Recipe: Carrot Soufflé

If you’re looking for a show-stopping dish to serve at Easter or your next dinner party, look no further than this carrot soufflé. It has everything you love about soufflés: an airy, delicate texture that almost melts in your mouth, the creamy richness of milk and cheese set with eggs, and, of course, the sweetness and vivid color of carrots.

Pair it with baked ham or lamb for lunch or dinner, or serve it alongside a green salad for brunch. And trust me when I say this soufflé is easy — there’s absolutely no whipping of egg whites.

Traditional savory soufflé recipes are a somewhat complicated affair: There are egg whites to be whipped into stiff peaks and usually a béchamel-like sauce that has to be cooked on the stovetop. This carrot version, however, is as simple as cooking carrots until tender, then blending them with the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender.

Those cooked carrots are blended with milk, eggs, and butter, then combined with sharp cheddar cheese, flour, and baking powder for some lift. This soufflé still has the delicate nature of its traditional counterparts, but is sturdy enough that it won’t collapse immediately after coming out of the oven. The people you serve it to will think you worked all day in the kitchen to make this, but the secret’s safe with us. Oh, and don’t worry if you don’t have a soufflé dish — an eight-inch square baking dish works just fine!

Pro tip: I find whole carrots sweeter than their bagged “baby” counterparts, so I prefer them in this recipe. You can use the precut baby carrots instead, but just make sure they’re thoroughly soft and tender before you blend them to yield the smoothest soufflé.