Tangy Caramelized Carrots

Carrots?? Really?? 

There was this stage, when Mr. Everything wasn't feeling too good, and he was asked to increase his dietary fiber content. This led to a drastic change in our dinner menu - I started making Mooli (Radish) Paratha, black eyed peas and all the rest of the lentils & high fiber veggies and trust me the cooking part was pretty mundane and boring. That's when I decided to try to make something more fancy yet high in fiber. The search finally got me to baked carrots and it inspired me to this dish. 

Surprisingly, this tastes wonderful. Its nice and tangy with a dash of sweetness and all the spices blend really well and the best part is its very simple. Its one of the best veggie baked dishes and we make this pretty often.

Carrots - About 500 gms
Butter - 2 tbsp
Garlic clove - 1small
Cinnamon - 1/8 tsp
Ground cumin - 1/4 tsp
Curry powder - 1/4 tsp
Dried thyme - 1 tsp
Ground ginger - 1/4 tsp
Brown sugar - 2 tsp
Pepper
Salt

Clean & scrape the carrots. I leave the smaller carrots whole and cut the bigger ones lengthwise in two or three pieces depending on the size of the carrot.

Put them in a roasting tray or any oven proof dish.

In a bowl, whisk together the butter and the rest of the spices. Grate the garlic and add it with the mixture along with the required salt & pepper. Pour this butter mix to the carrots - mix them well with your hands ensuring that all the carrots get a little of the mixture. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top of this.

Cover the tray with aluminium foil and make sure its tight and sealed - thus ensuring that carrots steam in the flavor of all the spices. Place them in a pre heated oven and bake at 200 C for 40 mins.

After 40 minutes, remove the aluminium foil, and shuffle it a bit ensuring that the juices from the bottom of the tray get distributed well. Drizzle a little olive oil over the carrots and let it bake for another 15-20 mins till its brown and slightly caramelized.