Carrots, Unleashed (Carrot Butter?)
by Amanda • September 21, 2012 • Chips, Dips & Flips, Power Blender • 29 Comments
Carrot Butter is a weird sounding food, unless you’ve been to Sage’s Cafe in downtown SLC. Then, it sounds heavenly
The first time we went to Sage’s we had no idea it was a vegan restaurant and we were, quite honestly, relatively unimpressed with one exception. This was many years ago. We have been back many times now, and while the food is always tasty and we try something different every time (or the same thing we had before but forgot how we liked it), we always go back for the same thing. And every time I recommend Sage’s or someone asks what is good, I always say they must, MUST, get the Carrot Butter.
And what’s the deal? Apparently, it’s pick your favorite animal week here at GCF. We have two rat-bags and a “green” frog. This totally works though, because in my house, my five year old insists that we always choose an animal to be for the daywhen we wake up in the morning. So, today I pick a copy-cat (love your creations Chef Ian – I just need them family-sized!). So, with a bit of internet searching and a little tweaking, I’ve mastered this beautiful, NEON ORANGE creation. I sent my husband a picture of the Vitamix full of orange stuff, and he told me it might freak people out to know this was food. When he got home and saw the Vosen’s seeded baguette, he knew dinner would be amazing. At least for the grown-ups. (This is not a kid-approved recipe, which I totally don’t get because it’s sweet. And neon orange. What’s not to like?)
Then I brought some down to Somer’s for her post-birthday bash. It seemed to go over pretty well. (Her text tonight said this: Can’t. Stop. Eating. Carrot. Butter.) Erika was a bit thrilled with it as well, and told me I HAD to post it soon. I sorta wish I’d taken pictures today since we made lovely open-faced sandwiches with fresh garden vegetables on crusty bread. So, so good.
So, here is the scoop:
Sage’s Carrot Butter
1 ¼ lb. (about 6-7 medium) carrots, peeled, small dice
¾ c. macadamia nuts
¼ c. safflower or canola oil
2 T. maple syrup
½ T. salt
½ – 1 t. vanilla, to taste
Directions:
- Steam carrots until very tender, 20-30 minutes depending on how small you dice them. Reserve about ½ c. of your steaming water
- Place carrots, nuts, oil, maple syrup, salt, vanilla, and ¼ c. reserved water in blender or food processor. Let it rip until the texture is very smooth, almost the consistency of fluffy frosting. A Vitamix or Blendtec will do the job handily, but I make no claims to the performance of other apparatuses – consider soaking your macadamias if you’re ripping without super-blender.
- Serve on crusty seeded baguette with cucumbers, or on a spoon. It also makes a delicious sandwich spread or cucumber spread (that’s how Erika ate hers since she’s giving wheat the crusty eye these days).
I just discovered a carrot butter this week as well. Totally addictive! Love the stuff. Mine was not so sweet – and no my kids would not eat it either. I wonder if they would like your recipe better?
LOVE this idea. Thanks so much for figuring it out and sharing. I would think the wee ones would go for it too, but I’ve made that mistake with my own crew before. You just never know… Oh well, more for us!
That looks delicious!
I’m so glad you posted this!! I love Sage’s carrot butter and have meant to try and recreate it – and now you’ve done the work for me!
Oh Annie, it was SO good! I’ve never been to Sage’s and have nothing to compare it too, but this stuff was divine.
I second Somer- sooooooooo good. Making some today.
Carrots on shopping list…
Every last scrape of the carrot butter is gone! Thanks so much for sharing it, and for hanging out with me yesterday! xoxo
Way to be efficient! THANK YOU. Headed out for Hazelnuts so I can eat more tonight.
Made it! Used my food processor and had to add extra water (a total of 5/8 cup.) The hazelnuts would not completely break down no matter how long I ran the processor (yes, I soaked the hazelnuts) so I am going to use my neighbors vitamix this afternoon to smooth it out. I’m wondering if it would help to take the outer skin of the hazelnuts off next round…. It is SUPER tasty, it may not survive long enough to be remixed!
blame the hazelnuts. they could work, should probably be blanched, but the recipe wants macadamia nuts which are lots oilier and don’t have skins.
Noted.
Sounds delish, and good for you too! Can’t wait to try it!
This sounds like an amazing combination! I get the BEST carrots from my CSA, I can’t wait to try it.
Envy!
And now today I saw a recipe for carrot jam (basically carrots & sugar). I wonder how it would be with carrot butter!
I wonder if you added a bit of nooch and some miso if it might taste a bit more savoury?
I bet that would work-just replace the sweet bits for savory, keeping that hint of sweetness from the carrots? I bet it would be delicious.
As a vegan I am always on the hunt for delicious new ways to spice up my veggies and this sounds like something wonderful. I just discovered pumpkin butter and decided that I could give it a more savoury take as well. As an Aussie, we tend to make more savoury things with pumpkin and as I adore pumpkins I like to have them regularly. Tasmania (where I live) is the carrot capital of Australia and it’s only fitting that I start eating more of them
. Cheers for a lovely and most useful post 
Looks and sounds great!
Let’s discuss how awesome this is, as we have a million carrots that I’m terrified are going to sprout and come to life in my fridge, then rise up against humanity. Then it will be my fault that life as we know it on Earth is ended.
That would look so bad on my resume. . .
Hooray for eating carrots! (before they eat us. . .)
Dude, you’re totally cracking me up. Headline news “Mutant carrots take over the earth, all signs are pointing to an evolution occurring in the Vegan husband’s CSA box at the bottom of his fridge.”
I’m surprised the blonde hasn’t demanded vegan carrot cake. well, if she won’t I will. make some carrot cake!
What about this one! http://veganflavorista.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/vegan-carrot-cake-with-cashew-cream-frosting/
OooooOooo. Must try this soon. Note to.self. buy macadamia nuts.
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Will try with raw cashews. Macadamias are out of my league.