Spiced Tahini Roasted Rainbow Carrot Salad with Whipped Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, Baby Arugula, Shaved Shallots, Toasted Walnuts, Fresh Cilantro, + a Spicy Blood Orange Gastrique

Spring has sprung, y'all! Let's all join in for a collective rejoice because that officially mean Farmer's Market season is back in full swing, and with that, it means fresh produce is at its' peak! My Mountain Man and I recently went to one of our favorite restaurants and we ordered a roasted carrot salad with goat cheese, arugula, + a citrus vinaigrette. We loved the combination of flavors, so I took the idea and ran with it. It just so happens that I spotted some baby heirloom rainbow carrots (try and say that whole spiel five times fast) and I instantly connected them with the inspiration burning in my belly to recreate this salad. It happens to still be citrus season down south, so I knew that I wanted to make a blood orange gastrique to drizzle over the top. Not only does this add a beautiful, deep scarlet color, but a beautiful acidic note to the entire dish. Oh, and it's got a nice spicy kick that will leave your mouth with slight tingling. After looking through my go-to cookbook, The Flavor Bible, and it suggests to pair carrots with cumin, other earthy spices, nuts, and citrus. I first made a "marinade" of tahini, olive oil, maple syrup, cumin, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, + turmeric. The baby carrots are tossed + coated in this marinade mixture before being roasted in the over until they are golden brown and just slightly charred. And make sure to allow them to cool to room temperature before you begin assembling the salad, so the whipped goat cheese doesn't melt + the baby arugula doesn't wilt due to the heat. Now I want to make sure that you guys use baby arugula because the peppery note from these greens is so perfect, it doesn't miss a beat. I also added in some shaved shallots for a bit of a bite and some toasted walnuts for some texture. Obviously, I am a complete lush when it comes to goat cheese, especially when it is whipped and flavored with roasted garlic + honey, but you could easily make whipped feta as the base of your salad if you prefer that instead. After the salad is tediously layered and beautified, I sprinkle some fresh minced cilantro to round out all of the flavors. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case, it is completely and utterly true. I cannot think of another dish that would be more enjoyable on a gorgeous springtime afternoon than this salad. So that only means that... you just gotta make it!! Enjoy :)

For the Spicy Blood Orange Gastrique:

1C Freshly Squeezed Blood Orange Juice

1 Blood Orange, Zested

3T Sugar

3T Red Wine Vinegar

2 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme

1T Light Corn Syrup

1t Dried Red Pepper Flakes

Pinch of Salt

For the Whipped Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese:

A Head of Roasted Garlic Cloves, Cooled

4oz Softened Cream Cheese

½C Heavy Cream

10z Honey Goat Cheese

Salt & Pepper, To Taste

For the Spiced Tahini Roasted Rainbow Carrots:

1 ½-2lbs Baby Rainbow Carrots (keep the stems on, but trimmed short)

4T Roasted Tahini

2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3T Maple Syrup

2t Cumin

½t Cardamom, Coriander, Cinnamon, + Turmeric

Kosher Salt + Fresh Cracked Pepper (we used a good pinch of salt to balance the sweetness)

For the Roasted Rainbow Carrot Salad:

Prepared Whipped Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, Chilled

Baby Arugula (do not substitute any other greens, you need the peppery notes)

Spiced Tahini Roasted Rainbow Carrots, Room Temperature

1 Small Shallot, Thinly Shaved

1 Big Handful of Walnuts, Toasted + Roughly Chopped

Prepared Spicy Blood Orange Gastrique, Chilled

Fresh Cilantro, Minced (for garnishing)

Fleur de Sel + Fresh Cracked Pepper, For Sprinkling

Directions:

1. For the Spicy Blood Orange Gastrique: In a small pot, pour in the blood orange juice and add in the blood orange zest, sugar, red wine vinegar, a generous pinch of salt, and sprigs of fresh thyme. Bring this liquid to a hard boil, and then reduce it to a simmer. Allow this mixture to reduce in half, about 5-10 minutes. Once it has reduced down, remove the sprigs of thyme and whisk in the light corn syrup. Bring to a boil once more and allow it to thicken to a nice, smooth syrup. We reduced ours to about a little more than ¼C. Whisk in the dried red pepper flakes and chill the gastrique in the refrigerator until it has completely cooled.

2. For the Whipped Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese: In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the softened cream cheese, roasted garlic cloves, and salt until thoroughly mixed. Scrape down the sides and turn the mixer to medium-high speed and add in ¼C heavy cream. Continue whipping, while continuously adding a little bit of crumbled honey goat cheese at a time, until the goat cheese is combined throughout. Add in the remaining ¼C heavy cream and beat on high until it is light & fluffy. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Place in the refrigerator to chill slightly.

