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Carrot And Cheddar Shortbread Recipe

Carrot and Cheese Shortbread

An odd side effect of growing your own food is that sometimes you have very small amounts of produce. For example, we harvested a handful of carrots this week, thinning out space for the other carrots to grow bigger. This gave us about 8 small carrots which is barely a snack of one person, never mind a side for three, so I had to think of something we could make that use the carrots to best effect.

Carrot and Cheese Shortbread
Carrot and Cheese Shortbread served with Carrot Top Hummus

I decided a good snack for a picnic we were attending would be Carrot and Cheese Shortbread. I know shortbread is normally a sweet treat, but why should it be!?

This recipe was a bit trial and error, but it worked out so well, I’m really pleased with it. And if we have another small batch of carrots I intend to do the same again, but freeze the dough so that we have ready shortbread whenever we want – I think it’s a great way of saving summer produce too! I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

Shortbread

In the meantime, here’s the carrot and cheddar shortbread recipe.

Carrot And Cheddar Shortbread Recipe
Recipe Type: Snack
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 20 biscuits
In the Thermomix this just takes a few minutes, then there’s a 30 minute chill time. After chilling you need to slice the cookies or you can roll them out to make shapes.
Ingredients
  • 115g (4oz) salted butter
  • 90g (3oz) carrot and cheese*
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary
  • 220g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
  • 1 tbs water (a bit more if your flour is organic)
Instructions
  1. (If you’re not using a Thermomix, grate the carrot first)
  2. Add room temperature butter to a mixing bowl and using an electric beater whisk it till it’s light and fluffy
(Thermomix: add the butterfly and mix on speed 3 for 30 – 40 seconds)
  1. Add a mixture of carrot and cheese to add up to 90g. In this case I used 45g of each, but more or less of whichever you have, to add up to 90g.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the water and mix until combined
(speed 6 for 1 minute)
  1. Add the water and mix till it combines and pulls away from the sides
  2. Tip out onto greaseproof paper, and shape into a sausage. Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
  3. After 30 minutes, turn the oven on to 180C/350F. Slice the sausage into 1cm thick slices and place on a baking tray. Bake for 20 -25 minutes.
  4. Leave to cool.

 

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Ghoulicious Carrot And Clementine Soup Recipe

Carrot and Clementine Soup

I remember making this Carrot and Clementine soup almost five years ago, with ordinary carrots and I remember that it was lovely. I found it a few days ago in the bottom of my drafts folder, and decided to make it again soon. As it happens our organic vegetable box arrived this week with purple carrots – the original carrots, apparently – and I thought these would make an eerie, spooky, fun addition to your Halloween festivities.

Carrot and Clementine SoupOf course, you can make it with normal carrots too, and it will be delicious, but not purple.

Also, I like creamy soups, so I add cream before serving. You can add cashew cream instead to make it vegan, or  you can make it without any cream at all, if that’s your preference.

Serve with Cardamom Braid or Soda Bread – both are just as delicious.

Carrot and Clementine Soup Recipe:

Carrot And Clementine Soup
Recipe Type: Soup, Winter
Author: Luschka
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 600g (+- 5 large) carrots finely diced
  • 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
  • 750 ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) crushed coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) grated ginger
  • 2 tbsp (30ml) corn flour or ground rice
  • 6 clementines/mandarins/nartjies or other sweet citrus, liquidised
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • cream to serve
Instructions
  1. Sweat the finely diced carrots and onion in large saucepan with the butter – keep the lid on and keep stirring them until soft, for about 10 minutes.
  2. Add the crushed coriander and heat through for about 2 minutes to release the fragrance, and then add the hot stock, ground cumin and fresh ginger. (If you are using ground coriander add with the other spices and the stock.).
  3. Add the thickening agent (rice or corn flour) and liquidised citrus– stirring well, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then liquidise in a food processor or with an immersion blender.
  5. Return the soup to the pan and reheat for 5 minutes or until piping hot, remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Drizzle with a little cream, and top with dehydrated carrot or twists of citrus zest, and serve with bread.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Chop the carrot and onion finely, speed 4/ 5 seconds
  2. Sweat for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the salt, pepper and optional cream.
  4. Cook for 15 minutes on Veroma/Speed 1.
  5. If you like it smooth, pulse on Turbo a few times, otherwise leave it as is.
  6. Drizzle with cream and season to taste. (optional)
Notes
Any left overs can be frozen, and reheated when required.

Find more Halloween Recipes here