This came from Vegetarian Appetizers, by Paulette Mitchell. She serves it on pita, which you may do as well. She sprinkles it with parsley after spreading it on pita, which is certainly nice, but something I skipped since I wasn’t trying to impress anyone with my garnishing skills. I have changed it slightly because the carrots were taking just eons to get done – she asks you to steam them until very tender – for 14 to 16 minutes. Those are not compatible instructions. My carrots were nowhere near tender in 16 minutes, so the steamer came out of the pan and those carrots went right into the salted steaming water. They got done pretty quickly after that by a much-maligned process called boiling.
1 pound carrots, cut into 1-in. chunks
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
3 T red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. paprika
2 t. ground cumin seeds (I omitted this because I cannot abide the taste of raw cumin in a finished dish. I could have heated it in the olive oil until it lost its raw smell and then added the oil, which I would probably do if I was doing this for company, but it was too much of an extra step while I already had three pots on the stove while making dinner.)
1/2 t. minced fresh ginger
To make the spread:
Cook the carrots (I suggest a little bit of water, almost to cover the carrots, with salt added when it comes to a boil) until very tender. Drain thoroughly. Process the carrots in a food processor (or blender – I used the processor) until mashed. Add all the remaining spread ingredients; process until smooth and creamy. Cool to room temperature and serve on pita bread. Sprinkle with minced parsley if you like.
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