Piment d’Espelette Roasted Carrots

Piment d’Espelette Roasted Carrots: this vegan carrot side dish has a warm kick from a Basque spice.

Piment d’espelette spice roasted carrots

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite spices, which you’ve probably never heard of: Piment d’Espellete. It’s essentially a chili powder made from the Espellete Pepper, which is cultivated in the Basque region. It is a beautiful spice – while it gives your food a definite kick that you would normally associate with chili powder, it also has an underlying warmth that makes it great to use in pretty much anything. In fact in the Basque region it’s pretty much used in place of black pepper! I was introduced to it during my first visit to family in Biarritz, in the heart of the Basque country in France and discovered all the wonderful culinary treats of this region including the espelette pepper. Bon Appetit recommends it as a more ‘delicate alternative to cayenne powder’.

Piment d’espelette spice roasted carrots

So, now that you’ve met the glorious piment d’espelette, lets talk carrots.

I’m a huge carrot lover – are you? Ok, good 🙂

I love them raw, in soup, in juice, any which way and I’m always looking for was to dress them up. I particularly love oven-roasting my carrots – first of all because it’s terribly easy but also because of the magical caramelization that occurs in the last 10 minutes when you crank up the heat! The sugar from the carrots starts to deepen in flavor and it’s out of this world – no need to add honey or maple syrup to these carrots – the heat does everything!

Vegan Piment d’espelette Basque spice roasted carrots

Then when we combine the piment d’espelette with the carrots the warm spiciness of the pepper marries perfectly with the simple sweetness of the carrot  and the result are these incredibly simple and incredibly delicious carrots – which happen to be vegan and pretty darn healthy too!

I hope you enjoy these carrots as much as I do – they’ve been in heavy rotation especially as the farmers markets are getting into full swing here in New York City. I’ve used rainbow carrots for the photos here because they’re just so darn pretty, but regular orange carrots work perfectly. 🙂 You could serve them alongside fish, meat or chicken or if you’re like me and enjoy super simple, veggie-based meals eat them with a whole avocado sliced up – see my Instagram for proof! 🙂

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Piment d'Espelette, Spice Roasted Carrots

 

Author: Ahu Shahrabani

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 4

• Serving size: ¼ portion
• Calories: 78

• Fat: 4
• Carbohydrates: 11
• Sugar: 6
• Sodium: 78
• Protein: 1

Recipe type: Side Dish

Cuisine: Basque, French

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  35 mins

Total time:  40 mins

Print

The Piment d'Espellete gives these oven-roasted carrots a warm spice and brings out their flavor through the caramelization process.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of carrots
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon Piment d'Espellete
• ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Wash and peel your carrots.
3. In a large mixing bowl, toss the carrots with the oil, salt and piment d'espellete until coated evenly.
4. Place the coated carrots in a shallow roasting pan and make sure the carrots are evenly dispersed and not too tightly packed in.
5. Place in the oven and roast - for the first 25 minutes of roasting you should give the pan a healthy shake every 6-7 minutes so the carrots turn over.
6. After 25 minutes, give the carrots another flip and turn the oven up to 400 for the last 10 minutes. This will really allow the carrots to caramelize and get delicious!
7. Remove from the oven once they are semi-tender and enjoy with yogurt, or just as they are!

Notes

Piment d'espelette is available on Amazon.

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