3. For the Spiced Tahini Roasted Rainbow Carrots: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with some Pam. Set it aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the roasted tahini, olive oil, maple syrup, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, Turmeric, kosher salt, and fresh cracked pepper. The mixture will be pretty thick, but that’s okay, it will help to thickly coat the baby carrots. Toss the carrots in the tahini using your hands until they are completely covered. Lay them out in a single layer on the prepared pan and roast for 25 minutes. Boost your oven up to broil and allow them to reach a gorgeous golden brown color with a slight char (just keep an eye on them, you don’t want them to burn). Remove the roasted carrots from the oven and allow them to cool to room temperature before assembling the salad.

4. For the Roasted Carrot Salad: On a pretty dinner plate, spoon a blanket of the whipped roasted garlic goat cheese on the bottom, and then mound a handful of baby arugula on top of the cheese. Now stack the spiced tahini roasted carrots on top of the greens (almost log cabin style), followed by some of the shaved shallots, and a scattering of the toasted walnuts. Drizzle the entire dish with some of the spicy blood orange gastrique, as well as a sprinkle of minced cilantro, fleur de sel and fresh cracked pepper. Serve immediately! 

Mixed Citrus Salad with Thinly Shaved Shallots, Cubed Feta Cheese, Fresh Mint Chiffonade, a Drizzle of Homemade Spicy, Fresh Cracked Pepper Honey and Champagne Vinegar Vinaigrette, Olive Oil, + Fleur de Sel

Okay guys, prepare yourself mentally... I'm really going out of the box today with this recipe. It doesn't have butter, it doesn't have bacon, or buttermilk, or a crispy outer coating, or anything southern really ((let the shock set in for a few seconds)). This is something healthy and gorgeous and vegetarian. Woah, I know. At the peak of winter, every citrus fruit is practically at its best, so why not use them to our advantage? I bought multiple citrus... blood oranges, cara cara oranges, navel oranges, ruby red grapefuits, clementines, tangelos, meyer lemons, and limes (and probably more that I can't even think of). I'm not going to lie to you, prepping the citrus for the salad can be tedious and time-consuming, but if you're willing to eat a piece of artwork, like this dish, it's so worth it. Pretty much, you have to remove the rind and the bitter pith, leaving behind gorgeous "carpaccio" style slices. After you've done every citrus, the hard work is pretty much done! Arrange a plate with the prepared citrus in any colorful manner you like. I decided to do a rainbow/ombre pattern and I think it looked fabulous! Next, I whipped up a delicious and easy-breezy dressing to drizzle over the top. It's made with honey, raspberry champagne vinegar (you can use any flavor really though), dried red pepper flakes, and fresh cracked pepper. Cube up or crumble some fresh feta over the top of the citrus, followed by a drizzle of the homemade honey dressing and olive oil. I finished it all off with a scattering of mint chiffonade and a sprinkle of fleur de sel. The salad is so juicy and practically explodes in your mouth. The cheese offsets all of the acidity and heat because of its delicious creaminess, while the spicy + peppery honey perfectly accents all of the other components. Finally the fresh mint gives the dish a final herbaceousness that should not + cannot be missed. I really hope y'all get around to making this unique salad because it is so different than anything that I have made before. I imagine it would be fabulous during the spring or summer as well... with a bottle of white wine!! Enjoy :)

For the Spicy Fresh Cracked Pepper Honey + Champagne Vinegar Vinaigrette:

¼C Orange Blossom Honey

2T Champagne Vinegar

½t Fresh Cracked Pepper + Dried Red Pepper Flakes

 

For the Mixed Citrus Salad:

3 Blood Oranges

1 Ruby Red Grapefruit

1 Cara Cara Orange

1 Navel Orange

2 Clementines or 1 Tangelo

1 Meyer Lemon

1 Lime 

Cubes or Crumbles of Fresh Feta Cheese

Fresh Mint, Chiffonade

1-2 Shallots, Thinly Shaved

Prepared Honey Vinaigrette (listed above)

Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Flakes of Fleur de Sel, For Sprinkling

 

Directions:

1. For the Homemade Honey Vinaigrette: In a mason jar, add the honey, champagne vinegar, fresh cracked pepper, and dried red pepper flakes. Shake the heck out of it until the dressing is cohesive, the honey has dissolved into the champagne vinegar, and the pepper/red pepper flakes are speckled throughout the vinaigrette. Set it aside until you are ready to use.

2. Preparing the Citrus: Slice the different citrus fruit into rounds, and then using very sharp kitchen scissors, carefully cut off the rind, making sure to get rid of the white bitter pith. Gently remove any seeds. Continue until all of the citrus have been finished and resemble a citrus “Carpaccio”.

3. Preparing the Salad: Cut the big block of fresh feta cheese into small cubes (or you can also decide to crumble it as well if you prefer). Shave a few shallots, using a kitchen mandolin, until you have thin slices of the onion. Chiffonade the fresh mint into small strips.

4. Assembling the Salad: Scatter a thin layer of the shaved shallots on the bottom of your serving dish. Shingle and layer the prepared citrus rounds in an overlapping fashion, so that they cover the entire plate (we decided to go in a rainbow colored scheme, but you could also do random or strips of color if you please). Place the cubes of feta into any holes that you see that need to be filled on the plate. I also scattered some crumbles on top, just for a little extra. Drizzle as much of the spicy honey vinaigrette as you want all over the salad, making sure to get all of the fresh cracked pepper + dried red pepper flakes (these ingredients really balance against all of the sweet flavors of the dish). Drizzle a few spoonfuls of olive oil on top of the dressing as well. Finish by garnishing with a sprinkling of fleur de sel and chiffonade mint.

