honey roasted carrot and hummus sandwiches

Honey Roasted Carrot and Hummus Sandwiches Recipe:

Fat, diagonal slices of carrot are tossed in a honey and olive oil glaze, sprinkled with sea salt, and roasted until golden. While they're roasting you can whip up a batch of basic hummus, or fancy it up if you like. This recipe makes way more hummus than you need for the sandwiches, enjoy the leftovers as a dip with veggies, or with some crackers.

Makes 2 sandwiches with a thick carrot layer, or 4 with a single layer of carrots.

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For the Honey Roasted Carrots:

4 large carrots
2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

For the Basic Hummus

3 cups cooked chickpeas
4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon water
¼ - ⅓ cup lemon juice
2 tablespoon tahini paste
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin

4-8 slices of nice multigrain bread, depending on how many sandwiches you want to make.

Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel your carrots if you like (I did only for aesthetics, if you're using organic carrots don't bother, just give 'em a good scrub, but if your carrots aren't organic then please peel them), then slice them on a sharp diagonal so you get long slices, about ½ cm thick. In a large bowl, whisk together honey and olive oil. If your honey isn't the runny type just heat it slightly until it is a bit liquidy. Add the carrot slices to the bowl, then toss so everything is well coated in the honey glaze. Arrange carrot slices on the lined baking sheet in a single layer. Pop into the oven, and roast until they are soft and slightly brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool.

While the carrots are roasting you can make the hummus. In the bowl of a food processor combine, chickpeas, olive oil, ¼ cup lemon juice, water, and tahini. Pulse a few times, then process, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Taste the hummus and decide whether you want to use the rest of the lemon juice (I did). Add a bit of salt and pepper, and the cumin. Process again, then taste again and decide whether you need more salt.

Decide how many sandwiches you want to make. I always start my sandwiches by toasting the bread, especially if I'm making a few at a time to pack for lunches. For each sandwich, spread both slices of bread generously with hummus. Arrange slices of honey roasted carrots in either a single layer (for four sandwiches) or a double layer (for two extra carroty sandwiches) over one slice of the bread (No, YOU licked the extra honey glaze off the parchment). Top with the other slice of bread, and either pack away into your sandwich stowage device (sandwich keeper? plastic baggie? parchment paper?) or enjoy immediately.

Carrots are an excellent source of beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, as well as vitamin C, and dietary fiber. Chickpeas are a super food! They’re a very good source of folate, protein, dietary fiber, phosphorus and iron. The fiber in chickpeas is mostly insoluble, which is really good for our digestive tracts. Chickpeas plus the whole wheat / multigrain bread forms a complete protein. Win!