Anyone know how carrots came to be associated with spring and Easter? The primary reason just seems to be by association with rabbits. Rabbits have been associated with spring since ancient times. The Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring was the hare since it was associated with fertility and the rebirth of nature after the dreary days of winter. Early Christians adopted the rabbit as a symbol since Easter coincided with the beginning of spring. In some places, children are encouraged to leave out carrots as treats for the Easter bunny.
Here are two of NutritionbyNancy‘s favorite carrot recipes.
Carrots Dijon
6 medium carrots
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard (or other dark mustard)
Cut carrots into 1/4-inch slices. Steam with a little water until tender.
Immediately after carrots have been cooked, drain water. Stir in butter, brown sugar and mustard. Serve.
Carrot Cake Pancakes
Your favorite pancake recipe
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups very finely grated or chapped carrots (about 6 carrots)
(If you want a quick/easy basic pancake recipe, please email me at Nancy@NutritionbyNancy.com)
Prepare pancake recipe, mixing the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in with the dry ingredients. Stir in the carrots just after liquid and dry ingredients are mixed together.
NOTES: 1) Make sure your carrots are very finely shredded or chopped. Otherwise, you’ll have hard chunks in your pancakes. The Smitten Kitten blog recommends using the fine side of a box grater and grating by hand. I wanted to speed things up and not tire my hands, so I’ve tried the food processor – both a fine grate shredding disk and just finely chopping it. For the food processor, using the chopping blade worked best. 2) Also, this recipe is best with just orange carrots. The first time I tried it, I used carrots in a variety of colors. Resulting pancakes looked like they had bug bits in them. So, stick with orange carrots for this.
Heat griddle or skillet. Spray with oil and drop 2 tablespoons pancake mixture onto hot pan. Cook on both sides then transfer finished pancakes to a serving dish or warming tray.
We serve ours warm with butter and some fruit jam. But, if you want to be really decadent, you can try the Cream Cheese Topping below (from the Smitten Kitten blog).
Cream Cheese Topping
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
dash of ground cinnamon
In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy and lump-free. Whisk in powdered sugar, two tablespoons milk, vanilla and cinnamon. If you’d like the mixture thinner, add the remaining tablespoon of milk.
How do the carrot cake pancakes hold together?
They hold together fine, just like the zucchini pancakes. Key with the carrot pancakes is to have those carrots VERY finely grated so they’ll soften when cooking. With the zucchini and carrot pancakes, they hold together best if you make smaller pancakes, too.
[...] NOTE: Nutrition by Nancy has not tried this flour in bread or pie crust. Please let us know if you have success with it in those applications. We primarily use it for pancakes, toppings, and almost any other recipe that would call for ‘flour’. (It’s great with the carrot cake pancakes!) [...]