Are you still in self quarantine and cooking more often? If so, then turn your dinner party into gold with 24 carrots! These underrated root vegetables can be consumed raw, roasted, glazed, grilled, pan-fried, pureed or baked. Upgrade your next dinner at home with these delicious and simple carrot recipes.
Quarantine has us cooking and dining at home more often. Instead of repeating the same old recipes, we decided to spice things up with a single ingredient dinner party. Today, we picked carrots, which are long-lasting, available all year long, and high in vitamin A and fiber. Have you ever bought a bag of carrots, used some and then left the rest of them in the crisper drawer for weeks? Well go ahead, open that drawer and let’s cook these carrots to take advantage of their sweet and earthy flavor profiles.
The Gorgeous Tablescape
Our vibrant orange carrots inspired the dinner party’s color palette. We created our beautiful tablescape with and Orange Satin Table Runner and placed it on top of Royal Blue Petal Circle Taffeta Linens (you may recall this setup from Dylan’s Nerf Birthday party).
We paired our three-course carrot themed meal with a Bruno Dangin Sparkling Wine and a Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon.
Savory Appetizer with Carrots
We started our meal with a Arugula and Carrot Salad with Walnuts and Cheese. This salad is delicious, but we made a few tweaks. We shaved the parmesan instead of grating it, which gave the salad more cheese flavor. The grated raw carrots also added a pop of bright orange color to this savory salad.
The salad paired nicely with our sparkling wine. We’ve been trying to get more greens into our meals. Since we are home most of the day, it’s easy to splurge and snack more often. We recommend starting with a salad or pairing your main with a side salad to keep your health and wellness goals on track.
Mouthwatering Entree with Carrots
Our main was Mint and Ginger Crusted Lamb Chops with Carrot and Parsnip Puree. The first step was to grill the lamb chops to give them a good sear. Subsequently, we finished cooking them in the oven.
We served the lamb chops with creamy carrot and parsnip puree. The rich, orange puree complimented the tender and flavorful herbed lamb chops.
This dish was just as flavorful as it was colorful. The Jordan Cabernet paired nicely with the dish since the intense fruit flavor and firm tannin structure of the wine complemented the richness and texture of the lamb.
Scrumptious Dessert with Carrots
We concluded our meal with a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This recipe is made with wheat and pastry flour. It is a good way to get veggies into a mouthwatering dessert.
This Fall, upgrade your dinner with delicious, homemade carrot recipes. Fall is peak carrot season, and with some Twinspiration, you can make colorful and flavorful appetizers, side dishes and desserts with carrots. Better yet, recreate our three-course carrot themed dinner party.
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1 Cup Olive Oil
- 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 3 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Organic Pastry Flour
- 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 3 Tsp Cinnamon
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
- 3 Cups Grated Carrots firmly packed
- 8 ounce Can Crushed Pineapple
- 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 Cup Butter Softened
- 12 Ounces Cream Cheese
- 4-5 Cups Powdered Sugar depending on how sweet you like your frosting
- 1.5 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
- 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Create wax paper circles
- Grease 2 8-inch cake pans with olive oil and line with wax paper circles and grease again
- Blend oil, sugars and eggs in the Kitchen-Aid mixing bowl
- Blend in vanilla
- In separate bowl, combine flours, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg
- Mix dry ingredients into liquid ingredients and beat on 2-3 speed until throughly mixed
- Stir in carrots, pineapple (with juices) and walnuts
- Pour into pans and bake for 35 minutes (test cake with toothpick)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whip butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract
- Move the cake to a cake board, cake turntable or cake plate
- Place some frosting on the top of the first layer and then gently place the second layer over the first
- Frost the outside of the cake
- Place the walnuts on the outside of the cake and use wax paper to gently press against the side
- Refrigerate the cake and gently press the cake with wax paper again
- Use a star tip #21 to add a shell border and pipe carrots with orange frosting with tip #12 and pipe green string tops with tip #233
- Store cake in airtight cake/cupcake carrier
Oh yum! Carrots are one of my favorite vegetables and I am totally trying this out!
These all look really delicious! My kids love carrots so I’m definitely looking forward to making these! Thanks for sharing the carrot cake recipe with us!
Ouuu, I can’t wait to try some of these! I love carrots, and have some in my garden that I could use.
Definitely looks yummy and delicious, first time for me to encounter such recipes. Thanks for sharing this to us and will absolutely make this at home.
Everything looks amazing. I love bbq weather and its so nice these past few days been living outside
It definitely sounds so lovely and interesting…though everything looks so perfect and lovely…glad you shared this with us..great work though…
Amazing, all of these food looks super delicious, can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for sharing!
I love carrots and everything with carrots seams awesome to me. will sure try your recipe as well, I need more new things in my life
What a fun fancy dinner! Wild love to try out these recipes!
Creative dinner with amazing colors to celebrate life. I really adore the fact that you bring in colorful table covers and napkins to enjoy the food.
Wow! All of these recipes looks so delicious! I will definitely try this all. Yum!
All of these look amazing, but my favorite is carrot cake! Yum, thanks for the recipe!
Those lamb chops look amazing. It is one of our family favorites!
This sounds absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS ! I can’t wait to try making them.
I’m not sure I should have read this post while my husband is cooking dinner – now I want to send him back to the supermarket and get the ingredients for this!
How did you guys know that carrot cake was my fav.? I am going to write this down and try out your recipe.