There is abundant variety when it comes to cooking veg – I always like to stretch my creativity in the kitchen and this was born on a typical ‘what can I do to make carrots exciting today’ thought train… So, I started by chopping them long ways, then when deciding what to do with all of these long carrot strips, this ‘stack’ idea emerged, inspired by the French Daphinois potato dish of layered potatoes with butter, whisked egg and cream. This is of course a little different I wasn’t really digging the egg / carrot combo as an idea.
Carrots are really high in vitamin A, but for our bodies to convert vitamin A, we need to enjoy that carrot along with a quality, healthy fat. So whether you use butter, ghee or macadamia oil for the dairy free eaters, you will be maximising your vitamin A benefit from the gorgeous, humble carrot while tucking into this.
Serving suggestions: Serve it as a side to a roast meat or fish or for a vegetarian idea, serve a bigger portion on a bed of rocket drizzled with olive oil and fresh lemon juice, with a few dollops of goat’s curd and toasted nuts. Either way, or a way of your own, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Let me know how you enjoy it! I love getting comments back here and they inspire others to try new things!
Fragrant Baked Carrot Stack Recipe
Ingredients
Equipment needed
- 1 loaf tin
- parchment paper I use If You Care
Main ingredients
- 4 large carrots (5 if medium)
- 5 sprigs thyme
- 1/4 cup melted butter / ghee / macadamia oil
- 3 cloves garlic, super finely chopped (omit if you follow a low FODMAP diet and use 1/4 cup of green spring onion tips instead)
- 2 tbsp goat’s curd (optional)
- 2 small pinches himalayan / celtic sea salt
- 2 tsp rice malt syrup / honey / maple syrup
Instructions
- Cut your carrots long ways and as thin as you can into big long slices, the length of the carrot
- Preheat the oven on 170C / 350F
- Arrange some parchment inside your loaf tin, coming up the sides of the tin also. I use this parchment to avoid chlorine, bleach and petroleum based wax https://www.aussiehealthproducts.com.au/if-you-care-parchment-baking-paper-sheets-24-sheets.php - It's more expensive BUT you can just wash down with a sponge and reuse to get the value out of it!
- Lay down a couple of layers, alternative thick / thin / taller / shorter slices on top of each other.
- Pop a pinch of chopped garlic, a pinch of salt, a few little thyme leaves (no stalk), a few little drops of sweetness and a drizzle of butter / other fat onto those 2-3 layers
- Repeat until your ingredients run out.
- Fold your parchment over the surface and place a heavy, thick glass jar or a few knives or pastry weights on top, to weigh down the carrots as they cook and squish them into their terrine shape.
- Bake for 1 hour still quite firm, or 1.5 hours soft, on 170C / 340F
- Voila! Remove carefully wearing oven gloves, Unfold the parchment from around the sides, and cut with a very sharp knife to serve.
- THERMOMIX USERS: If your vessel is shallow enough, I dare say this would cook a whole lot faster in the varoma section of the TM. Try steaming 25 mins on Varoma temp with a good 500ml water in the main compartment. I’ve not done it yet this way, so whoever fancies confirming a time for TM users, feel free to let me know!
