Introduction:
I have a confession to make: this recipe is not as easy as the others, for one reason: you have to cut up the carrots. I’ve seen a few Indian stores (just a couple) that have pre-chopped frozen carrots. If you can find a bag of pre-chopped frozen carrots (or pre-chopped fresh carrots!), then this recipe is easy. If not . . . the chopping does take an extra 20 minutes, at least for me.
I still wanted to include this recipe, though. I really believe in the power of carrots. In general, I like any brightly colored vegetable. Carrots are even dearer to me because they made a frequent appearance on my mother’s dinner table when I was growing up. So let’s get started:
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of carrots, diced
- Cooking oil (whatever type you prefer – I used olive oil)
- 1 cup of water
- Mustard seeds
- Ajwain seeds
- Cumin seeds
- 1 big handful of chopped cilantro (fresh or frozen)
- Cumin powder
- Curry powder
Step 1:
Take your whole carrots (it doesn’t matter if you scraped the peel off – just make sure you washed them!) and chop them up. I chop small, but it doesn’t really matter how small or big your pieces are. Experiment!
One alternate suggestion: sometimes, when I’m not in the mood to saw through a bunch of tough carrots, I’ll just cut them in half, toss them in a pot with ½ cup of water, and boil for a few minutes, to soften them up. Then I rinse in cold water, and commence with the chopping. Either way, you should end up with a pile of chopped carrots that look something like this:
Step 2:
Heat up a large pot with 2 spoons of cooking oil. When the oil is heated up, toss in 1 spoon of mustard seeds. If they do not start popping in a few minutes, turn up the heat and wait until it happens.
Step 3:
Add one spoon of ajwain seeds to the pot. Add a pinch of cumin seeds. Toss in your cilantro and stir. Add one spoon of cumin powder. Add one spoon of curry powder. Stir the whole mix.
Step 4:
Add your diced carrots to the pot and stir, coating all the carrots evenly with the spice and cilantro mix.
Step 5:
Add ½ a cup of water to the diced carrots. Stir once, and cover the pot with the lid for 5 minutes. Take off the lid, stir the carrots, and check to see if they are fully cooked. If not, and if the water has mostly evaporated, add ½ cup of water and cover for another 5-10 minutes. If the pot still has most of the previous ½ cup of water, then just recover it for another 5 minutes and check it again.
Step 6:
Take off the lid, add a spoon of salt to the carrots, and stir. Do a taste test – if you want more salt, add another ½ spoon and stir. Let the mixture cook for 2-5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 7:
Do a taste test – if the salt is enough for you, and the carrots are fully cooked, then you are done! Take off the heat and enjoy!
Final Thoughts:
As always, I usually eat this dish with some plain brown rice, curry rice, or quinoa. Because carrots are a little starchier than many other vegetables, I used to only eat 1-2 scoops of the Indian carrots with my rice. But these days, I eat up to 3-4 scoops with my rice, and I think that’s just fine!
