Okay - I don't know how to count this... BUT

Last night I made the following carrot heavy recipes:
Piquant Carrots
Worlds Best Meatloaf

Which both met with huge approval....

And I am making Marilyns Carrot Cake for DHs Birthday celebration this weekend....

Do I qualify? LOL!

Alexa

Coconut-nj, you add milk to the carrots without draining the water? I'm not understanding how "soupy" your recipe is supposed to be.

Lisa, the roasted carrots sound really good, but so does the carrot cumin tart. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Sally

Sally, it's not supposed to be soupy at all. You're basically making a white sauce using the carrot "broth" as the base. After the carrots cook, the liquid has usually come down a little below the level of the carrots, so when adding enough milk to cover the carrots it will turn it white. The great flavor comes from the carrot cooking liquid, which is basically a single vegetable broth. When you add the slurry, you make it nice and thick, then stir in some butter. I just put several tablespoons [or more] of cornstarch into a cup and add enough cold water to dissolve it while stirring. Then when the carrots with liquid come back to a boil/simmer, stir in the slurry while stirring until it gets as thick as you want it. We like it rather thick, but you make it how you like cream sauces. I usually make more slurry than I think I'll need since cornstarch is cheap and I'd rather have more ready then have to go back and make some more if it didn't make it thick enough. I hope I explained this clearly.

I had this salad at a restaurant in Chicago called Russian Tea Time. It's much greater than the sum of its parts.

Tashkent Carrot Salad

Carrots 2 lbs.
Coriander 1 tsp
Garlic 4 cloves
Olive oil 6 T
White vinegar 6 T
Paprika to taste
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Sugar 2 T

Thinly shred carrots, mix with sugar and crushed garlic. Let stand for 10 minutes to get the juices out. Mix with the rest of seasoning. Let marinate for 6 hours. Mix thoroughly before serving as juices tend to collect on the bottom of the dish. Serve chilled. (serves 6)

Your explanation cleared it up for me, Coconut-NJ. Thanks.

Sally

I eat carrots almost every day, and carrot muffins are one of my favorites. I have several recipes. Here's a nice seasonal one.

Maple Carrot Muffins

1 1/2 cups unsifted flour (can use some oatmeal if you like)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (optional, I am a health nut who is always trying to cut the sugar)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup melted margarine (I think butter would be OK too. Or 1/4 cup vegetable oil)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt (or less)
1 cup finely shredded carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (or less)
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Grate carrots and set aside. Combine the carrots with the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and MIX WELL! Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake 18-20 min. (or more)
Cool 5 min.
Store in the fridge because these muffins are moist and they'll mold otherwise.

Notes: The reason I have so many "optional" notes in this recipe is because I am always trying to cut the high calorie/fat ingredients down to the minimum levels without sacraficing good taste. Everyone has their own ideas about this, so you'll have to use your judgement. I am probably on the more "healthy" side of taste, which is not for everyone. Also, I usually use paper lined muffin tins, but if you don't want to do that you have to grease the muffin tins with some type of shortening. With the variability of the baking time, I suggest inserting a toothpick in the muffins to test them. When the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done. But watch carefully, because maple syrup burns easier than white sugar sweetened baked goods. But the taste is worth the trouble, IMHO.

I'm surprised no one has posted a Tsimmes recipe, that classic Jewish mix of carrots, dried fruit and meat. Being vegetarian, it's not something I make, but I actually have a recipe I like, although this is a "company" dish. A "tsimmes" in yiddish is slang for a confusing fuss, lol!

Carbonada Criolla (Argentinian Tsimmes) I think I got this recipe from the Detroit Free Press and I think it came from Joan Nathan.

I make this as a stuffing for baked squash. The best time I ever made it I stuffed a small baked hubbard squash with it. The squash was about the size of a smallish football.

Start by baking the cleaned squash halves at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. I always have trouble baking squash perfectly, so use whatever method works best for you. Meanwhile, make the tsimmes. Traditionally tsimmes is put in an oven or on the back of the stove on the evening of the Sabbath so it will be ready to eat the next day after a long slow cooking, and no more work will have to be put into it. This would work in a crockpot too, I think.

