Recipe: Roasted Carrots with Thyme

the appetizer:

Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare Bones Budget by Amy McCoy includes recipes like Roasted Carrots with Thyme; Spicy Carrot Ginger Soup; Roasted Cauliflower; and Roasted Beets with Caramelized Beet Greens and Orange-Walnut Pesto.

Roasted Carrots with Thyme

Serves 4, $5.00 or less

While I do love fresh-from-the-garden carrots straight out of the soil—well, okay, with a good rinsing first—even in the off-season, I always have a bag of carrots at the ready. They are a good, low-cost vegetable side dish—and roasted as they are here, their sweetness is accentuated. As one of the three primary ingredients of soffritto, they are the base of many a soup, stew, or sauce, hence it is good to have them on hand throughout the chilly months.

These carrots pair nicely with a slew of dishes, but in particular with Perfect Roasted Chicken (page 69 of the book), and the occasional thaw-in-the-winter freeze grilled Sunday steak. I mean, we are watching our spending here, but every so often, a carnivore might like a steak. Am I wrong?

2 pounds carrots (approximately 12 medium), peeled and trimmed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salted sweet cream butter, quartered

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Cut the carrots in half and then halve them lengthwise. In a large mixing bowl, toss the carrots with the olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a 9 by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet and roast until the carrots begin to brown, 45 to 50 minutes, flipping the carrots midway through the cooking time.

3. Remove the carrots from the oven, transfer them to a serving dish. and top with the tablespoon of butter.

Poor Girl Gourmet Tip: Let's not forget when peeling the carrots for this dish—as well as when you peel them for soffritto or even when snacking from the garden—to save the peels and trimmings for Vegetable Scrap Stock (page 1). After all, you and I are parsimonious, and we've already paid for the carrots, so why waste when you can get the stock for free?

Estimated cost for four: $2.14. The 2 pounds of carrots cost $1.60, as they come from a 5 pound bag costing $3.99. The olive oil is 36¢, the thyme is in the neighborhood of 9¢, and the sweet cream butter is 9¢.