Creamy Carrot Pasta

I've never been a huge fan of cooked carrots. Their mushy sweetness compared to the savory crunch of raw carrots always put me off. I tend to like my veggies on the salty side, garnished with some ranch dip or a nice vinaigrette (or, in the case of artichokes, with luscious melted butter.) For most of my life I have picked carrots out of chicken soup and pot roast. I would always try one but I was usually haunted by flashbacks of pre-school lunches at La Petite Academy where I was coerced with threats of no dessert to eat this nastiness:

I just threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about it. It's gross.

So yeah, I don't like cooked carrots. That's why it was weird when I stumbled upon a cooked-carrot pasta sauce recipe on Tastespotting and it sounded good to me. Really good. I couldn't get it out of my head, I felt compelled to make it.  I did. And I loved it. The thyme and parmesan bring out the nuttiness in the carrots and the sweetness is mellowed by the cream. The bacon adds a much needed smokiness and saltiness that make this dish addictive. The leftovers were even good cold!

If you suffer from cooked carrot PTSD, this recipe might be the cure!
(Adapted from this recipe on Cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com)

- 1 lb Carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2-1 inch rounds
- 5 cloves of garlic, whole, peeled
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Sea or Kosher salt
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated, plus more for serving
- 6 strips of Niman Ranch bacon
- 1 pound of gluten free pasta (If you haven't tried Ancient Harvest Corn/Quinoa blend DO IT.)

This sauce works best on curly shapes. I used a mixture of Garden Pagoda shape and Veggie Curls.
- 1 1/2 cups of pasta water

First, cook the bacon. This is my go-to method for making a lot of bacon at once. it cooks evenly, is absurdly easy to clean up and leaves your kitchen free of grease splatters. Also, you don't have to hover over it the way you do when making bacon in a skillet.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Line a cookie sheet  with foil and place a cooling rack on the sheet. Spread bacon out on cooking rack and bake for 20 minutes or until very crisp. Remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to cool then chop into small pieces and reserve for later.

Increase heat in oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl toss the carrot rounds and garlic with the olive oil, thoroughly coating the carrots and garlic with oil.

Season well with salt and thyme (and pepper if you're into that nasty stuff.)

Roast on a foil-lined about 45-50 minutes until carrots are tender. Take the pan out and stir or toss halfway through the cooking time to ensure carrots cook evenly on both sides.

When carrots are soft and tender, remove from oven.

Cook the pasta in a generous amount of salted water to al dente according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, puree the carrots and garlic with the heavy cream and parmesan cheese in a blender or food processor . When the pasta is done cooking reserve a cup and a half of the pasta water.

Quickly drain pasta and toss into a large mixing bowl with carrot cream sauce, adding pasta water a little at a time until you get a nice consistency and the pasta is evenly coated. Toss in the bacon and stir until it's incorporated.

Serve with a generous grating of parmesan cheese.

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Crispy, Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas

I had a can of chickpeas sitting on my shelf for ages and couldn't decide whether to make hummus or the recipe below. I decided on crunchy versus creamy and went with this awesome snack. It makes a great MUCH healthier stand in for popcorn when watching a movie. Give it a try!

- 1 14.5 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp smoked sea salt (more or less to taste)
- 1-2 sprigs chopped fresh thyme
- pinch of garlic salt

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
Drain and rinse chickpeas then dry them well using paper towels.
Pour them into an even layer on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil.

Roast in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes then remove them and let them cool for a few minutes.
Pour into a bowl and add olive oil, salt, garlic salt and fresh thyme and mix until the beans are all nicely coated.

Pour them back onto the baking sheet and roast for another 10-15 minutes until all the beans are caremely-golden brown. You want them crunchy so make sure they are all nice and dark brown but not burned.

Pull out the baking sheet and let them cool then pour back into the bowl. Once they are ready to taste, tweak the seasoning to suit your palette.

You can play with seasoning on this, try fresh garlic, rosemary, cayenne or cumin. The possibilities are endless!
I used fresh thyme from my poor, struggling herb garden.

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