Here is an easy middle eastern inspired carrot recipe that packs a punch in the flavor category. Dukkah is a middle eastern spice mix consisting of nuts, seeds, and spices. The recipe can easily be alternated with different nuts or spices to give you all kinds of different flavor profiles. It can be used on any kind of protein or vegetable so it is very versatile and pretty simple to make.
In most cases you would roast all of the nuts, spices, and seeds and then coarsely grind together to make your spice mix. In this case I didn’t do that because I ended up roasting the spice mix with the carrots so I didn’t want the spice mix to burn, therefore I didn’t go with the traditional route for preparing the spice mix. Here is the recipe I hope you enjoy it!
Recipe Ingredients
Dukkah spice
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
½ cup hazelnuts
2 tbsp almonds
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 tbsp coriander seeds
3 tbsp sesame seeds, white
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp green peppercorns
1 tbsp sweet paprika powder
2 tbsp sesame seeds, black
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 lb of globe carrots
6 tbsp of olive oil plus 3-4 tbsp of dukkah
2 oz of manouri cheese
1 oz of fresh dill
Recipe Instructions
How to make dukkah,
Place nuts in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are ground up fairly small but not into butter. Place all the spices and seeds into a coffee grinder and coarse grind. Then mix everything together really well with salt.
How to roast Carrots,
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take your carrots and cut them all in half after they have been washed and cleaned. Then take a small bowl and pour in olive oil and 3-4 tbsp of dukkah, mix well. Then on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper spread out the carrots. Take your olive oil-dukkah mixture and spoon all over the carrots generously. Season the carrots with a sprinkling of salt and then place them in the oven for 25 minutes. The dukkah should toast and almost become crunchy during the roasting process. It adds a nice contrast to the finish carrots which become soft when cooked.
To Finish
Simply place all of the carrots on the plate. Take the dukkah that has become crunchy on the sheet pan and place all on top of the carrots (if it has fallen off). Take diced up pieces of manouri cheese and place around the carrots. Finish with a little drizzle of olive oil and dill sprigs. Serve and enjoy! ( An alternative could also be to take 3 tbsp of dukkah and mix with 1/2 cup of yogurt and place that underneath the carrots as a “sauce”).
