When I was young I used to think Grandma had impressive knife skills. The way she used a paring knife without cutting her thumb was a mystery to me. She would make short work of cleaning freshly harvested carrots - even the baby ones. Young carrots have a thin skin so scraping their outer surface gently with a paring knife was all that was necessary, she explained once.
Grandma cooked carrots for us occasionally, even though we all would have rather eaten them raw. It was much later in life that I finally came to appreciate roasted vegetables of all kinds, including carrots. This recipe from her stack is similar to how I generally roast carrots, though seasoning with basil seemed novel to me. It was a nice change.
Replacing my standard olive oil with butter was a tasty swap here as well. I just tossed the cut carrots on my trusty sheet pan, added about 2 teaspoons of butter, some salt, pepper, and dried basil and baked them at 350 for about ten minutes. Then I stirred them and baked for maybe 15 minutes more. I didn't time it too closely because I just taste them to determine when they're fully cooked.
My kids feel the same way about cooked carrots as I used to. They take an obligatory taste and move on. Perhaps one day they'll come around.
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