Maple butter pan roasted carrots

And a new pasta recipe!

I’m back with another maple butter recipe! I am truly obsessed with the combination of maple and butter as the flavour profile feels very festive to me. It’s also an incredibly delicious pairing that results in a rich and smooth yet sweet and sticky sauce.

This time, I have used maple and butter to create a beautiful side dish that will be perfect for your Christmas or holiday feast. These carrots are pan roasted until tender and then tossed through a sauce of maple, butter, rosemary, garlic and a touch of brown sugar. They are so delicious that you may even call them the star of your dinner menu!

What I also love about this recipe is that it’s a side dish that doesn’t utilise valuable oven realestate. If you are like me and only have one oven, it can be quite the juggle to cook your main meals such as roast lamb, Christmas ham or potatoes all while trying to work out when to pop your side dishes into the oven. This recipe is cooked on the stove and comes together in no time so can be done just as everything else is going onto the table.

I also found it quite entertaining that when I posted them over on my YouTube channel lots of people were appalled at the use of butter and sugar with carrots. Apparently the internet likes their carrots steamed and plain! Who wants to tell them how carrot cake is made?

I also have a very quick and easy pasta recipe for you today, my lemon ricotta pasta with crispy zucchini. If you take away the zucchini and replace the garlic confit with raw garlic, this really is a no cook pasta sauce! Which is what I am all about during the hotter months in Australia.

I am going to be sending out emails twice a week as we lead up to Christmas as I have so many recipes to share with you!

Have a lovely week x

What’s Cooking This Week

Christmas time is a time of decisions. Decisions about which presents to buy, decisions about who’s hosting this year. Decisions about which meat to roast and also decisions about what sides to serve. I’m here to take some of that decision paralysis off you with my Garlic Butter Maple Carrots. Whether you’re in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, this is an all weather dish. These garlic butter maple carrots are truly delicious it deserves more of a main dish than side dish status.

Simple recipes don’t always mean simple taste. I am a fan of building flavours through every day ingredients. In this particular recipe, it hits all the flavour profiles needed to build a delicious dish: creaminess from cheese, acid from lemon and umami from garlic confit. Lemon ricotta pasta is going from your “what is that?” dish through to your “once a week special” dish.