Fortune favoured me when I found myself at the allotment the same time as my neighbour Derek last week.
D – do you want some carrots?
Me – to eat?
D – yes, just dig some out
Me – brilliant, thank you (very excitedly)
I love making hearty autumnal soups and stews using carrots but eating freshly picked home grown carrots raw when the wind is howling and the rain is hammering the windows is like taking a mouthful of summer sunshine and breathing in blue skies. Scrubbed up beautifully didn’t they.
One of my favourite ways of preserving the natural sweetness of carrots is to saute them in a little butter or oil sprinkled with cumin seeds (add a splash of water or vegetable stock if they start to catch). They’re especially nice when the carrots are small enough to cook whole and with the skins on. Delicious.
(On the rare occasion I have more carrots than I know what to do with my favourite way to use carrots in a preserves recipe is making Curried Carrot and Apple chutney. If you find yourself with carrots coming out of your ears take a look at my 5 ways with a ton of carrots post.
PIN it for later…
They do look good, soon there will be no more. So savour the flavour and Enjoy. I love the warmth cumin adds to vegetables.
Thanks for the virtual hug, it was appreciated… my greenhouse, my poor greenhouse.
I like the part where you ask him, ‘to eat ?’. What else were you thinking, Nic ?
They did scrub up beautifully and look heavenly plate side.
Oh how lovely! Yum yum!
I struggle to grow carrots which don’t get ‘got’ by the carrot fly – I won’t give up though, another ‘challenge’ for next year!
Gorgeous! So lucky to have great gardening friends!
MC – they taste as good as summer carrots which is a total surprise for this time of year. Certainly savouring :o)
Miss M – seemed perfectly sane from inside my head {grin}. We ate the last of our carrots in August so I was expecting them to be ‘real’ carrots yet an offer of seed would have been just as surprising for this time of year. Derek’s had them under a cloche which is why they’ve survived the autumn weather.
Hazel – I have a theory about not attracting carrot fly by not thinning out the seedlings – see carrot post here. I shall certainly be sowing carrots early and late next year – you can never have too many ;o)
Kirsten – I am indeed. Gardeners have big generous hearts x
Lucky you, never had any luck growing carrots but will try again. The way you cook them looks a nice change from just boiled.
[…] apple and carrot chutney was another foraging delight: made using Derek’s carrots and some windfall apples from a new friend at the local leisure centre. Long story short, Keith […]