Want to stop side-lining your side dishes and find a way to make them center-stage? Read on as I take the humble carrot and make it worthy of adulation in this exotic take on a roasted root vegetable. Using the dried grassiness of saffron, the heat and heady pop of cinnamon, and complexity of Madagascar Black Peppercorn Oil, this side becomes mystical and fiendishly fabulous.

I submit that side dishes have received a truly bum rap when it comes to their vital place in completing a delicious meal. Y’all should be working harder to imagine something better. Because a BLING meal deserves MORE than mushy mashed ‘taters or overcooked beans. As proof let’s review any common restaurant menu. Entrees receive carefully curated language elevating the main course to enchantment-status. The list of sides? Well, it’s like an afterthought! “Oh, yeah. SLAW . . . $4.95.” Even a place like Ruth’s Chris steakhouse makes you order a side to get one. Otherwise, it’s just the cow on the plate. Yeah, we can do better when nourishing those we love!

I don’t take any side for granted. They receive the same love and care from me as the protein or even the wine pairing. But the trick to elevating side dishes isn’t just preparation or technique. It is using the BEST ingredients and the most interesting FLAVORS. Even salt and pepper are pivotal! Salt is meant to remind you of what you’re eating. But pepper? It pushes against the ingredient. Challenging it and intensifying it! That’s why this month’s BLING meal uses Olive This! MADAGASCAR BLACK PEPPERCORN OIL as the secret to greatness. Do not stop reading. This stuff is extraordinary!

So why does pepper make such a fabulous difference?

Wikipedia can be counted on for a direct yet lackluster definition of anything. Take pepper for instance: “Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is drupe, which is about 5 mm in diameter, dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed…”
Yawn . . . wait. What the heck is drupe? See, research can be fascinating. And peppercorns in particular are more than just that blackish grain in the container next to your salt. Ground finely or coarse, they are deep in purpose, romantic in the results they offer, and clearly push the mundane to nobility!

As you get reach for your carrot peeler and launch your new commitment to side-dish greatness, do not take the combination of these flavors lightly. They are world-class. Cinnamon and pepper and saffron are routinely used together in many parts of the world. The un-boring parts I proffer. And here’s the other fun fact. This recipe is ridiculously easy. I mean peel, cut, toss, roast. And the jalapeño yogurt? Crack in a bowl. I served it with a red pepper meat loaf placed atop red quinoa I tossed with radicchio and spring mix and a little lemon vinaigrette.
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Recipe for the carrots and meat loaf below.