I’m a full-fledged member of carrot-oholics anonymous. I’ve learned to love these root vegetables.

But, in truth, for most of my life, I never liked carrots. Raw, they’re not so bad. Cooked, I really loathed them. The taste of steamed or boiled carrots was so revolting to me.

So, why did I detest cooked carrots? I guess I never got over the shockingly bad tasting carrots my mom fed me from a jar when I was a baby. Is it possible to remember what food tasted like when you were a baby? I don’t know, I guess part of my brain still remembers the awful taste.

To this day, I feel for babies. The taste of baby food in jars is pretty awful. Okay, so the fruit ones are not that bad, but the vegetable ones are nasty – enough to scar your taste buds for life.

If you don’t remember what they taste like, pick up one of those carrot baby food jars and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

So, there was just no room for carrots in my repertoire. The one exception was when I was making a pureed veggie soup that included carrots. The pureeing process made the cooked carrot taste disappear into oblivion.

So why am I now into rabbit food?

It was when the heirloom variety caught my attention at a local farmers’ market.

Initially, it was their stunning rainbow colors that make them hard to ignore. Then, after bringing a bunch home and roasting them, I discovered that their delicious flavor is far superior to the modern carrots you find at grocery stores.

In recent years, carrots, especially heirloom, have enjoyed a huge spike in popularity. Chefs everywhere have been coming up with creative ways of cooking them. Finally no more boiled or steamed carrots. I was inspired to give the carrot a second chance. I now feel more at ease seeing it on my plate. I no longer associate the taste of carrots with my babyhood culinary trauma.

Roasting them became my favorite way to enjoy them. With its child-like simplicity, it is hardly a recipe. It is just a method of cooking them that brings out the sweeter more complex flavor. I don’t even peel them. I give them a good scrub, season them and then roast them. The beauty of it is you can use a simple seasoning such as salt, pepper and olive oil. Or, you can experiment with more exotic spices, such as Indian curry spices. The result is a great tasting veggie that will leave you licking your fingers…

Serve them as the perfect side dish for chicken, fish or steak. Or have them as an appetizer with a nice glass of Pinot Noir or Gamay Beaujolais.

***Note: Due to the risk of salmonella, I am not using a traditional aioli recipe that calls for raw egg yolks. For this post, I use store bought mayonnaise as a substitute.

***Harissa is an aromatic chili pepper paste that is widely used in middle eastern foods. It is readily available in specialty stores and most grocery stores.