2 TBLSP vegetable oil
2 cups dark red kidney beans, or fake meat or baked or smoked tofu. (The original recipe called for some kind of meat, probably ground chuck?)
1 large coarsely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
1 12 oz. can chopped italian style tomatoes
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes (parboil for faster prep. time)
1 large or 2 small white potatoes (I always cook with Yukon gold, parboil as above if you want)
1 cup vegetable broth
2 med. carrots, large dice
1 small can corn or 2/3 cup from a frozen bag
4-8 pitted prunes (to taste, I like the lesser amount)
4-8 dried peach halves or dried apples

Saute onions, garlic and protein source until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, and veg. broth, bring to a boil then simmer. Add potatoes and carrots. Simmer 30 min. Add some water or more broth if needed. Add corn and fruit, simmer 15 min. more.

Stuff tsimmes into squash, bake in the oven for 15 min. more. You can top this with bread crumbs, parmesean cheese, or grated white cheddar, or any type of mixuture, but it is not necessary. Could also add a dollop of lowfat sour cream and sprinkle with chopped parsley. That's how I like it.

Here's a carrot pie that is lower in fat than that carrot-cumin tart and something I have made before. The recipe comes from "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen.

Russian Carrot Pie

TBLSP butter
1 cup onions, finely minced
1 lb. carrots, very thinly sliced
1 TBLSP unbleached white flour

Saute the onions in butter, add the carrots and cook until tender. Can add up to 3 TBLSP of water to keep from sticking. At the end, sprinkle in the flour to brown slightly.

Combine 1 1/2 cups firm cottage or pot cheese
1/2 cup grated mild white cheddar
1 beaten egg
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. dill weed

Mix this with the carrots. Put into prepared pie crust (not prebaked) and sprinkle top with 3 TBLSP wheat germ and some paprika.

Bake 15 min at 375 then turn down to 350 for 39 min. Cool 5 min.

Here's my regular pie crust recipe. It is very different from a shortening crust, but I still like it. I got the recipe and technique from my friend Martha

Pie Crust (makes top and bottom crust)
2 cups flour - I usually use half whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. salt
Mix these together
Put 4 TBLSP COLD water into 1/2 cup oil. Stir until it bubbles/starts to emulsify if that's the right word (gets well combined)
Pour liquid into flour and stir. Separate into two piles and roll out into rounds between layers of WAXED paper. You can cut this recipe in half for just a bottom crust pie.

If you want to get fancy with the crust for this pie, your can mix in some poppy seeds or ground sesame seeds, maybe 2 TBLSP.

Cathy, like promised, I tried my Mom's carrot pie/bread and results will be below. First let me share another carrot experiment my DH did, as he is the carrot lover in this family :)
He did bacon wrapped carrots in our Advantium microwave/oven
Here is how the carrots looked like going in:

we tried potato as well. The carrots cooked at H10,L10,M5 for 6 minutes and then looked like this:

My DH loved the result, told me that the bacon added an interesting touch to it. The potatoes did not get anything extra from the bacon, I guess the potato skin is too thick to let bacon juices through.

Now today I did the carrot pie/bread and at the same time the other half was roasted beef mozzarella cheese. I use sweet dough recipe from my Cuisinart bread machine recipe book. Any dough recipe that is meant for rolls or probably even pizza will do. The carrot mix for 1 lb of dough is supposed to be:
1 lb of cooked and shredded carrots,
2 cooked eggs, chopped to little pieces,
2 table spoons of melted butter,
salt and pepper to taste.
Mix it all together and spread on the dough like on the photo:

Roll it and let it rise another 30 - 40 min before baking.
I baked this in 375F for 30 min. For me it was little over cooked, so next time I will try 350F for 30 min. Also, next time I will double the amount of carrot mix, as for me it was not nearly enough. But it did taste like my moms. And the roasted beef side, just heaven :)

We had a monthly poker game last night and I had everything in the house for carrot cake. I put in a 13x9 pan just to make it easier to eat and it went....

Ingredients

Cake:

* 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 Tbsp baking soda
* 1 Tbsp cinnamon
* 1 1/2 cups olive oil or grapeseed oil
* 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped (more whole or chopped for topping)
* 1 1/2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
* 2 cups of finely grated carrots
* 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

Frosting:

* 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
* 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
* 2 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9 inch cake pans. Cut out rounds of wax paper and place at bottoms of cake pans. Butter the top of the wax paper rounds.

