One of my favorite farmer's markets has to be the Grand Lake market over in Oakland. It takes place on Saturday's. The variety of produce is phenomenal. There are tons of booths - you name it, they have it (as long as it's in season of course!) This past Saturday I was lucky enough to make it over. One thing I always like to look for is "different" or "unique" produce. Well this week it was in the form of purple carrots. Kind of strange, but I figured what the heck, they at least look kinda cool... Would they taste as good as their orange counterparts? I got a bunch of the regular ones to compare.
Well a few days went by and those carrots were still sittin' in the fridge. It also just so happened that we had a bunch of fresh asparagus. This asparagus season I discovered one of the most delicious ways to eat asparagus is simply roasted in the oven. The trick is to peel the skin off the stalks before you roast them. They become incredibly juicy and delicious. With all these carrots and asparagus, why not roast them together? Here's how I did it:
First off, cut about a half inch from the bottom of the asparagus and cut off all but an inch of the carrot tops (I think they're more fun to eat this way). Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Rinse the vegetables well. Peel the skin from the carrots and the from the asparagus stocks (not near the top where they are pointy).
The washed and peeled veggies
Toss the carrots and asparagus with olive oil. Use just enough to lightly coat the vegetables (they shouldn't be dripping in oil). Toss with salt to taste. The marjoram in my herb garden has gotten gigantic recently so I chopped up the leaves from two sprigs and tossed it with the vegetables as well.
After being tossed with the oil and salt they're ready to go into the oven
Spread your vegetables on baking sheets and roast until tender. It's ok if the outsides brown a bit. The length of times depends on the thickness of your vegetables. Mine took about 20-25 minutes. If the vegetables are not of the same thickness, have one pan with skinnier ones and one with the larger ones, this way you can remove a pan and they should all be done at the same time.
Hot out of the oven and ready to eat!
Yum. And in case you were wondering, the purple ones were tasty, but the orange carrots were definitely sweeter.
