carrot purée with caraway and halloumi

this is a moro recipe (from their second book). i love these books and sam and sam clarke's restaurant in clerkenwell is well worth a visit too.

 

750g carrots

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)

sea salt & pepper

1 level tbsp caraway seeds, roughly ground

2 tbsp roughly chopped mint

100g feta

i used half the amounts specified in the recipe, which are enough for a starter for 4. i also replaced feta with halloumi because another salad on the table used feta. the sweetness of the carrot and the saltiness of the halloumi (as would be with feta) was delicious. i would be tempted to leave it overnight for the caraway and mint to intensify but we gobbled it up so there was none to experiment with. i also think cumin and coriander seeds (often seen in carrot recipes) might be a better compliment, even though i do love caraway seeds.

roast chopped carrots (covered in olive oil, salt & pepper) at 200°C for 45 mins or until tender. cool and mash by hand or in a food processor. stir in the caraway seeds, half of the mint, 2tbsps of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. spread the purée on a plate, crumble feta in the middle, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with mint.

the moro recipe suggests serving it with crispbreads made out of cut up triangles of pitta drizzled in butter before grilling. i served it with thinly sliced, toasted ciabatta but mainly because i wanted that for the roast garlic purée. in fact, we ate it on the slices of halloumi which was a lovely way to have it.