2 Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in chopped walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple.

3 Pour batter into pans. Set on the middle rack of oven and bake for 45-50 minutes (shift positions of cakes front-to-back if necessary about halfway through), until edges have pulled away from sides and a toothpick or sharp knife tip inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a cake rack.

4 To prepare frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and lemon juice.

5 Once cakes have cooled, frost. Sprinkle top with chopped walnuts or arrange walnut halves in a crown around the top.

Serves 12-16.

recipe from Simply Recipes

We just had ragu bolognese for dinner. It has carrots in it, it's healthy! So what if there's a ton of meat in it!? That's totally beside the point. :)

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 carrot, finely, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 rib celery, finely diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 pound veal, ground
1 pound pork, ground
1/4 pound pancetta or slab bacon, ground
1/2 tube tomato paste
1 cup milk
1 cup dry white wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano, for grating

In a 6 to 8-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the carrot, onions, celery, and garlic and sweat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the veal, pork, and pancetta and stir into the vegetables. Add the meat over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned. Add the tomato paste, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.

This is timely for me...I have five or six pounds of hairy carrots from last years garden (still better than storebought!). It will be easy to use them up now.

We use a lot of carrots but I don't care much for them cooked, I always eat mine before they go in with the pot roast. Julienned in a stir fry, diced/pureed in soup or shredded in cakes etc. are ok.

Lars, I had some wonderful ginger carrot soup at a fundraiser soup and bread dinner. I have the recipe in a local cookbook at the library...I'll find it next week.

Jeri, we prowled a cool little Asian market yesterday and I bought some coconut cream. Was wondering what to do with it. My carrots are all small...this is perfect.

We've been making plain old carrot and raisin or carrot, raisin and pineapple salad. Mayo for the dressing. Makes the kid feel like she's 5 again, she says.

Our favorite carrot cake is very much like cabogirl's, but with a cream cheese glaze/ not-quite-frosting....just softened cream cheese and honey to taste.

This was in a recipe booklet I found in a box of donations - Taste of Home,I think. Maybe next year I'll get carrots big enough to stuff.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Baked Stuffed Carrots

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
12 medium carrots
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 teaspoons grated onion
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter -- melted, divided
1/8 teaspoon paprika

Place carrots in a skillet; add 1 in. of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until crisp-tender. drain.

Cut a thin lengthwise slice out of each carrot. Scoop out carrot, leaving a 1/4-in. shell; set shells aside.Place the removed carrot in a food processor; cover and process until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl; add mayonnaise, onion, horseradish, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Spoon into carrot shells.

Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Combine the crumbs, 1 tablespoon butter and paprika; sprinkle over carrots. Drizzle with remaining butter.

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Yield: 6 servings

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I'm sorry I missed that garlic cookalong...

Our dinner tonight (sorry, no photos) was spinach salad with bleu, craisins and candied pecans, filet mignon on the grill, shredded zucchini tossed with fresh lemon and grated parmesan, fingerling potatoes, AND of course our carrots steamed slightly and then sauteed with orange juice concentrate, freshly zested orange peel and butter(margarine for me) topped with some sweet basil from Penzey's. Dessert was fresh berries with Grand Marnier and brownies. Our guests were very complimentary and enjoyed it all!

Thanks to Nancy (and Sherry) for inspiring us to have this little impromtu dinner party--I visited 2 markets and Costco and was able to be ready to go by 7pm!

I made the honey date carrot muffin recipe teresa posted for breakfast yesterday and they were delicious. I didn't change anything in the recipe, except that I was a little short on the amount of dates and made up the balance with dried apple bits. They weren't very sweet but that's the way we like them. DH instructed me to make sure I saved the recipe. Thanks for posting it.

Katie, I had saved the same stuffed carrot from and old Taste of Home magazine and pulled it out for carrot week. I cooked and carved out the carrots yesterday and refrigerated them and the centers to finish off for dinner one night this week. I'm not sure about the mayo but I'll never know unless I try it.

Got to looking for recipes w/carrots and found these in my old (80's) Land O'Lakes cookbook.

