Roasted Carrots

I won’t lie, I’m writing about carrots, but I’m eating yesterday’s ice cream.…mmm!  Back to the carrots.  Have you ever had one of those moments when someone does something simple, and you wonder why you haven’t been doing that all along, or you think to yourself, “you’re just telling me this now?”

This summer, while visiting my grandparents, my grandma was full of those moments.  Like when she threw a few ears of corn in the microwave for three minutes, took them out, chopped of the ends, and pulled all of the silk right off with one smooth tug.  Maybe you’ve been doing this for years (Grandma apparently has) But for me, this was revolutionary.  No more shucking corn?  Why had she been keeping this to herself for the last 70 years?  (Ok, since microwaves weren’t even invented during the first part of her 70 years, I’ll cut her a little bit of slack.)  Still, she didn’t even have the decency to share this tip with her only favorite granddaughter?  Rude.  What else has she been keeping to herself?

These carrots are kind of like my grandma’s corn trick.  So simple, you may have fixed them this way a thousand times.  If not, you’ll be kicking yourself that you haven’t.  I tried these carrots for the first time about ten years ago when my friend’s step-mother served them for dinner.  After polishing off the entire plate, I asked her twice for the recipe because I couldn’t believe it was so simple.  Here it is.  Carrots.  Olive oil.  Salt.  That’s it.  The salt draws the water out of the carrots, concentrating their flavor and allowing them to caramelize a bit.  I like to use thin carrots, but if you are using regular sized ones, just slice them in quarters lengthwise first.  Today I served them with fresh mint, but they are equally delicious on their own.