Make Carrots al Pastor for a New Combination

Theres a new restaurant in town called B.S. Taquiera that has a fun, chill environment and good tacos and margaritas. But the one thing that keeps me going back again and again is their cauliflower al pastor. Before my experience there, Id never had any vegetable that had been al-pastored. I thought it was a pretty clever idea so I figured why not give it a go!

Al pastor is usually meat (beef or pork or chicken) cooked on a spit with a pineapple on top. The marinade is full of chiles, pineapple juice, onions, garlic, anchiote paste and various spices. They shave the meat off the spit and add it to tacos and top it with minced cilantro and white onion; its very rich in flavor in spice, though not exactly spicy.

This iteration is veggie-driven, using fall and winters most unsung vegetable: the carrot. The past few weeks, Ive been roasting carrots with simply olive oil and a bit of salt, but Ive been looking for ways to liven the mood a bit.

This is pretty easy and straight-forward. The chiles are soaked in water for about 30 minutes. After that everything is added to a blender to combine. The carrots are tossed in the marinade and then cooked in the oven until tender. The last bit of marinade is added to the carrots just before serving. I love topping this with Mexican crema or yogurt, pomegranate seeds and plenty of cilantro. Its a perfect side dish to any dinner with unexpected and delightful flavors.

Most Mexican or Latin American super market will have dried guajillo chiles and anchiote paste.

Adrianna Adarme is a food blogger and author living in Los Angeles, California. She writes the blog A Cozy Kitchen, where she shares comforting, everyday recipes from her kitchen. She recently authored her first cookbook, PANCAKES: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack. She's a lover of breakfast, pie (and sometimes even pie for breakfast), corgis and cute things. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.