This is a fantastic vegetarian/vegan roasted carrot & apple recipe with honey and rosemary.
You might ask yourself, well how good can you possible make carrots and apples? And do they even go together?
Like any good or great food, you have to start off with great tasting organic carrots and apples. Rosemary, believe it or not, actually goes with both ingredients as well. What about honey? Sure! What about something that offsets the sweetness? What about pepper? Pink peppercorns!
This is how a dish evolves for a chef. I went a little further by adding orange zest, white balsamic, and roasted garlic. The first thing Jp said to me when I went into the dining room to collect his empty plate was. Put this one in your vegetarian recipe book. This should be page one! This was fantastic! There is a little bit of work to present it in a artistic way but the cooking process is fairly easy. Here is the recipe I hope you enjoy it!
Roasted Carrots with Rosemary, Honey, and Apple
- 1 1/2 lb baby carrots
- 3 tbsp pink peppercorns
- 4 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp white balsamic
- 8 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp rosemary (chopped and flowers)
- 1 whole orange (zested)
- 1 salt (to taste)
- 2 whole fuji apples (peeled and sliced)
- 3 tbsp chives (chopped)
How to roast carrots and apples
-
In a bowl add olive oil, white balsamic, and honey. Season with salt and whisk together well. In a large bowl add carrots, 4 tbsp of olive oil-honey dressing, half of the crushed peppercorns, orange zest, chopped rosemary, and season with salt. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and pour everything on to the pan.
Place in 350 degree preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the carrots are just cooked through. Take out and cool completely. Then take carrots and slice 1/8 inch lengthwise. Take about 10 slices of carrots and lay them flat overlapping them in a straight line on your cutting board going left to right.
Take your apple slices and cut them in half lengthwise and lay the same amount of slices of apple on top of the carrots. Stand the carrots and apple slices up on its side and starting at one end, roll the slices into the center.
Continue the same process all the way down as you create a apple-carrot “rose” shape. Place that rose inside a round 4 inch ring mold. Fill in any empty spaces in the ring mold with more carrot and apple slices. Place the filled ring mold on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Continue the same process until you have 4 portions.
To finish
-
Take 2 tbsp of olive oil-honey dressing and spoon over the 4 portions. Then take a little more crushed pink peppercorns and season over the top of the carrot-apple rose. Place the sheet pan with the 4 portions into the 350 degree oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes until the apples are just tender.
Take the sheet pan out. Place one ring mold on each plate. Carefully remove the ring mold. Spoon over the remaining 2 tbsp of dressing over the 4 portions. Garnish the warm salad with rosemary flowers and chives. Serve and enjoy!
