For a recent potluck celebration, I was asked to bring an appetizer or side dish. Sick of my usual party appetizers, I decided to bring some sort of vegetable side dish.
But what to bring? What to bring for a group of 30+ people?
To Cook's Illustrated I turned, where I found a recipe for simple roasted carrots with lemon and thyme. I modified the recipe by buying nearly 5 pounds of carrots, omitting the lemon, and significantly reducing the amount of butter to 5 tbsp. instead of the 10 tbsp. called for that amount of carrots.
The recipe was incredibly easy to put together with those modifications – melt the butter, peel the carrots, toss with the melted butter and thyme, and then roast.
While you may be tempted to end the roasting early when the carrots seem "cooked", I recommend keeping them in the oven for the CI prescribed time or until nicely browned. The caramelization that takes place during that extra roasting adds an amazing depth of flavor – so follow your timer!
The carrots reduced by approx. 20% in size from raw to nicely browned.
The result won rave reviews from nearly everyone at the get-together. I imagine this recipe will become a regular part of my cooking rotation!
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