HONEY GLAZED PEA PODS AND CARROTS

3/4 c. water
2 c. (4 med.) diagonally sliced 1/4 inch carrots
8 oz. fresh pea pods, washed, remove tips and strings
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. honey

In 2 quart saucepan bring water to a full boil. Add carrots, cover; cook over medium heat until carrots are crisply tender (10 to 12 minutes). Add pea pods. Continue cooking until pea pods are crisply tender (1 to 2 minutes). Drain; set aside. In same pan melt butter; stir in cornstarch. Add carrots, pea pods and honey. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through (2 to 3 minutes).
2 (6 oz.) pkg. frozen pea pods can be substituted for 8 oz. fresh pea pods. Makes 6 servings.

Oooh -- glad I saw this thread, as I have a Tried and True recipe to post. It is for a Red Lentil and Carrot soup, and it is in my top-5 favorite soups of all time... The recipe was originally by Mark Bittman, but my main modification to it is to double the amount of carrot in it, which I think really improves it.

Red Lentil and Carrot Soup
Time: 45 minutes Serves 4
3 tablespoons olive oil, more for drizzling
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely grated on a box grater
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne, more to taste
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth + 1 cup water
1 cup red lentils

1. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for 2 minutes longer.
3. Add broth, 1 cups water, lentils and carrot. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary.
4. Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. If it is too thick, add a little more water to thin it down.

YUM!
Emily

Oops--Ok, so I was a week off, LOL! Hey there's no guarantee that I can do this again next week, so if not, I had my dinner a week early!

Well, I did make the stuffed carrots last night and despite the fact that they looked interesting on the plate, I wouldn't make them again. I like both horseradish and mayonnaise but the combination in the stuffing did nothing to enhance the flavor of the carrots.

However, if it wouldn't have been for the Cookalong, I probably wouldn't have tried them. DH and I are both enjoying the adventures with the Cookalong ingredients. This weekend will be the Apple and Carrot Confetti.

I was hoping that I would be able to participate in this one but I will not. Have fun everyone and I look forward to seeing what everyone made.

Ruthanna I'm really enjoying your pictures! I was going to have a dinner party this weekend, but after another hectic week I just cannot pull it off. I hope to try something though. I'm looking for a full time job, plus working a 30 hour one too. And commuting two hours most days. And trying to watch my weight! I love these cookalongs though!

The carrot Cookalong dinner is tomorrow night. I've decided to make the carrots and pea pod recipe...found fresh ones! Not an easy task sometimes..

So, what are you making???

Nancy

I'm going to make Indian food: red lentils and carrots with a butter dressing (includes onions, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro), spicy cabbage and carrot slaw (not indian, just winging it), scallion rice and flat bread.

Thanks Emily for posting your recipe. I've saved it as I love red lentils. The dish I'm making tomorrow is an old favorite that I want to try with carrots included. I've not made the rice or flat bread before, so we'll see how that turns out.

I almost forgot about this. I picked up fresh carrots when I was out and had to improvise when I came home. I picked Mustangs honey roasted vegetables since I had sweet potatoes and shallots on hand. I had to leave out the parsnips and turnips so the pan looks really orange right now. I can't wait to taste it.

I just now made up a batch of carrot soup. I would never serve this as a soup but I wanted to have it as a drink. It's just carrot juice, orange juice, and orange flower water - chilled. I really liked it until I added the flower water. It tastes just like it smells and over powered the drink. I bought it for a recipe I saw and now don't know where to find it, lol. I think I'll juice up a few more oranges to see if that'll fix it. Or, maybe I could use it in some muffins as the liquid...

I made the Czechoslovakian Apple and Carrot Confetti that sally2 posted and we really liked it. I used golden raisins instead of the currants and added about a heaping teaspoon of sugar.

We also had roasted asparagus and a small pork tenderloin with a molasses and mustard glaze and the salad was a perfect complement for it. I'd also like it as a side dish for baked ham. It's definitely going in my "keep" file.

I can't wait to see what the next Cookalong ingredient will be.

