Roasted Carrots and Radish with Harissa Sauce
One week to go until we close on our new house and the process is finally going smoothly so we’re now expecting to close on time. Wheeee!! I may actually get to plant a garden this year and that makes me VERY happy. Vacations also make me happy. This weekend promises to be full of awesome as we’re heading to Wisconsin Dells with my husband’s family in what is becoming an annual tradition.
Know what else equals happiness? Dipping things in sauces and fun new veggie recipes! Have you every roasted a radish? No?! Me neither. I hadn’t ever thought to roast one but for this recipe using roasted carrots and radish, I thought why not?? They add a beautiful color and are perfectly snackable. Roasted just long enough to be tender crisp, they become slightly sweeter (as do most roasted veggies) and they lose that somewhat bitter bite to them. I was craving something dippable (always a winner with kids too) so I’ve created a fun harissa dipping sauce made with quark cheese (or you can use plain yogurt). Harissa is a Tunisian spice blend of chili’s, paprika, garlic, cumin, coriander and sometimes lemon. You can purchase it as a dry rub or as a paste. I used the dry spice blend that I found at my local market as that was easier to find in the bulk spice section. I’m guessing many of you may have never heard of quark cheese either. It’s a spoonable German cheese made similarly to yogurt and you can use it in place of yogurt in many recipes. I had actually never tried it and the company Elli Quark sent me some free samples to try so figured I’d give it a shot! The plain unsweetened variety has has more protein content and less sugar than Greek yogurt. The taste was phenomenal as well. I’d liken its flavor to a cream cheese or cottage cheese type of taste but with the consistency and usability of plain yogurt. You can find quark cheese in the yogurt section of many specialty grocers and if you can’t but still wish to try it, check out Elli Quark’s website and they can ship it to you in a really neat cooler style package. I’m actually still in awe of its cooler style packaging. Weird, I know.
Look how pretty these look!!! So much fun to dip…. perfect for a pre-dinner appetizer or sweet roasted carrot and radish side dish.
- 6 whole carrots, tops chopped off and sliced in half lengthwise
- 4 radishes, quartered
- ¼ cup plain unsweetened quark cheese or Greek yogurt (use coconut milk yogurt for dairy free)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon milk (dairy or non)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (omit for low sodium)
- 1 teaspoon harissa seasoning
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Place carrots and radishes onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Roast carrots and radishes 10-12 minutes turning once until they are tender crisp.
- While carrots and radish are roasted, mix together quark/yogurt, garlic, lemon, salt, milk and harissa until smooth.
- Serve roasted veggies with harissa dipping sauce.
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