This Roasted Carrot Dip with pine nuts, garlic and thyme is an easy and delicious spring spread. It only requires from you less than one hour with most of the time being passive cooking!
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Hello everyone. It’s May, can you believe that? I can hardly! And those unstable daily and nightly temperatures don’t help. I mean, when the temperatures still reach round 0 degrees at nights, it’s hard to believe it’s spring. Right?
But that does not mean we cannot enjoy some spring foods. And you will see such recipes on my blog more and more often. Technically, I would say this Roasted Carrot Dip is more a wintery dish, but all these categories are very approximate. Besides, the plates you see in the picture gives us the spring vibe. So that’s good enough to call it spring recipe! LOL
This dip is ridiculously easy to make. The huge portion the cooking time would be roasting the carrots. The active cooking time would be perhaps just around 15 minutes or so.
Roasted Carrot Dip
Even though this dip is easy, the flavour profile is wonderful. First of all, when vegetables get roasted, the flavour becomes more complex, with those lovely smoky notes. This also increase their natural sweetness. For this recipe, I used a touch of honey, but if your carrots are already sweet enough, you can skip it. Maple syrup will work, too.
Other aromatics include roasted garlic, thyme, smoked paprika, and chipotle powder. While pine nuts generally have subtle taste, they add a little of pleasant nutty notes. And of course I would recommend using good quality olive oil for the best result.
As always, you can adjust the recipe to your preferences. For instance, you can swap pine nuts for some tahini paste, so you would get a dip resembling hummus. You can use other nuts instead. Think of roasted almonds or walnuts.
And if you are looking for other dip ideas, you can find more ideas here.
I hope you like this Roasted Carrot Dip, and you will make it this spring and summer. If you try it, let me know in this post or send me an Instagram message or share you photos adding the hashtag #havocinthekitchen.
Cheers!
Roasted Carrot Dip
Course: Appetizers8-10
servings15
minutes45
minutesThis Roasted Carrot Dip with pine nuts, garlic and thyme is an easy and delicious spring spread.
Ingredients
about 1 and 1/2 lb. carrots – trimmed, peeled, and cut into smaller chunks (~1 and 1/2″)
1 whole garlic head
1-2 tbsp. honey or maple syrup, optional
4-5 tbsp. olive oil, divided
few whole thyme sprigs
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
2-3 tbsp. cream cheese
about 1 tsp. slat or to taste
1/2 tbsp. smoked paprika
1/8 tsp. chipotle powder
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (20o degrees C).
- On a baking sheet, toss carrots with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, smoked paprika, and chipotle powder. Arrange the whole thyme sprigs to infuse the carrots. If desired, add honey or maple syrup. Lightly grease the whole garlic with some oil, wrap it in cooking foil, and place onto the same baking dish. Roast until carrots are lightly golden brown on the edges and tender, tossing them once or twice. That should take for about 30 minutes or so. Remove from oven and cool for about 15 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs.
- You can use as much of the roasted garlic as desired, I would recommend at least 3-4 cloves. Roasted garlic is sweet and not too strong, so it won’t overpower the dish. Simply squeeze the garlic “paste” out its skin. Keep the unused garlic refrigerated.
- In a bowl (If using an immersion blender) or blender’s cup (If using a regular blender), combine the carrots, garlic, pine nuts, 1 tbsp. of thyme, cream cheese, and 2 tbsp. of olive oil.
- Pure until the desired consistency (I prefer a bit chunky). Try and add another spoon of oil and more seasonings if necessary. This dip will be quite thick, so if you prefer it thinner, you can simply add a little of water (Or alternatively, plain yogurt). Quickly run the blender again, to incorporate.
- Serve with a little of extra olive oil, thyme, and pine nuts if desired. Keep the dip in an air-tight container refrigerated up to four days. Enjoy!
Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
Yum! Roasted Carrot Dip sounds delicious! We’re all for trying new and tasty dips, and this one has definitely caught our attention. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing the recipe!
I make a carrot spread but using sautéed carrots, butter, and cumin. I need to try your version — roasting them, for starters, and then using the thyme and smoked paprika? Sounds amazing!
Oh boy, all these spices and cream cheese with carrots ! Must be tasty !
2pots2cook recently posted…Lilac Scones with Lemon Curd
I like how you balanced the sweetness of the carrots with the chipotle and paprika. A beautiful post and a beautiful blog. Your photography is outstanding.
Carrots, cream cheese and chipotle, that combo is a killer!
Nice dip, definitely a keeper of a recipe
What a fun dish! I roast carrots often, but never thought to use them in a dip. I will, though. :-) Good stuff — thanks.
John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…The Knickerbocker Cocktail
This sounds very good Ben.
Tandy | Lavender and Lime recently posted…Garganelli Made From Two-Sided Striped Pasta
I’ve heard of a roasted carrot dip before, but I’ve never given it a try. This sounds very tasty and easy to make.
We love, love roasted carrots so this dip is calling my name!! What a tasty combination of ingredients.
Liz recently posted…Bacon Cream Cheese Roll-Ups
I love this idea, Ben! I’ve made carrot dip in the past using shredded raw carrots, and it was quite refreshing. I like the idea of adding more flavor by roasting the carrots. Plus, roasted garlic is amazing – I usually make a giant batch and keep it in the freezer, but it’s cool that you can roast the garlic at the same time as you roast the carrots!
David @ Spiced recently posted…Lemon Blueberry Quick Bread
It sounds and looks absolutely wonderful with the combo of flavours, Ben. And I probably would have used the whole bulb of roasted garlic :-))
angiesrecipes recently posted…Wild Garlic Pullman Sandwich Loaf