From The Clever Cookbook, a roasted carrot salad recipe, made with savory spice-roasted carrots, lemony avocado, and young greens. Jump to recipe.
The challenge of getting a good dinner to the table leads to a lot of round-ups of dinner hacks or 3-ingredient this and 15-minute that. But that kind of food writing leaves me cold. Racing the clock to heat up the smallest amount of food that can be called a meal with a singular focus on efficiency is no way to close out a day.
For me, good dinners are about bringing together ingredients I love in a way that feels nourishing and tastes delicious. It’s not always easy and it takes a little planning, but it’s workable and it gets a healthy protein and a pile of vegetables on the table nearly every night. It’s an approach that runs on inspiration though, and at the end of February, inspiration’s in short supply. So my new copy of The Clever Cookbook by Emilie Raffa of The Clever Carrot has been a revelation. Emilie also believes in delicious, wholesome foods and has dozens of smart strategies and simple recipes to make good food happen, even on the craziest days.
Good cookbooks have recipes that join our regular rotation, but the very best cookbooks change the way we cook. And The Clever Cookbook is one of the best. With smart shortcuts like a recipe that makes a batch of rich chicken stock and a tender, perfectly cooked whole chicken, fragrant make-ahead spice blends, and batch-cooked grains, Emilie inspires us to work smart, and assemble or warm or quickly cook up simple, delicious dinners night after night. To share Emilie’s brilliance, I’m giving away a copy of The Clever Cookbook to one lucky reader. To enter, leave a comment below with your favorite kitchen trick. The giveaway is open to US readers and closes March 3 at noon EST. Update: A cookbook winner has been selected! Thanks to all who participated with SO MANY fantastic tips. (It’s cool if I steal them all, right?)
I’ve bookmarked many of Emilie’s beautifully photographed recipes – sheet pan fish and chips and fajita flatbreads are standouts – but I knew I had to share this gorgeous spice-roasted carrot salad with avocado. Carrots are tossed with a wonderfully savory spice blend, made with smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne, and then roasted until tender with crisp edges. In Emilie’s recipe, the warm carrots are tossed on the pan with pine nuts and golden raisins, but I had pepitas and tart dried cherries on hand, so I made an on-the-fly substitution. Right before serving, the warm salad is tossed with lemony avocados and young greens. Besides all the straight-up deliciousness, this salad impressed in the way familiar ingredients were recast in such a new and interesting way. I can already tell that I’ll be thinking about Emilie’s smart cooking for weeks to come.
- 2 tablespoons course sea alt
- 2 teaspoons cumin seed
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 4 medium carrots, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 heaping teaspoon Mexican Spice Blend (recipe below)
- 1/4 cup dried tart cherries or golden raisins
- 2 tablespoons raw, hulled pepitas or pine nuts
- 1 ripe avocado
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- pinch sea salt
- large handful young mesclun
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To make Mexican Spice Blend, combine all spices and herbs in a resealable jar; whisk thoroughly with a fork to combine. Seal, label, and date. Mixture will keep well in a cool, dry place 6 months to 1 year.
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
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In a large bowl, toss carrots with olive oil and spice mixture. Spread out on prepared baking sheet and roast 20 minutes or until carrots are tender with golden brown edges. Scatter cherries and pepitas on hot baking sheet and gently toss. Set aside to cool.
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Cut avocado into generous 3/4-inch chunks. Drizzle with lemon juice and a pinch sea salt. Add avocado and mesclun to carrots and toss gently. Finish with another squeeze of lemon and pinch of sea salt.
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Serve salad at room temperature directly from baking sheet.
Disclosure: A free copy of The Clever Cookbook was provided to me for this post. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for reading!
My favorite kitchen trick is peeling a whole head of garlic by smashing it and then shaking it in a mason jar.
I’m not sure if it’s a trick, but I save all of my vegetable scraps and freeze them. Later, I make veggie broth.
This looks gorgeous. I don’t know if it truly counts as a trick, but I like to roast large batches of vegetables and cook large amounts of grains and beans and freeze the leftovers. That way I can pull together quick, healthy meals with most of the work already taken care of. And I top anything that feels incomplete with an egg.
I always put my baking sheet in the oven while it is preheating so when it comes time to toss on veggies for roasting they get extra crispy!
My favorite trick is to make my salad dressing in a mason jar. That way I can just shake it up to make sure it is mixed thoroughly.
This salad looks fantastic! My favorite kitchen trick is peeling fresh ginger with a spoon — so easy and useful. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
I’ve already learned several new tricks just by reading the comments, but I can’t think of one of my own off the top of my head.
