You have probably heard of whole animal eating, but what about whole vegetable eating? Vegetables like carrots, celery, and fennel all come with their own herbaceous element, but these leaves are often tossed instead of utilized. Here, we make a salsa out of carrot greens to top our harissa and honey roasted carrots. The whole dish comes together with labneh, or full fat yogurt, and lots of dusted sumac and chili flakes.
Tips:
- Carrot greens are often fairly dirty, and can impart a gritty texture if not washed properly.
- Really, any sized flatbread can be used here. With the small flatbreads, you can eat them like tacos. Use a larger bread and you can wrap it up like a gyro.
- Carrot sizes can vary a lot. I have used very small carrots as they are not unwieldy to eat on top of the flatbread. If your carrots are bigger, you will simply need to slice them into smaller wedges. See pictures to get an idea of the size you are looking for.
- If you can’t find harissa paste, but do have harissa powder, simply mix equal parts powder, olive oil, and hot water.
Makes 4 small flatbreads
Ingredients
- 10 small baby whole carrots, with greens attached
- 2-3 tsp harissa paste
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ cup chopped mint
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 2 radishes, washed and minced
- Salt and pepper to taste
For assembly
- 4 flatbreads (pita, naan, or gyro wraps all work), about 5-7 inches in diameter
- Labneh or whole milk yogurt
- Chopped pistachios
- Sumac
- Chili flakes
- Crunchy salt
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- Remove the stems from the carrots and reserve ¾ cup of greens. Wash the greens thoroughly and set aside to dry (a salad spinner works great as well).
- Peel the carrots and cut them once down the middle lengthwise.
- In a bowl, toss carrots with harissa, honey, 1 tbsp of olive oil, cumin, and about ½ tsp of diamond kosher salt (or more or less to taste).
- Lay the carrots out on a baking sheet cut side down and roast until tender, 12-20 minutes.
- While the carrots roast, finely chop the reserved carrot greens place in a bowl. Combine with mint, radishes, lemon juice, lemon zest, 2 tbsp of olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- When the carrots are almost done, place the flatbreads in the oven to toast.
- Remove the carrots and flatbreads from the oven and let cool slightly.
- Top each flatbread with a generous spread of labneh, then another generous sprinkling of sumac.
- Top with carrots, carrot top salsa, and pistachios. Finish with some crunchy salt, freshly ground pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, and chili flakes.