Steamed Baby Carrots with Ginger-Garlic Butter

There’s something about whole baby carrots steamed with the tops on, fork tender and sweet. I adore that delicate flavor and crunch and think they really add beauty to a plate. They are like the little black dress of carrots. And many times they are insanely easy to prepare, like this recipe from Cooking Light.

As always, I adapted the recipe to fit what’s in our garden at the time, so instead of minced garlic I used a thin stalk of baby garlic, one of several that has popped up, and doubled the cilantro since our cilantro is flourishing right now. The flavor of the baby garlic is interesting, more assertive than our clove garlic, so I didn’t use the full stalk. If you decide to use baby garlic, you may want to taste it and decide how much to use before adding it to the pan.

Michael loved the flavor and the boys came along and wanted to snack on the carrots like finger food as I finished the photos. Can’t beat that for getting the kids to eat their vegetables.

STEAMED BABY CARROTS WITH GINGER-GARLIC BUTTER

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Serves 4.

Equipment

steamer pan and insert
large nonstick sauté pan

Ingredients

1 pound (454 g) baby carrots with tops, peeled and all but 1/2-inch of the tops removed
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 thin stalk baby garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced peeled ginger
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation

1. Steam the carrots, covered, for 10 minutes.

2. In the nonstick skillet, melt the butter and sauté the baby garlic and ginger for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the carrots, cilantro, lime zest, juice, and sea salt.

Variations

The original recipe calls for 2 cloves minced garlic and 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro.

More Easy Vegetable Recipes

More Carrot Recipes From Around the Blogs

Cooking on the Side – Vanilla Glazed Baby Carrots

Food Blogga – Roasted Rainbow Carrots

White on Rice Couple – Vietnamese Style Pickled Carrots

The Wicked Noodle – Carrot Soufflé

[Disclosure: I am a member of the Cooking Light Bloggers' Connection.]

[An original post from Andrea Meyers: making life delicious. All images and text copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.]

[Disclosure: This blog earns a few cents on items purchased through the Amazon.com links in posts.]