Maple & Brown Sugar Carrot Puree

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Carrots are by far one of our favorite vegetables around here. Since I know they’ll always go over well, we tend to eat a lot of carrots as a side dish. Typically I make them the same way – steamed and then tossed with some butter and either dill, brown sugar, maple syrup or honey and ginger. Every so often, I’ll break from that routine and make some oven-roasted carrots.

For some reason, I was feeling a little bored with all of those options tonight and I want to mix things up a bit. I didn’t change too much, but it felt like we were eating something entirely new. The taste was familiar but the texture was a fun twist. The kids loved the carrots served this way! I think I might try tossing in a cubed apple to steam along with the carrots next time for an even bigger twist.

Maple & Brown Sugar Carrot Puree

• 1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into quarters (or 1 lb. baby carrots)
• 3 T. butter
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 T. maple syrup

1. Place the carrots in a medium-sized saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer about 10-15 minutes, until the carrots are fork tender.

2. Reserve 1/4 c. of the cooking liquid and drain the rest. Return the carrots to the pot along with the reserved liquid and the butter. Mash with a potato masher until desired consistency. (I considered using my food processor, but I worried that I’d end up with something more like baby food. Mashing the carrots gave me more control over the final texture, which was creamy but with a few chunkier pieces still mixed in.)

3. Stir in the brown sugar and maple syrup until combined. Sprinkle with a little more brown sugar before serving, if desired.

By the way, we should be back to business as usual around here starting this week. I am ready to get back in the kitchen with a vengeance this week. In fact, I took advantage of a bit of inspiration this week and wrote out a list of ideas and recipes that I want to share. We’ll see if Jill feels like cooperating. Judging by this facial expression, I’m guessing she’ll consider it as long as I don’t get my hopes up too high.