Open-Faced Rye Bread Sandwich with Roasted Purple Carrot and Arugula Pesto

What did you cook last time you had no time or little energy left to put together a proper meal? Did you dry an egg? Did you inspect the fridge in the hope for the tasty and (and still edible) leftovers? Did you make hot-dogs like my husband? Did you brew some tea and pull out the breakfast set with cheese and olives, like my Turkish family? Did you just order in?

At least a couple of times a week I find myself in that very situation, and I have become a master of the quick meals. The recipe for a 5-min meal is simple: use one or two main ingredients, choose things that cook very fast and don’t be shy to use a very high heat when cooking. This is exactly how this week I made a creamy soup of winter vegetables within 10 minutes (only 2 hands on) or roasted tiny anchovy fillets with olive oil, herbs and garlic (prepping 5 min and cooking for 5 min in a very-very hot oven).

I cherish the meals like that as they give you more than they take from you, they are low-stake, which encourages you to create wild flavor combinations, plus they often become a blueprint for a proper dish I create a recipe for later. But often times I am enjoying them quietly, thinking they are too humble and to straightforward to talk about. Hey, don’t we all look for the quick meal ideas now and then? Something that’s healthy, quick and delicious. Hence the sandwich.

On Friday I got back from a market, slightly exhausted yet very excited about all the finds I brought. I started snacking already on the way home: you too would not be able to resist the sweet tangerines from Izmir and sun-dried apricots from Malatia that, with your eyes closed, you might take for the Medjool dates. Also on my way I was making plans about the spinach and the persimmons. But the purple carrot and arugula - I wanted to feast on them immediately! With a slice of rye bread (real deal with molasses etc, courtesy of my recent Russian guests), I envisioned them to become an opened-faced sandwich. But first let me tell you about the purple carrot. And the arugula.

I have always thought of the purple carrot as a cross of carrot and beetroot: it tastes like carrot and stains your hands like beets. Did you know that all the carrots used to be purple before the medieval Dutch cultivators created the orange version? Back then they understood the same phenomenon that I keep observing: people are more attracted by the foods of bright colors unless we talk chocolate, maybe eggplant and hm… blueberries. As for the blueberries, they contain the same pigment (and hence the anti-oxidant benefits) as the red purple carrots do. Love blueberries? Gotta love purple carrots!

Most of the purple carrot crop in Turkey fulfills an important goal: it ensures the stable supply of şalgam suyu, beverage of purple carrot and turnip fermented with a bulgur starter. That sounds exotic, and you should trust me, it is. As a Russian I would say that it’s your “morning after” beverage if the night was long and merry. And yet Turks show unseen foresight here as they enjoy a glass of şalgam suyu, not after but while they are drinking rakı. This is the beginning and end of the purple carrot in Turkey.

Just looking at them I get the vinegar-like taste in my mouth, and I pass. Until Uli chopped a piece for me to try, as I was hanging around her kitchen. It tastes just like carrot plus has the best shade of purple you want to eat! So I bought some and roasted them. I coated them in a vinaigrette-like sauce and seasoned with a pinch of fennel seeds: I seem to add them to anything these days (I made tea with it another day). The seeds are sweet and slightly bitter, another takeaway from Ulli’s kitchen: I am reading quite a bit about Ayurveda and Ayurvedic cooking. Apparently I should seek out for sweet and bitter flavors, so fennel seeds (that I have a big bag of) fit. And the carrots went roasting..

And arugula: I picked it from a man growing it in his garden. Oh, you have to see (well, you can, below): this arugula is large and fierce, not your typical mass-grown green. The stems were massive, occasionally reaching 1 cm in diameter: they tasted a tad woody and resembled radish. Making a salad meant getting rid of most of the bunch. Arugula pesto sounded like a viable option.

Possibly Italian cooking purists would kill my for this pesto, but at least they would know how I feel when I see pumpkin-red pepper-and-what-not-hummus. And who has not tried to fiddle with pesto and hummus recipes? Going Turkish meant trading the pine-nuts for walnuts. Economic sense supported the idea of going Turkish: pine-nuts sell at 180 TL / kilo; and as they never match the Siberian ones that smell and taste taiga. Also, instead of parmesan I used Aegean tulum, 2 year aged goat cheese I got from the largest open-air market in the country (Tire): its color, density and pungency brings it close to the Italian classic cheese.

All the way through I was a bit worried about the fierce radish flavor of arugula, but along with the other ingredients it did not stand out. All of them - walnuts, olive oil pressed out of unripe olives, garlic,cheese and arugula had that quality: they gently bite you inside your mouth stimulating your every tastebud. Do you know that feeling? I love it! Why exactly I have not made this pesto before? At least I have enough to keep for a few more quick meals to come.

Open-Faced Rye Bread Sandwich with Roasted Purple Carrot and Arugula Pesto

For its color or not, the purple carrot is surprisingly substantial and combines perfectly with pesto.

Makes 2 sandwiches

Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min

Ingredients:

2 pieces rye bread, toasted if you prefer

For the roasted purple carrots:

2 purple carrots, washed and peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp brown sugar
pinch freshly ground black pepper
pinch coriander seeds
pinch fennel seeds
2 pinch fine sea salt

For the arugula pesto:

40 g arugula (including the stalks, however massive)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pinch fine sea salt
1 small clove garlic, minced
10 g walnuts, pan-toasted
5 g Aegean-style tulum peyniri (e.g. Izmir tulum), finely grated

Directions:

Roast purple carrots: Preheat the oven to 230C/446F. Halve each carrot cross-wise. Cut the upper part lengthwise into 4 segments and cut the lower part lengthwise in 8 segments: this way you will end up with the more or less even sized carrot sticks. Transfer the carrot sticks to a medium bowl, pour over the oil, sprinkle the brown sugar and season with the black pepper, coriander, fennel seeds and salt. Toss the carrots in the bowl to coat and then rub the seasoning in the carrots well. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the carrots are fork-tender.

Make arugula pesto: Roughly chop the arugula leaves and finely chop the stalks. Pulse in the food processor, until the arugula turns into a very chunky paste. Add the olive oil and continue pulsing: the liquid will aid mincing the arugula better. Season with salt, add the walnuts and garlic. Pulse until the paste becomes smooth and only tiny bits of arugula or walnuts can be seen. Add more olive oil, if you prefer a thinner pesto. Finally, stir in the cheese.

Assemble the sandwich: Spread the pesto on each piece of bread. Top with the roasted purple carrot. With a spatula collect the cooking juices from the tray where the carrot was roasting and sprinkle them on the sandwich. Grate more cheese over if you like and - enjoy!