick your carrots are.

Salt and pepper once more, and move your carrots to the oven to cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, again, depending on how thick or thin your carrots are. You can always give them a little fork test before placing in the oven to see if their centers are still very firm, or becoming soft. By the very end of cooking, you’ll want the carrots to be soft, but definitely not mushy!

Toast the seeds…

While the carrots cook, place the remaining butter in the pan, and a small drizzle of sesame seed oil. If you don’t have sesame seed oil, then leave it out and just toss in butter. The sesame seed oil adds an amazing, warming flavor to the seeds. Warm over a medium heat. Add seeds, toss and coat in butter/oil, and cook for 2 minutes, tossing often, until seeds are just a touch golden and fragrant.

Ready to serve!

You can plate this dish as a table sharing dish, or on individual plates. Whether you’re dividing your carrots or leaving them on one plate, you’ll want to put a smattering of ricotta underneath them. I like to serve them as a bundle on one sharing plate.

Place ricotta on plate using a spoon. You can smooth it out, or leave it lumpy.

Drizzle honey over the ricotta. (Divide honey and ricotta if you are plating on separate plates per person.)

Place warm carrots on top of the bed of ricotta. For the pièce de résistance, drop seeds on top of carrots. If you prefer less seeds, then just sprinkle as many as you’d like on top. I personally find the seeds are what make this dish stand out, so I like to use them all.

Garnish with flake salt if you have it!