Egg shells are like egg shell magnets! I’m horrible at cracking eggs and little bits of the shell always fall into whatever I’m cooking/backing, but I use the rest of the egg shell to scoop out the little egg shell bits.
Oh how I wish I could enter this giveaway! 🙂 Emilie’s book sound brilliant! And this recipe…oh my! It looks amazing. <3 <3
Looks delicious (as usual). I love the way you photograph your food, it makes it feel like I can almost smell/taste the recipes 🙂 I have a few regular tricks to help me quicken my cooking processes on a daily basis. I like things to be ready to just put in a bag and head out in the morning so I often hard boil a whole carton of eggs on a given Sunday so I can grab one or two on the fly and just bring it to the office for breakfast or lunch. Also I make my own pesto which I freeze in ice cube countainers overnight and than unmold and stash away in freezer bags for later use. But I guess my favorite trick (which was a revelation when I was shown the first time), is how to pit an Avocado by just opening it in half and “ninja jaming” the knife in the pit and twist to remove it from the flesh! So much quicker and you don’t lose any flesh at all.
My favorite trick is just to make as much of my meals ahead of time as possible. I love the hours I spend cooking on Sundays–it’s so relaxing to me and it makes me feel good knowing that I’m making something healthy for myself for the week.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Prep things beforehand!
One of my favorite kitchen tricks involves keeping herbs fresh longer. I wash the herbs well, shake off excess water, and put them in a small mason jar filled with cold water. I then put a “baggie” over the top and put in the refrigerator. Keeps for a week or more. Love it!
I like to freeze chipotle peppers in “packs”, I take a sheet of plastic wrap and place the peppers two inches apart on the wrap. I then twist them into individual packs & it forms a rope. When I need one I simply cut off one pack from the rope. This is also useful for tomato paste.
Cook dried beans with a bay leave to help your tummy digest them <3
Freezing Pastry dough in exact sizes for my desserts. Then all I have to do is thaw and its ready to go.
My kitchen trick is to use the lid if the vanilla extract to measure a tsp
Found your blog through IG and I’m loving your site! Not sure if this is exactly a kitchen trick, but I always clean as I prep or cook. That way, I’m never left with that big of a mess to clean at the very end.
My favorite hack is to always double dough recipes and then freeze the second batch. That way I always have my favorite dough ready to go
Instead of cracking my eggs on the side of the bowl, I crack them flat on the counter. This makes it easy to pull them apart without any pieces of shell getting into the bowl. It sound counter-intuitive but it really works!
My favorite kitchen trick is using the coffee grinder for other purposes—grinding spices or nuts, like sesame seeds to make tahini.
My favorite hack is to use the coffer grinder to grind spices or even sesame seeds to make tahini.
My favorite kitchen trick is to use measuring cups as mixing bowls, so I can use (and wash!) fewer dishes.
My favorite kitchen trick is to do food prep on Sundays. I roast the chicken I need for the week, chop and package my onions and peppers, etc. Anything I can do ahead of time to make weeknight meals faster!
My current favorite kitchen trick is using my grater on a frozen stick of butter any time I’m making a recipe that calls for cutting in cold butter. Saves loads of time!
Pop an onion in the freezer for 5min before you chop it and it won’t make you cry!
My favorite trick is to pick up egg shell shards with the leftover egg shell! It’s like their magnets!
Boneless skinless chicken breasts served with some roasted veggies are my go-to quick weeknight meal. To cook the chicken quickly but still have a juicy final product I always pound the chicken breasts until they’re an even thickness. This way I’m able to toss them in a hot skillet and cook them just a few minutes on each side. This way they’re never dried out and I can have dinner on the table in a flash.
For the creamiest homemade hummus I line to boil canned chickpeas for 10 minutes
One of my favorite kitchen hacks is to clean my enamel dutch oven by throwing a damp paper towel inside it and then placing the cover back on to let it “steam off”residue, while it cools down on the top of the stove. Once cool, you can wipe off any residue inside.
One of my best time and step savers is to have a bowl beside my cutting board for all of my scraps. Allows me to work faster!
We just tried this recipe last night and my toddler loved the spicy carrots. Any ideas for using up the rest of the spice blend?
Hi Ashley,
That’s great news! I’ve been using the spice mix to flavor beans and tossing it will all my roast vegetables. Besides carrots, I love the kick it gives cauliflower and broccoli. Thanks for sharing your feedback!