carrot “fettucine” with lemon thyme butter sauce

Life has been a blur lately. The last week has been especially wonderful, being surrounded by some of my favorite people.

But it has still been a blur, nonetheless. Fast-moving and then it all came to a screeching halt when a stomach virus took over on Monday night. Talk about down for the count. 27 hours later, I emerged, exhausted, but no worse for wear.

While I tackle the deadlines piling up, and get ready for the three-week carousel of business trips starting tomorrow, I'll leave you with this recipe for carrot "fettucine". According to a recent article by Kim Severson, American's don't eat enough vegetables. I'll admit we don't have them every single night. I try to include them as part of the main course—a handful of spinach in a pasta dish or some shredded lettuce and tomatoes for tacos.

Most importantly, food should be fun. Who wants to spend their days ticking off each serving of fruit and vegetable anyway? Frankly, that sounds boring, and like work. And who really needs more work added to their load?

Instead of worrying about what you're not eating, my advice is just surround yourself with recipes like this that taste so good, you'll find yourself (and your kids) unknowingly, and uncontrollably, eating all 3 to 5 servings in one sitting.

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carrot "spaghetti" with lemon thyme butter sauce

serves two

Like a good man, a good peeler is hard to find. I've had the same vegetable peeler (and man) for about 15 years now, and neither show any sign of becoming dull.

3 medium carrots (about 3.5 ounces/105 grams), scrubbed clean or outer layer peeled

few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Using a vegetable peeler, peel thin lengthwise strands from each carrot, stopping just before the core. Place in a glass microwave-safe bowl, add a few tablespoons of water, cover and cook on HIGH for 3 minutes, or until tender, but still toothsome (see Note). 

Meanwhile, remove the leaves from the lemon thyme, discarding the stems, and roughly chop. Set aside.

Drain the water from the bowl, toss with butter and lemon thyme. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Note: You can alternately cook the carrot strands in a pot of boiling water until "al dente".

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