Only two and a half more weekends till Christmas so here comes another Christmas worthy dish – harissa carrots on pistachio cream. I created these harissa carrots with Christmas menu in mind, but it would also be a perfect side to any special occasion meal so feel free to whip them up for a posh Sunday lunch.

These harissa carrots are easy to make and beautiful to look at too. I recommend getting the most flavourful carrots you can find for this dish as they are the star here. They get coated in a simple marinade of spicy harissa paste, maple syrup and olive oil and roasted in a hot oven until tender and gently caramelised. If you have young carrots, you don’t have to peel them as the skins have a lot of flavour plus getting one less chore to do, especially at Christmas, is always welcome.

These earthy, spicy and sweet caramelised harissa carrots sit on a nutty and slightly lemony pistachio cream that complements them really well and provides a delightfully creamy element to this simple side dish. Pistachio cream is really quick to make in a blender and the only pain point is peeling the pistachios to reveal their intense green kernels. You absolutely do not have to do that, your pistachio cream will still be delicious but it won’t be as vibrantly green as mine. You can find already peeled pistachios online too, but, unsurprisingly, these are even more pricy.

To finish the dish off, chop the rest of your unpeeled pistachios up, alongside a handful of carrot tops (or herbs like mint and parsley) and scatter these and some pomegranate arils on top of the carrots. I sometimes like to go even further and caramelise the pistachios for the topping in a bit of maple syrup and sprinkle them heavily with flaky salt, like in this recipe, but as that’s yet another process and I know you’ll be busy, I didn’t include that in the recipe. It’s simply an optional suggestion if you yourself are a tweaker and an improver too 😉 . Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy my harissa carrot and I will be back with something sweet, I think. Watch this space.

CARROTS: Get the nicest carrots you can find as carrots are the main event in this dish rather than a support act. I used a bunch of organic carrots with carrot tops. Because they were organic, I did not bother to peel them, I simply made sure to scrub them well and I used a handful of the carrot tops for garnish. If your carrots come trimmed, you can use a handful of parsley or mint to finish this dish off, or a mixture of the two. Be sure to pick carrots of similar size is possible and if they are quite a lot different (thickness is what matters most here), halve super thick carrots to make sure they don’t take twice as long to cook.

HARISSA PASTE: Harissa paste is a Tunisian chilli and spice paste that is used in several North African countries. Different brands have different strengths (I used Belazu rose harissa) so when you first make this dish, don’t go overboard.

MAPLE SYRUP: I used maple syrup to bring out carrots’ natural sweetness and to help the caramelisation process. You can use honey if you are not vegan.

LEMON: Since carrots are naturally sweet and I also added maple syrup to bring that natural sweetness out of them even more, I used lemon zest and lemon juice to flavour my pistachio cream. Use as much or as little as you like.

OLIVE OIL: I used olive oil to create the marinade for the carrots and quite a bit more to give pistachio cream a bit of a body and a more indulgent mouthfeel. I used mild olive oil so that its bitter flavour does not compete with pistachios nuttiness.

PISTACHIOS: I made a silky and nutty cream out of peeled pistachios and used some extra (unpeeled) pistachios as garnish. You don’t have to peel the pistachios as it is a bit of a pain, I won’t lie, but the cream does have a more vibrant and appetising colour if you do.

POMEGRANATE: Jewel-like pomegranate arils can make anything look festive and they really work with the flavours of this dish so I sprinkled them liberally on top of these harissa carrots on pistachio cream.

GARLIC: Technically, you can skip this ingredient and simply use a bit of garlic powder or a raw garlic clove if you don’t mind a bit of an oomph! I wanted a very mild and mellow garlic flavour here so I roasted an entire head of garlic while my carrots were roasting and added a few cloves to the pistachio cream.

HOW TO MAKE IT?

1) MARINATE THE CARROTS

Clean your carrots well. If needed, cut thick carrots in half so that all of them have a similar thickness. Marinate in a simple marinade of harissa paste, olive oil and maple syrup, season generously and roast in hot oven until tender, about 25-30 minutes. Prepare a head of garlic for roasting at the same time by cutting the top of it off to expose the cloves, drizzling it with a teaspoon of olive oil, wrapping it up in a piece of kitchen foil. Place in the oven, next to the carrots, and roast for about 30 minutes – until the exposed cloves look less opaque and jammy.

2) PEEL PISTACHIOS (OPTIONAL)

This is an optional and somewhat of a tedious step, but it will make a difference to the colour of your pistachio cream. Blanch 130 g (1 cup) of pistachios in a pot of boiling water for 90 seconds, drain and plunge into a bowl of cold water with a few ice-cubes. Use your fingers to peel off the skins to reveal bright green pistachio kernels. If not peeling your pistachios, soak 130 g (1 cup) of them in boiling water for 10 minutes to soften.

3) MAKE PISTACHIO CREAM

Place peeled pistachios in a blender with some olive oil, water, lemon zest, a few roasted garlic cloves and a touch of lemon juice and blend until silky smooth. Season to taste.

4) ASSEMBLE & SERVE

Spread pistachio cream at the bottom of the dish, pile roasted carrots on top. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios, pomegranate arils and a handful of chopped carrot tops or herbs.