I am a veggie-lover and I am not afraid to shout it from mountain tops. The way some people crave cookies or salty junk food, I seriously crave good, fresh, in-season, well-prepared vegetables. Steam ’em, grill ’em, roast them up or shove them into my face raw, it is rare that I will pass up a veggie. OK, so I don’t love steamed frozen veggies, those soggy tasteless piles gross me out, but other than that – I am down with the veggie train!

That said, I am not afraid to admit that I don’t always get excited to eat carrots. Most times I find that carrots taste just like carrots and well, dirt. I don’t hate them, but I just don’t always love them. I know they are good for me, so I don’t discriminate when they are served to me, but I certainly don’t go out of my way very often to buy a bunch at the store. So, when our farmer Tony started including carrots in our boxes I was kinda like “MEH!”.  That is until I had a taste of them, raw and unpeeled – those carrots are seriously in a league of their own. The first bunch we got never made it to a dish or even cooked, I ate them all raw, nothing on them. This is huge guys! They are slightly sweet and just the right amount of earthy, not dirty, flavor.

These Cumin Roasted Carrots with Cilantro Chimichurri, seriously might be my favorite carrot dish, yet. I discovered last year when we first got some of these amazing carrots in our CSA box – that roasting them is seriously the way to go. This dish is not only insanely delicious and full of incredible robust and well-rounded flavors, but it is also just so beautiful. The bright green chimichurri sauce (this is Central-America’s version of pesto) on top of those beautiful bright orange carrots – truly is nature at it’s finest. The roasted carrots have a beautiful robust flavor complimented by the distinct earthy flavor from the cumin and it is all brightened up with the fresh, tangy and zippy cilantro chimichurri.

The only bad thing now, is that we probably won’t have carrots again for a while since we are at the tail end of the season here, I can only just dream of these until I have more carrots in my life. WOAH – who am I, right now?

[print_this]Cumin Roasted Carrots with Cilantro Chimichurri {Gluten-free and Vegan}
serves 2-4

Cumin Roasted Carrots

• 1 bunch of medium-sized organic carrots, greens removed, washed well, peeled if you like (I didn’t)
• 1 tablespoon Terra Delyssa extra light olive oil
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of red pepper flakes

Preheat your oven to 375F

Toss the carrots with the oil, cumin seeds, salt and red pepper flakes. Arrange the carrots in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 20-30 minutes, tossing once or twice in that time, cook until slightly tender and starting to brown a bit.

Cilantro Chimichurri