Cayenne Espresso Cinnamon Carrots With Sweet N' Crispy Coconut Bacon
As the holidays get into full swing, so does my craving for rich, aromatic dishes. I have the inclination to drench vegetables in oil and roast them to a full crisp. Instead of light and refreshing flavors I desire those that are heavy and smoky filled with depth.
Roasted carrots was my contribution to my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner party last year, so I decided to make one again this year. Does that mean I'm starting a new tradition? If you like me are a vegan, or are even a vegetarian or have celiac disease, bringing your own dish is a way to guarantee that there is at least one dish you can eat. I am the only vegan in my family so my choices are somewhat limited at holiday dinners. Often I eat before I go to family gatherings anyways so I'm used to it. To me these holiday gatherings are more so about enjoying time with extended family than obsessing over the food anyways.
Thinking about it though, I have to admit I'm not sure if this is the exact same recipe as last year's to the tea, but I know I'm pretty close. I will not take full credit for this recipe though, as I was inspired by a recipe from a magazine I read a few years back. It was a fashion magazine funny enough.
In this recipe I incorporate a rub onto the carrots that has ground espresso, so if you have any unwanted ground espresso or coffee in your kitchen here is a great way to put it to use! Now that we're on the topic of coffee though, is it only me that finds it strange that so many people use Keurigs and other machines that don't require loose ground coffee? Local coffee shops, which are where I often like to work on my blog, as I'm doing right at this moment, might possibly be harmed by the new instant coffee machines. I myself don't care for coffee all that much, but if I did I don't think I would buy a machine like that, because you would limit your choices to what the company sells. I would see myself as an organic, Non GMO and fair trade coffee snob, so a Keurig couldn't satisfy my needs!
Last year when I made this recipe, I did not add coconut bacon on top, so I thought this yeay adding coconut bacon sounded so perfect on top for a nice crunch and extra sweetness to contrast the spice from the cayenne. Seriously though, coconut bacon is one of my favorite discoveries! 4 cups of shredded coconut can always be found in my cabinet just in case I ever have the urge to make some vegan bacon.
As I was making coconut bacon for this dish I literally had to stop myself from eating too much of it as it came out of the oven, because you know I kind of needed some for the picture.... I made the bacon a bit more sweet than a typical one, because coconut bacon tends to taste savory like actual bacon, and I wanted the two main flavor components of this dish to be just sweet and spicy.
Don't get me wrong though, although this dish looks lovely and tastes out of this world, it does require a lot of work, so I'd suggest leaving it for any family members who don't already have a lot of dishes they're in charge of for the holiday dinner. This dish is worth the effort, but it does require lots of dishwashing after so it is not a dish for beginners to cooking.
Another suggestion I have is making coconut bacon for leftovers, because it is so addicting and this is a great way to make sure there is enough to generously cover the carrots, since if you're anything like me, aka like a hungry squirrel then this will be an issue!
One last request I have is for you all to please let me know if you like this dish enough for me to create a Pinterest post out of it. I have been wanting to create a Pinterest post for a bit of time now, but am just unsure of what recipe to use. I am deliberating between this recipe and a falafel recipe I recently posted. Feel free to let me know which one you'd rather see.
Serves 12 - 15 people
Carrots
--- Ingredients ---
3 pounds rainbow carrots
1 & 1/2 tBsps ground espresso
1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne (use more if your guests have a higher tolerance)
2 tBsps melted coconut oil
1 & 1/2 tBsps coconut sugar
Juice of 2 limes
2 - 3 tBsps coconut oil for the baking pans
Step 1 ---
Wash and either peel or thoroughly scrub the carrots to remove the dirty layer. Then carefully split each carrot exactly in half. Take your time doing this and be careful to not cut yourself. Let the carrots sit in a bowl of water for 30 minutes to one hour.
Step 2 ---
First preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (I used the convection bake setting which tends to cook food faster, so you might need to use a higher temperature). Then start by boiling a large pot of water with the water filled 3/4 of the way to the top. Add the carrots into the pot of boiled water, with the wider base at the bottom of the pan and the ends sticking out. Don't worry if the carrots are too large to be completely submerged. Cook the carrots for 10 minutes in the water without changing the temperature knob. Then submerge in a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes.
Step 3 ---
Lay the carrots on two to three large baking pans generously greased with coconut oil. I used 2 pans for carrots and a third for carrots on one half and coconut bacon on the other. Cook each side of the carrots for 14 minutes. Flip the carrots again and brush the rub/marinade onto the carrots (all of the rest of the ingredients except the lime juice and extra coconut oil for the pans, mixed in a small bowl) and cook for another 30 minutes. You could brush the rub/marinade onto one side of the carrots and let it cook for 15 minutes and then do the same thing to the other side for another 15 minutes.
I chose to squeeze the lime juice onto the carrots during the last 5 minutes of cooking time, but if you want you can simply add the lime juice to the marinade with the other ingredients. I think the acidity of the limes complements this dish well and if you add the lime juice too early on, the juice evaporates and the nice tartness is lost.
The skinny ends of the carrots should be brown and slightly crispy while the thick bases should be soft. You can use a fork to test out a few.
Coconut Bacon
--- Ingredients ---
1 & 1/2 tBsps tamari
2 tBsps maple syrup
1 heaping cup dried coconut flakes
1/2 tsp melted coconut oil
Step 1 ---
Mix the tamari, syrup and coconut flakes in a medium sized bowl using your hands. The oven should already be at 375 degrees. You can start this step as the carrots are cooking. You can lay the coconut onto a pan that has carrots on it but space leftover (if the carrots took 2 & 1/2 pans of room for example). Cook the coconut for 21 minutes, flipping the flakes around with a spatula 2-3 times. They should have a dark golden color. Once the flakes cool they will become very crunchy, so don't worry if they still feel soft in the oven. I used my spatula to separate the bacon from the pan before it finished cooling to prevent the bacon from sticking to the pan.
