TIP OF THE DAY: Spiced Roasted Carrots With Sumac
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This recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen was so breathtaking, we traipsed through three different farmers markets to hunt down the beautiful heirloom carrots (and finally found them at Trader Joe’s). The recipe gave us an excuse to purchase sumac, a slightly tart and fruity spice popular in North African and Middle Eastern cooking. We’d never worked with it, and we like lemony tartness. (More ways to use it are below.) Ingredients For 4-6 Servings |
Who could refuse to eat their vegetables? Photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma. |
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1. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F (220°C). 2. STIR together the sumac, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes and salt in a small bowl. 3. TOSS the carrots with the olive oil in a large bowl. Sprinkle the spice blend on top of the carrots and toss until the spices are evenly distributed. 4. HEAT a frying pan over medium heat until warm. Add the carrots and toss two or three times. Transfer to the oven and roast until the carrots are just tender, 25 to 30 minutes. 5. TRANSFER to a serving dish and finish with a sprinkle of sea salt. Serve immediately. |
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WHAT IS SUMAC?
Sumac comprises some 35 species of flowering plants that grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world. If you were a Boy Scout or Girl Scout, you likely learned to spot one of the varieties, the poison sumac shrub, in the woods. (Like poison ivy and poison oak, skin contact generates a nasty rash.) The fruits of the bush form in dense clusters of what we might call little round red berries—like holly berries—but are actually drupes. The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a tangy, crimson spice; the word “sumac” comes from the old Syriac Aramaic summaq, meaning red. The spice is also a component of the popular spice blend, za’atar. In Middle Eastern cuisine, sumac is used to add a lemony taste to meats and salads. It is used to garnish meze like hummus, and rice. |
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Try it with recipes where you’d like lemony tartness as well as some bright red color. You can find sumac online or at Middle Eastern markets. If you can’t get hold of any, add some lemon juice. Its tart flavor is an alternative to the tart-sour sumac profile.
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