Roasted carrots with garlic tahini sauce are wonderful when served with Roast Leg of Lamb! I feel like I don’t share enough side dishes, which is strange because in my opinion they often make the meal! I love vegetables and here is my promise to post more recipes including them. This recipe for roasted carrots is one of our favourites and not actually because of the carrots but because of the garlicky lemon tahini sauce they come with. This sauce is magic, it can be used on anything! I mean ANYTHING! If you’ve never tried cooking with tahini, don’t worry, it’s easy to love. If you enjoy hummus, which gets its taste from tahini, you will adore tahini paste!
Roasted carrots
As you can see from the photos, the carrots I used have a bit of extra pizzazz. My grocery called them Unicorn Carrots, although it’s not obvious why they were given this name. But I do love the look of roasted rainbow carrots so no room to be fussy about names! But the colour doesn’t make a huge difference in flavour, so any carrot will do just fine for this recipe. I find that chantenay carrots are particularly good for roasting, but they aren’t available everywhere so just go with whatever is sold near you. Not only is roasting a simple way to cook, but it also enhances flavours by releasing the natural sugars. Carrots are stuffed with sugars so really come out well after roasting. Roasting is a fantastic way to cook a huge range of vegetables. I often choose to roast, whether I’m cooking parsnips, asparagus, butternut squash, or many others.
How can I flavour roasted carrots?
There are so many ways to flavour carrots. You can go with sweet flavours like honey or maple syrup to compliments the sweetness of carrots or savoury to contrast it. I tend to prefer contrast. The garlicky lemon tahini sauce is so versatile, you can drizzle it over any roasted vegetables, use it as a salad dressing or even as a dip. If you find the garlic tahini sauce a bit too thick, its easy to thin it out by adding a splash of water. This can be useful if you want to use it for other purposes. To add another layer of flavour I finished my roasted carrots with a little dusting of sumac. If you are not familiar with sumac, you better change that quickly. It is fragrant, lemony-tasting spice is wonderful on meat and vegetables alike and looks so pretty too! Its slightly tangy flavour goes especially well with the roasted carrots that’s been made even sweeter in the oven!
Storage and leftovers
Cooked vegetables can be kept up to a week in the fridge when stored in an airtight container. The tahini sauce will keep for 3-5 days. Reheating roasted vegetables is simple. They can be warmed up in the microwave but I prefer returning them to the oven. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F and give the vegetables 5-10 minutes or until they are hot all the way through.