Oh my! That honey roasted recipe was a keeper. My sweetie was off teaching a class so it was just myself and my Mom. I was trying to take a picture of my plate and she was at the table having foodgasims. She declared "this is the best thing you have made since Christmas french toast". Can you tell she has a bit of a sweet tooth? In all fairness to the recipe, I didn't measure anything and I might have had a heavy hand with the honey.

We loved it so much that we polished of the whole pan. 2 large sweet potatoes and 5 or 6 carrots. She said that if we ate the whole thing Will would never even know that I made it. LOL I'm stuffed!!

Another nice assortment of recipes. I hope Sherry has some new ideas for carrots now.

Ruthanna, I though the Apple and Carrot Confetti recipe sounded good too. I'm glad you tried it, I'll make it too.

Joan...OMG, the roasted sweet potatoes and carrots look yummy. I'm glad your DM liked it.

We started our dinner with some Guacamole with Bacon, Scallions and Tomato. Recipe from Perfect Vegetables pub by Cook's Illustrated.

Here's my carrots... Glazed Carrots and Pea Pods

My plate...Coconut Shrimp, Pea Pods and Mashed Potatoes.

Nancy

We just did my normal carrots with the orange marmalade as one of the side dishes to a rack of lamb from Costco.

Yummy!

Forgot to take pictures, but we had venison pot roast, crusty roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and boiling onions), steamed broccoli, and carrot oatmeal muffins for dessert.

Here's how DH makes his crusty roasted vegetables (usually he just makes potatoes, but this worked really well with the carrots and onions, too):
Boil 6 cubed potatoes (we use red ones and leave the skin on) until they just start getting starchy on the outside. They will not be cooked all the way through. Drain and put into a bowl. While still hot, coat the potatoes with about a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter. Season with onion powder, curry powder (we use "Balti" seasoning from Penzeys Spices), Cavenders Greek Seasoning and garlic powder. Add a palm full of Italian bread crumbs and about 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped. Fresh rosemary is the best, but you can use dried as well. Stir gently to coat the potatoes. Let stand to blend the flavors. Spread on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F until golden brown. The bread crumb coating forms a crunchy crust that is really delicious. Stir occasionally while baking to brown them evenly. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

So far it hasn't worked out for me to do pictures, as I'm doing good to make something at all after work on Saturday, which is my Friday. Next time I think I'll wait until Sunday, and try to get in under the deadline.

All that being said, I did have fun with this ingredient. It was a good choice, Sherry.

I chose to Make Emily's Red Lentil and Carrot Soup, which was fabulous, Emily. Thanks for posting that recipe. I did have to make one change, and I don't know what kind of difference it made, but I had to use a small can of diced tomatoes instead of tomato paste. I thought I had some tomato paste in the freezer, but when I went to dig it out, it was nowhere to be found. I debated on whether ketchup would be a good substitute, but since I don't really like ketchup, I chose to go with the canned diced tomatoes, and just use less liquid. It worked. I'm curious about what it's like with the tomato paste, so I'll make it again with that. It's definitely worth making again. Oh, and you mentioned you double the amount of carrots in the recipe, and I wasn't sure if the recipe you posted was the original recipe or the adapted one with the extra carrots. I guessed it was the original, so I used 4 carrots instead of 2.

To go along with the soup, I decided to do a little of the Iron Chef thing, and see if I could add carrots to cornbread. It seemed odd to me, but fun, too. I thought certainly there's a recipe for just about anything on the internet, and sure enough, there's lots of recipes for carrot-cornbread. Go figure. I chose one that used both shredded carrots and corn kernels. It was way too sweet, but tasted good anyway. It was more like corn-carrot cake. If I make it again, I'll use less sugar and a smaller amount of corn kernels. I used frozen corn, which slowed the cooking time, too. It tasted good, but could have been better.

I also cut some mustard greens from my garden, and just served them plainly cooked with a little white balsamic vinegar. Now how much healthier can it get?

