A Colorful Thanksgiving

With fall produce plumping into its prime, I love taking in the rich colors at the farmers market. My fellow patrons and I wander between squash and dark greens, lingering before we make up our minds. And it's that time of year where cooking richly colored food, stews and grand Thanksgiving feasts is upon us. It's eating time.  

To follow the chromatic flow of the season I decided on some colorful sides for our thanksgiving meal, I was thinking color and light. Rosy pink smoked salmon, frog green brussels sprouts, burnished orange and butter-brown mushroom bread pudding and a prism of roasted carrots. There is so much color to work with this season. 

Lets take carrots. Just one bunch can run the spectrum - deep purple, maroon, orange, red, yellow, and white. Regular orange carrots are one root vegetable that is flush with antioxidants but the ones that are all different colors each have a unique set of nutrients. The pigments perform a host of protecting duties in the human body according to the USDA.  

Different strains of carrots can contain varying types and amounts of carotenoids. 

Yellow carrots are high in lutein which has been proven to prevent the aging-related disease of the eye, macular degeration. Getting that lutein from yellow carrots is more available to the body than taking any supplement. Red carrots get their color from lycopene, also found in tomatoes and known to prevent heart disease. Purple carrots have a different class of pigment all together, which like most dark fruits and veggies, acts as powerful antioxidants. 

All the carrots have great stores of beta carotene and though the carrots, rainbow colored or just plain orange, are tasty and sweet eaten raw. In order to get the maximum benefit from their nutrients, it's better to cook or pulp them. 

Colored carrots may be relatively novel at the grocery store and farmers market, but they have been around for a thousand years. The wild ancestors to the carrot probably originated in Afghanistan. Today there are two main groups of carrots, Eastern carrots which are commonly purple and yellow and Western carrots brought through the Netherlands which are mainly orange and what we've traditionally seen in the grocery store or market. Colorful carrots are showing up more and more as an heirloom crop in farmer's markets and are flavorful, delicate and pack a nutritious punch. 

Ever notice that the "baby carrots" you get in the grocery store don't taste nearly as great as fresh farmers market carrots? It's because they're not really baby carrots at all but are shaved and shaped to be uniform in size. It's better to go for the wildly colored, purple, red and white, slightly knarled fresh carrot - you can even cook em whole. 

These carrots are so tender you can bake them whole and serve them as a colorful and easy side to any main dish. 

Whole Roasted Carrots with Ginger and Butter

• 1 bunch carrots - of every or any color
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbs fresh chopped ginger
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp butter

Directions:

Scrub carrots, if they're small and fresh, no need to peel. Chop greens off leaving a small stub at the tops. Toss them in olive oil, ginger, salt and pepper. Roast them at 425 degrees until tender. Finish with a bit of butter, let it melt and toss carrots.