While summer is quickly coming to an end, our garden is still producing a bumper crop of fresh, tender fingerling carrots. What better way to complement their sweetly herbaceous flavor than to pair them with fresh mint – and a generous drizzle of Earthy Delights Balsamic Cream.
Is it just our imagination, or did the fresh mint somehow tease out even more of the complex notes from the balsamic cream? There’s only one way to find out. Make this simple, yet enormously flavorful recipe yourself.
Fire-Roasted Carrots with Mint & Balsamic Cream
This dish is at its absolute best when you use just-pulled carrots from the garden.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb fresh fingerling carrots
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- 2 Tbsp Earthy Delights Crema di Balsamico (Balsamic Cream)
- 10 – 12 fresh mint leaves, sliced into thin “chiffonade” (see below)
Preparation:
Preheat the grill to medium high.
Rinse the carrots well under cold running water, scrubbing gently to remove soil. You can peel them in you want, but if the carrots are nice and fresh, you really don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t). Trim the tops to about 1/2 inch long. Trim away any long rootlets. Toss the carrots with the olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper and set aside for a moment.
Slice the mint into chiffonade. Here’s how:
“Chiffonade” is a French word that literally means “little ribbons,” which is an accurate description of the time-honored (and very effective) technique for slicing fresh herbs or greens into long, even strips. It’s particularly good for slicing leafy herbs, such as mint, basil or sage. It’s really not that hard to do. First, rinse the herbs, pat dry and remove the stems. Then stack the leaves, lining them up in the same direction and roll them tightly, cigar-style. Using a sharp knife, slice the rolled leaves into even strips. Voila! (That’s also French.)
When the grill is hot, arrange the carrots across the grates and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes, turning frequently. When the carrots have become “al dente” in texture and are slightly browned on all sides with nice grill marks, remove them to a serving dish. Drizzle generously with the balsamic cream and sprinkle with the mint chiffonade.
Many of the ingredients used in this recipe, and other recipes on the Earthy Delights Blog, can be purchased online at our retail website, Earthy.com. We welcome you to visit the Earthy.com website to view our extensive selection of hard-to-find ingredients and our complete Recipe Collection of over 500 tested recipes.
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