The Leftover Guru

Today’s delicious dish – Glazed Carrots  

Glazed carrots are a wonderful vegetable side dish.  They are better than plain old boiled carrots, but they are not so very different to make.  It’s amazing what a little butter, sugar, and seasonings can add to a possibly lackluster veggie.

This recipe uses baby carrots – because I like things that are easy.  And after all, baby carrots are just carrots.  Most of the “baby carrots” we see in the store would more properly be called “baby-cut carrots” because they are regular carrots that were trimmed and polished down to the size and shape of an immature carrot.  This processing allows carrots with imperfections to be appealing to the consumer.

If you want to use regular carrots, you will need to account for the peeling and trimming you’ll do – I’d start with a little more than 2 pounds of raw carrots.  However you cut them, be sure the pieces are similar in size and shape.  You want them all to cook to the same doneness at the same time.

This recipe uses granulated sugar, but you could substitute brown sugar, honey, agave nectar, or maple syrup.

Glazed Carrots

• 4 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 32 oz. bag baby carrots (about 6 cups)
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine water, salt, and carrots in large saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and turn down burner.  Simmer for 12 minutes.

Drain carrots, leaving about 2 Tablespoons liquid in the pan.  Return to the burner.  Add butter, sugar, and spices and stir well.  Liquid in pan should be boiling gently – you may need to turn the burner up.  Cook uncovered, stirring often, until liquid evaporates.  Remove from burner, cover, and let sit until serving.

Makes about 5 cups cooked carrots, or 8 servings (a generous 1/2 cup each)

Nutritional information (per serving):  82 calories, 2.5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat, 2 grams protein, 13 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams sugars, 2 grams fiber, 8 milligrams cholesterol, 452 milligrams sodium

Cost per serving:  48 cents

Preparation time:  20 minutes

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What happens next?

 This delicious side dish will be great in the leftover meals I put together for lunches at work.  Chicken, glazed carrots, and lima beans will be easy to reheat and enjoy.  It’s also a healthy and economical lunch.

If you don’t already have containers that work for you at lunchtime, do yourself a favor and invest in a few.  There are some concerns about certain plastics, so you may want to look at glass containers too.

I put aside about 1 1/4 cups of the glazed carrots (2 servings) to use in my next creation – a healthy and tasty cookie.  If I’m going to make it within 4 or 5 days, I will keep them in the refrigerator.  If I’m not sure or if I plan to make it more than 5 days in the future, I will freeze the leftover glazed carrots.

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Another day’s delicious dish – Carrot Cookies 

The leftover carrots reappear in these fruity, biscuit-like cookies.  The carrots are cooked a little more, then smashed (but not pureed) and combined with plump raisins and sweet crushed pineapple.  The resulting cookie is soft and spicy, with a pleasing fruit surprise in each bite.

If you don’t have leftover Glazed Carrots, you can still make this recipe.  Just cook 1 1/4 cups of baby carrots until they are smashable, but not completely mushy.  Then add a dab of butter, a bit of sugar, and a dash of salt, pepper, ground mustard, and ginger, and you will be ready to go.

This recipe uses brandy to macerate the raisins (macerating is a way of plumping up fruit).  You could substitute orange liqueur or rum, or orange juice.  This recipe also uses butter, but you could substitute coconut oil.  Finally, this recipe uses old fashioned oats, but you could substitute quick oats or instant oats.

Using parchment paper on your baking sheet will simplify things greatly.  You can reuse the same sheet of parchment paper for the whole recipe.  If you don’t have any parchment paper, be sure to grease the pan very well, and be careful removing the cookies after baking.

 Carrot Cookies

• 1 1/4 cups (2 servings) Glazed Carrots
• 8 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice
• 3/4 cup raisins (firmly packed)
• 2 Tablespoons brandy
• 2 sticks softened butter (1 cup)
• 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Heat oven to 400°F.

Microwave Glazed Carrots for 3 minutes (covered), let sit a few minutes, and then smash with a fork.  The result will not be a smooth puree – there will be many small pieces of carrot.  Set aside.

Drain pineapple juice into a microwave-safe container.  Add raisins and brandy and stir well.  Macerate raisins by microwaving (covered) for 2 minutes and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, mashed carrots, sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, pineapple, raisins, and macerating liquid.  In a separate bowl, combine flours, oats, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Add dry ingredients to batter and mix well.

Drop by heaping Tablespoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 13 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Nutritional information (per cookie):   147 calories, 4.5 grams fat, 2.5 grams saturated fat, 2 grams protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, 13 grams sugars, 1 gram fiber, 24 milligrams cholesterol, 102 milligrams sodium

 Cost per cookie:  25 cents

Preparation time:  1 hour