Carrot

The first time I passed through London—long before I started cooking—I figured out that some of the best food was to be found in the ubiquitous Indian restaurants. Fortunately for my traveler’s budget, it was also the cheapest! One of my favorite discoveries was an onion bhaji, a cluster of fried onion slices bound with a spicy, aromatic batter. The flavors stayed in my memory for a long time, and after much research, I came up with this recipe. The batter is made from high-protein chickpea flour (also called besan or gram flour at Indian markets), which gives it a rich flavor. At Bayona we serve bhajis with seared scallops and carrot-cardamom sauce, but they are awfully good by themselves for snacking, with a drizzle of cilantro-spiked yogurt or your favorite chutney.

Sweet, sticky, and full of flavor, glazed carrots and turnips are the perfect complement to roast meat of any kind, although lamb comes to my mind first. This dish is also a good way to show off a favorite fancy honey, but even the plainest squeezie-bear type works well.

What a great way to use up some of those veggies that are beginning to look a little tired in the fridge. Start with a few fresh ingredients and be creative with your trimmings. Use this stock for a bit more flavor when making soups, moistening bread stuffing, deglazing a roasting or sauté pan, or stirring up a risotto.

All along the Gulf Coast, crab is plentiful and almost cheap during the summer. It has a luxurious flavor, but it’s still light, and in this ceviche-like salad the lime and basil enhance the warm-weather flavors. The salty capers are a good foil for the sweetness of the crab and carrots. Serve this refreshing combination on lettuce leaves, as described below, or in a parfait or martini glass, garnished with a wedge of lime and some tortilla chips.

Just in case you’ve been wondering what to do with that walnut oil that someone gave you for Christmas …

A generous amount of carrots adds a sweet earthy taste to these chicken breasts. Using prunes lends additional rich flavor, and is a variation of popular Mediterranean dishes that combine poultry or meat with dried fruit.

This sweet and spicy soup is wonderfully rich, even though it’s made without a drop of cream. If your carrots don’t taste sweet enough, add up to a teaspoon of sugar in step two.

The three main ingredients in this recipe—pecans, cornmeal, and catfish—are all common in Southern cooking. The carrot slaw served on the side is lighter in fat and calories than more traditional mayonnaise-based slaws.

Try this slightly spicy salad with roast pork or chicken. Shredding the vegetables in a food processor makes the preparation lightning fast; you can shred them on a four-sided box grater instead, but it will increase the prep and total times.

With fresh ginger, garlic, and lime, this Thai-style soup imparts lovely fragrance and warmth on a cool autumn evening. Adjust the amount of red pepper flakes depending on how spicy you want the soup to be.

When iced, these carrot-filled cupcakes make heavenly desserts or snacks. Unfrosted, they are perfect for breakfast on the run or a lunch-box treat. Use the large holes of a box grater, or the shredding disk of a food processor, to shred the carrots.

No one can deny the comfort food factor associated with a steaming hot pot pie with its crispy crust and delicious sauce. Even if your mom never actually made one for you from scratch, at least she probably bought you frozen ones on occasion. Our version is made with lots of vegetables, and it’s a treat for meat eaters and vegetarians alike.

This Japanese spin on coleslaw is a refreshing salad, and serving it with crispy fried tofu coated with sesame seeds makes for a great, quick dinner. Even though the tofu is fried, you only need a little bit of oil, so it’s still a nice light meal.