Sally

Well, I had all the stuff to make the carrot tart but I am just not going to do it. It can keep. I have too much else in the fridge to use up. I'm making two batches of bannana muffins to use up these bannanas that are taking up space, and I have marshmallows and grahmn crackers to use up also. So that will be more than enough to meet my sweets ration for the week. Tonight I'm making braised cabbage, and that calls for a carrot too, so maybe that counts. I'm using this recipe from Orangette's blog. I plan on using the rest of the cabbage to stuff some cabbage pastries using a modified Mario Batali recipe. Sooner or later I'm get around to making a lot of these recipes. Carrots are affordable and one of the few veggies that don't rot in my fridge before I can get to them. Working as much as I do, I don't cook much during the week, so if it doesn't get made on the weekend, it has to wait until the next week.

Thanks for the link, Lpink. That poster, Orangette, is a great writer. I'm adding that recipe to my file.

Sally

Lots of interesting recipes here!
I finally got to do our carrot dinner, although we usually have them with every meal anyway. I did my World's Best Meatloaf recipe as I said I would (recipe up there somewhere earlier on this thread) but today as I was defrosting the fridge I used a 50/50 mixture of ground chicken and turkey that I had on hand. The carrot is grated in as part of the recipe along with celery and green pepper.

It turned out really well and I could hardly tell that it wasn't beef. I doubled the seasonings (except salt) and used just a small tin of Tomate Frito...which would have been less than 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, most which went into the mixture and about 2 TBS of the rest for smearing on the top.

We had it with steamed potato, carrot (lots), cabbage, frozen peas and a creamed spinach that was accidentally defrosted, so I heated that up as well. And again a small salad each as we still had some of those tender greens in the fridge.

SharonCb

I just love the photos! Wish I had a camera. There are all kinds of ways to cook with carrots. Today I was not going to peel and shred two lbs. of carrots, cook them down into a conserve, then make a sweet pie crust, fill it with the conserve and make a lattice top crust and bake for 45 min. Instead, I'm having yummy stir fried thai rice with tofu, sugar snap peas, carrots, onion and mushrooms. Beautiful!

Recipe - Lpink's Thai carrot snap pea stir fry

Take the pot of rice out that's been sitting in the fridge all week.
Take out a package of Pete's "Tofu 2 Go" Thai marinated tofu, and the sauce packet.
Take out a package of Bird's Eye Sugar Snap Pea Stir fry frozen vegetables
Have your Kikomann Low Salt soy sauce and McCormick Thai seasoning blend handy.

Heat 2 TBLSP oil in a med. sized wok. Put in the frozen veggies and use a splatter guard. Stir fry until defrosted and heated through. Add the tofu and sauce packet and cook until most of the water evaporates from this mix. Season with soy sauce to taste. Add the rice and season with some of the Thai seasoning mix and more soy sauce. Sir fry until rice starts to brown.

Time from start to finish, under 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Thanks to all who have made this another great Cookalong!

Please remember to check this thread tomorrow. In keeping with the 12am posting deadline, I'll draw a name tomorrow morning of the person who gets to pick the next cookalong focus ingredient.

Be thinking about what would be fun....

Nancy

I only managed to make the ginger carrot soup and a carrot cake Saturday morning. I just planned a lunch for myself due to other plans for the weekend. I have pics but my batteries gave out while loading them to the net tonight. The soup was great and y'all know I love dessert so Marilyn's cake was good too. Looking forward to the next ingredient!

David

It's Monday! I was really surprised when I realized how many of you contributed to our carrot thread. Great recipes and ideas.

Compumom (Ellen)......you get to pick the next Cookalong ingredient!

Give it some thought, but try to post asap. I'll be watching to set up the next thread.

Nancy

TTT

Katie, did you find the ginger carrot soup recipe? I saw Eileen's recipe, but it had curry in it, and I know the soup I ate did not have curry. It was by far my favorite carrot recipe. When I was a pastry chef, I was asked to make carrot cake, but I refused! I'm a bit like Ann in not liking carrots. However, I am making chicken soup tonight for my brother (who has a cold), and I put 1/3 of a carrot in the pot, along with celeriac (celery root), onion, garlic, parsnip, rutabaga, one lime - with juice (I have so many falling off the tree right now), and two chicken breasts. I started with some chicken stock from the freezer, but I have no idea what was in that. I had a hard time washing the celeriac and had to use my brass brush to get some of the dirt off.

I'm sure Ellen will pick a great ingredient for the next cookalong. I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to using part of a carrot.

Jessy, you were right - CF is on EST - it's only 7:30 here!

