Ingredients
- Roast carrot salad with goats’ cheese and carrot top chimichurri
- Serves 2-4
- 1 bunch young, new season carrots
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp smoked sweet paprika
- Salt and pepper
- 1 large handful of carrot tops
- 1 large clove garlic
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ dried chili flakes
- 120ml olive oil
- 200g goats cheese
- 80g hazelnuts
- 2 handfuls of salad leaves
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Remove the tops from the carrots and set aside. Scrub the carrots clean under running water, no need to peel them. Place the trimmed carrots on a roasting tray. Drizzle with the honey and olive and scatter over the spices. Season with salt and black pepper. Mix well to coat the carrots. Roast for 15-20 minutes, depending on size, turning halfway through.
Make sure they don’t burn, slightly caramelised on the outside is perfect. They don’t need to be soft and are much nicer when they retain a little bite.
Meanwhile toast the hazelnuts by spreading them on a tray and roasting for five minutes. Tip them on to a clean tea towel, fold the tea towel in half and roll it on the countertop. This will remove all of the skins. Pick out the hazelnuts and discard the skins.
Finely chop the nuts leaving a few chunky pieces. Roll teaspoons full of goats’ cheese in the nuts. You should get about 10. Set aside.
To make the chimichurri wash the carrot tops and remove the fine leaves from the tougher stem, as you would with parsley. Place in a food processor with the garlic, vinegar, chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Blitz till finely chopped. Spoon the mixture into a bowl then stir through the olive oil. Set aside.
Place the salad leaves on a large platter. Arrange the slightly warm carrots and goats cheese on top. Scatter with a few more hazelnuts and drizzle with the chimichurri sauce. Serve right away.