5.  Enjoy this refreshing salad with a glass of white wine!

Blood Orange Mulled Red Wine with Spiced Brown Butter

Blood Orange Mulled Red Wine

HI GUYS. I am terrible. I left y'all high + dry. But but but but, I can explain. See last week the world ended. What? You guys didn't hear? That's shocking, I know, but so true. Well, if you didn't hear, I'll give you the quick rundown of how it snowed two inches in Atlanta and the whole city shut down. I'm not making this up. Luckily for me, I work from home, so I really didn't experience anything too badly. Actually, we were quite excited at first...

the beginning of snow fall

yep, it snows in the south

starting to cover the ground

shots at 5AM in honor of the "state of emergency" 

snow day with my little pup.

See? We welcomed the snow, with open arms. I was tooooo excited, I hadn't seen snow since probably my middle school days. It started innocently enough, but then I got a phone call from my Mountain Man around noon, saying that he got released from work early due to the possible inclement weather. I was TOTES excited. However, I just waited and waited and waited... I watched the news. EVERY major highway, intersection, and street was practically shut down. Black ice was everywhere. Children were stuck at school, or worse, in school buses. Finally 9PM had rolled around I had yet to see my Mountain Man because he had been stranded for over eight hours. In the same spot. I mean it couldn't get any worse. I was stranded at home and couldn't possibly rescue him. It got so crazy, he and one of his friends, abandoned their cars and walked about 7 miles in the sleeting snow back to our house. I can't even tell you how crazy it all was, and it was all over a pathetic two inches of snow. People had to sleep in grocery stores, hospitals, gas stations, and even their frozen cars. It was just straight up ridiculous. By 10 o'clock, the Governor officially called a "State of Emergency" and cancelled all non-essential work/travel for two days. If you guys watch The Walking Dead, this is really how Atlanta looked. No joke. We had no food, or barely any at all, so we ate a lot of potatoes and leftover roasted chicken. Not fun. We did, however, have a lot of red wine... and blood oranges. So, I decided that I would try my hand at making mulled red wine. This classic winter cocktail never really gets enjoyed here because well it's always so-dang-hot and DEFINITELY not snowing. It was the perfect occasion. The flavor was boosted with those gorgeous red citrus fruit, fresh ginger, mulling spices, apple, a-whole-lotta-booze, simple syrup, and a homemade spiced brown butter. The brown butter/compound butter is perfect for any fall drink, but especially anything mulled or it would be fab in a hot buttered rum too! This was the bomb to drink while the snow kept collecting on the ground... and it warmed my Mountain Man up real fast. So all of y'all that are still cold up in the Northern states can enjoy it as well!! Enjoy :)

juicing the blood oranges.

winter citrus art.

gorgeous blood orange slices in mulled wine

a generous slice of homemade spiced brown butter

ready to drink!

For the Spiced Brown Butter:

2 Sticks of Unsalted Butter, Browned & Softened

2C Homemade Dark Brown Sugar (or store-bought can be used)

1 ½t Cinnamon

1t Fleur de Sel

½t Freshly Grated Nutmeg, Bourbon Smoked Paprika, & Ground Ginger

¼t Cardamom, Cayenne, & Black Pepper

For the Mulled Red Wine:

2 Bottles of Red Wine

4 Blood Oranges, Zests Peeled & Sliced

1 Apple, Sliced

1 Inch Knob of Fresh Ginger (peeled)

2 Cinnamon Sticks

¼C Mulling Spices

2 Star Anise Pods

1C Homemade Mulled Simple Syrup

1 Vanilla Bean Pod, Split & Scraped for Seeds

½C Brandy, Bourbon, & Apple Jack

Nutmeg, For Grating

Homemade Spiced Brown Butter, For Serving

Directions:

1. For the Spiced Brown Butter: Cream together the butter, spices and sugar. At this point you can roll up the mixture with parchment into a log. Cover well and refrigerate or freeze for later use. In the fridge the mixture will keep for two weeks, in the freezer a couple of months.

2. For the Mulled Red Wine:Peel the zests off the blood oranges, and then cut up one of the oranges into slices and juice the remaining three. Throw them into the pot, along with the sliced apple, cinnamon sticks, mulling spices, star anise pods, mulled simple syrup, vanilla bean pod, and fresh ginger. Let this mixture simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the wine and bring back to a simmer, about another 5-10 minutes. Turn the heat off the burner and toss in the brandy, bourbon, and Apple Jack. Stir to combine.

3. For Serving:In a mug, add a tablespoon of the spiced brown butter. Top with a few ladles of blood orange mulled red wine. Grate some fresh nutmeg over the top and serve with a cinnamon stick for stirring. The ratio of the ingredients is really preference.