Lars

Sally --

I'm so glad you enjoyed the soup! I'm sorry I wasn't more clear with my comment -- the original recipe had just one carrot, and I upped it to two... But I'm glad to hear that four carrots worked! Give it a try with the tomato paste and the two carrots and then let me know which version you like the best!

Meanwhile those honey-roasted carrots look amazing Joan, and they are going on my 'must-try-these-real-soon' list!

Emily

Okay everyone I'm back and ready for business!
My choice for a favorite ingredient is ...BASIL!

On your mark, get set, GO! ;-)

Yayyy... I love, love, love BASIL! My very favorite. I don't like oregano at all and never use it, but basil... yummm. I love it so much in fact that I have at least 4 gallon bags stuffed full of it in the freezer to hold me over the winter until the fresh stuff comes in again in the garden. Thanks Ellen.

You're welcome!! I'm waiting for Nancy to start the thread and set the parameters for the cooking challenge! Funny enough after I decided on basil I was looking at the fridge and thought that I would also like more ways to incorporate mustard and vinegars into recipes so there's a couple of more challenges down the pike!
Lights out here until Nancy wakes up and begins anew!

Here's the link for Cookalong #4.

There's many good carrot recipes on the thread.

Thanks to all that participated. Good job all you cooks!!!

Nancy

Well, Emily, I guess I got carried away with the carrots in the soup, but it was really good that way. I will try it as written next time, and see which is better.

By the way, Ruthanna, forgot to say that I'm glad you liked the Apple Carrot Confetti. The Moosewood Cookbooks are very reliable cookbooks.

Sally

Everything looks and sounds great that was made for the Cookalong with Carrots. I wish I could have joined in this time. Good job everyone!

Lars, I finally hunted down the cookbook I was after. Here's that soup recipe. It does call for a pinch of curry powder, but as garnish.

Carrot Ginger Soup

3/4 stick butter
1 lg. onion - chopped
1/4 c. fresh ginger - peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. white wine
7 c. chicken or vegie broth
1 1/2 lbs. carrots peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
lemon juice
pinch curry powder
fresh chives - snipped

Saute butter, onion, ginger and garlic together for 15 minutes. Add broth, wine and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes. puree mixture in blender.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, pinch of curry powder and snipped chives. Can be served hot or chilled.

from the Spirit Valley Cookbook: The Food & History of Blanchard, Idaho.

PrairieLove I just wanted to report back that I made the Moroccan carrot salad today for lunch, and it was just OK, not to my taste. I love cinnamon, but radish and cinnamon just didn't cut it for me. Not that it was a bad recipe, just not to my taste. I think it would be good without the radishes, just as a carrot salad. Looks gorgeous though!

I had this carrot recipe sitting in my recipe box for about 40 years because I didn't want to take the time to grate an entire pound of carrots by hand. It took only a couple of minutes to do that job in this era of food processors.

We enjoyed them so much that I wanted to add them to this thread. I baked them along with a meatloaf and baked potatoes and added the carrots after the other two so they'd all be done at the same time.

BAKED CARROTS

1 lb. carrots, peeled, ends trimmed
1 small bunch green onions
1 Tbs. finely chopped celery leaves
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
1/4 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
3 Tbs. butter

Grate carrots on coarse hole of grater (should be about 4 cups). Trim and slice onions, using a little bit of the green tops (should be about 1/3 cup). Combine all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Mix well. Spoon into baking dish. Dot with butter. Cover and bake at 325 for about 45 min. to an hour, or until carrots are crisply tender.

{{gwi:1495852}}

Two good summer sides or snacks that keep well in fridge for up to a week:

Carrot Raisin Salad

Package Matchstick cut carrots
Sliced celery to make half as much volume as carrots
Cup coarsely chopped walnuts
white or dark raisins, dried cranberries and/or dried cherries to your taste
Half cup or more of your favorite Waldorf type dressing
Toss ingredients and keep in fridge.
Best made the day before.

Carrot & Celery Salad

Package of matchstick carrots or slice your own carrots
almost equal amount of sliced celery
unsalted dry roasted peanuts to your liking
toss with your favorite Italian salad dressing & keep in fridge.

More carrot recipes from the forum.