Carrots with Orange and Ginger Sauce

While our family has favorite dishes that return to the table at Thanksgiving over and over each year, we also usually bring a new dish or two to the celebration. Some years it’s a novel dessert or a new way to cook the turkey. But this year I wanted to make a change in the vegetables at the table. Carrots with Orange and Ginger Sauce became the nominee.

I found the recipe in the RSVP column in the November 1999 issue of Bon Appétit. Reader Larry Patten had enjoyed the carrots at a wedding feast prepared by Elegant Affairs Catering in Bellingham, Washington. I liked the simplicity of its six ingredient list. And because the recipe came from a caterer, I knew it could be assembled ahead of time—just right for Thanksgiving.

While many Thanksgiving vegetable standards are extra creamy or cheesy, this dish allows carrots to taste like carrots, only better. The carrot coins maintain their texture due to their quick cooking time. Coated lightly with a sauce of freshly squeezed orange juice and grated fresh ginger, the finished dish brings both bright notes and a bit of a zing to the table.

Elegant Affairs Catering’s approach called for combining the carrots and sauce ingredients all together in a large skillet to begin cooking, but I opted to start the sauce by itself. I mixed the orange juice, grated ginger, butter, and sugar and brought them to a boil before adding the carrots.

After a brief time of covered cooking, which allows the carrots to steam a bit, I removed the cover and lowered the heat.  The orange-ginger sauce flavored and coated the carrots as it reduced.

Because both the carrots and the orange juice bring their natural sweetness to the dish, I halved the amount of sugar in the original recipe. I cut the amount of the butter used as well.

We ended up with a bowl full of beautiful, bright carrots lightly coated by a sauce that accentuated their sweetness. With a sprinkling of chopped parsley leaves, they were ready to join the celebration in this season of thanks.

Carrots with Orange and Ginger Sauce

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Carrot coins glazed with a sauce of fresh orange juice and grated ginger bring a fresh note to the table.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 2 pounds carrots peeled, and cut diagonally into 1/4-inch coins
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger (I used a microplane for grating)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Instructions

 

• Bring orange juice, butter, sugar, and ginger to a boil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots and return to a boil.
• Cover the skillet and cook for 3 minutes.
• Uncover the skillet and lower the heat to simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the liquid creates a glaze on the carrots, stirring occasionally to coat the carrots and move them around.
• Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Garnish with minced parsley and serve.

Notes

Can be made three days ahead of time. Remove the carrots from heat after seasoning with salt and pepper. (Do not garnish with parsley.) Cool and place in a covered container and refrigerate. Rewarm when ready to serve, and sprinkle with parsley.

Adapted from a recipe by Elegant Affairs Catering, formerly in Bellingham, Washington, and published in Bon Appétit (November 1999)