As promised, a homemade recipe from my Day in the Kitchen: Carrot Mash with Sage and Garlic. I thought for just one hot second about letting you figure it out using that chicken scratch I call shorthand above. But then, I’d also like you to visit again. That said, enjoy my friends.
Carrot Mash with Sage and Garlic
+ Makes…quite a bit
This recipe was one I made up a few months back when I became obsessed with La Cascada’s dips. First, let me say that I like dips. And by dips, I don’t mean spicy Velveeta nacho cheese or sour cream and chive. I’m talking veggie dips. La Cascada’s eggplant dip, spicy zucchini dip, the Mediterranean dip… all good, and all stupidly expensive at my little local grocery. (Let’s just get real: shit there ain’t cheap.) $5.99 for a 4 ounce container that maybe had a two day refrigerator life (because I ATE IT in two days) was starting to lose it’s appeal and possibly get on my husband’s nerves. So I bought a food processor and went on a semi-kitchen adventure to figure out how I could make the dip at home. What came out of that little rompus was a couple of things – but the best one is below. Carrot Mash. It’s like grown-up baby food. If it makes you feel better to think of it as a pudding, go right on ahead and knock yourself out. You can eat it hot or cold, add butter or not; use it as a dip, or eat it alone. I will tell you that in two days I’ve eaten it over steak, chicken, with vegetables and by itself. I’ve eaten it a lot, and I still love it. In fact, I’ll probably eat it for lunch. Yay for me!
1250 g / 45 oz. carrots, peeled and cut into consistently sized stalks (2″ long and about 1/2″ thick)
2 onions, peeled and sliced
4 grams / 1 oz fresh sage, torn into pieces
6-10 garlic cloves, peeled
*2 TB butter olive oil
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**20 oz / 2 1/2 c pureed butternut squash soup
470 g / 2 cans white kidney beans, drained
1 TB butter olive oil (optional)
***salt/pepper
* I’m lucky enough to live close to Amphora, a shop that sells all kinds of wonderful flavors of olive oil and vinegars. This one, the butter olive oil, is a great alternative to using butter and olive oil. If you don’t have it, that’s ok! Just use regular extra virgin olive oil or butter – whichever you prefer.
** I’m also lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods and within spitting distance of a small gourmet grocery store. It goes without saying that I have options. The butternut squash soup I used here is from Trader Joe’s. However, you can also use low-sodium chicken broth or even pureed pumpkin soup. There are a slew of substitutions you can use here, so just play with it.
***For the salt, I used Smoked Salt from Trader Joe’s. It’s just a nice alternative to the regular stuff, but the regular stuff works just fine, too.
Prep
- Turn oven to 350.
- Place parchment paper on two cookie sheets.
- Get your food processor from whatever dusty cabinet it’s in and place it on the counter. You should use the metal blade for this recipe.
- A container to hold the shit-ton of carrot mash you’ll be making.
Directions
- In a large bowl, toss your carrots, onions, sage and garlic in the butter olive oil.
- Lay your mixture out in one single layer on the cookie sheets.
- Cook for 30-45 minutes. Depending on your oven, it may need to be longer. For me, because I have an old Merritt and O’Keefe, I need to turn my sheets around every 15-20 minutes to make sure things are cooked evenly. I also swap my pans (top goes on bottom, bottom goes on top). You may not need to do this, but at the very least, you should turn your carrots over about midway through the cooking process.
- Once everything is cooked, take it out of the oven and let it cool slightly. If you need sustenance, feel free to eat some carrots.
- Throw 1/3 of the carrot mix into your food processor, along with a 1/3 of the soup and 1/3 of the beans. If you’re going to add the olive oil, add one teaspoon for the first 1/3 of the mix.
- Process away until your mix is nice and smooth. I’m okay with there being some course bits in my mash, so you may need to adjust the amount of soup you add to make it as smooth as you want. If you’re still not getting the texture you want, butter or cream never hurt anyone and always helps in these matters.
- Remove the first 1/3 of the mix from the processor, place in a large bowl and repeat step 5 and 6.
- Once all of the carrots have been processed and are in the large bowl, give them a good mix.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Let me stress that you can use this a base for a bunch of different substitutions. Don’t like carrots? Try butternut squash, pumpkin or sweet potatas (that’s potatoes when I say it like I’m from the West coast). Don’t like sage? Use thyme or rosemary – or get wild and try curry. Don’t like garlic? Good luck with that. I’m kidding. Don’t use it, or if you love it, use more. Whatever you do, don’t give up on it. You can make it as high-fat or as low-fat as you want, as creamy or as crunchy as you want – you just have to work with it. And if you do make it, by all means – let me know how it comes out!
Pins and Needles 