Roasted baby carrots + baby parsnips. Drizzled with a ginger tahini dressing. And sprinkled with toasted almonds, lots of fresh herbs and fruity pomegranate seeds. Easy peasy planty side for ANY occasion!!

AND, if you want to make it a main dish you could serve with some cooked grains of your choice (quinoa, wild rice, sorghum, millet etc) and some kind of protein packed spread, for example my sweet potato and roasted garlic hummus (might be my favourite one in the world) or my Pea and cilantro hummus.

Roasted carrots and parsnips with ginger tahini dressing and pomegranate

4-6 servings, as a green side

Ingredients

500 g new season/baby carrots/carrots bought in a bunch (you could use any type of carrot really, but I find that the baby ones are even better for this recipe as I prefer to roast them whole - and with the peel on)

10 baby parsnips (see note on carrots above, same thing here)

2 dl / 0.8 US cups fresh parsley

2 dl / 0.8 US cups pomegranate seeds

1 dl / 0.4 US cups almonds

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

unrefined sea salt

Ginger tahini dressing

1/2 dl / 0.2 US cups light tahini (I prefer to use tahini made of non roasted sesame seeds as the flavour is not as sharp as if you would use a dark tahini)

3/4 dl / 0.3 US cups water

zest from 1 organic lemon + 2 tbsp freshly pressed lemon juice

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

unrefined sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the carrot tops if there are any (these ones are GREAT to use in a home made pesto, smoothie or herb hummus!). Scrub the carrots and parsnips (if the peel on the parsnips is too thick you might want to peel them - otherwise it’s great to leave on).

Put the root veggies on a baking tray and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with salt. Roast in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes, until they are slightly golden and the peel is slightly crispy.

Put the almonds on a baking tray. Roast in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes, until a nutty aroma fills the kitchen. Stir around halfway through. Let cool.

Mix all the ingredients for the ginger tahini dressing using a blender/immersion blender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Put the roasted veggies on a serving plate, drizzle over ALL (important part, the dressing is great) the dressing. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, almonds and pomegranate seeds. And some flakey salt!

Best,

Thess

Recipe was first published in The Gothenburg-Post/Två dagar. Photo by Fanny Hansson.