Carrot and Spinach Muffins

I’ve never had a problem with carrots.

They are a generally inoffensive vegetable – with a mellow flavour and a crisp and crunchy bite, what’s not to like? Whizzed up with a grating of fresh ginger and butter, they make a luxurious and velvety soup; they are the perfect veggie filler to meaty stews and casseroles, and, unlike most vegetables, they can swing over to the sweet side in sugar-laden creations such as an extravagant, cream cheese icing-layered carrot cake. YUM.

This all changed last week. I had a major carrot nightmare – a traumatic experience that made it impossible for me to look at carrots in the same way again. Whilst tidying up the roof at work, I came across a mysterious, unlabelled bag. In a monotonous day of clearing and cleaning, this was an intriguing find – furtively concealed behind the swinging shed door, I was lured in by its ambiguous contents. HUGE mistake. I don’t think the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” has ever applied so fittingly to a situation. In the future, whenever I hear that inquisitive voice in my head musing “Hmmm, I wonder what’s in there….just a little peek can’t hurt…”, I will silence it more speedily than Bug’s Bunny’s carrot-gnawing choppers. As soon as I peered into the bag, I realised the obscenely foolish error of my ways. Inside, was a barely identifiable honking orange mulch swimming in a fly-infested lake of carrot juice: a lethal mixture that was letting off one of the most toxic, gag-inducing odours that has ever attacked my poor, unassuming nostrils. The remains of carrots that had obviously died a very slow and torturous death.

The image of these mouldy festering carrots has been alarmingly imprinted on my brain since – an image that I want to conceal deep deep down, away from all my happy root vegetable memories. It needed to be supplanted by a recipe from carrot heaven, usurped by a treat that would banish the smell and sight of last week’s carrot horrors. This recipe comes from veggie-loving Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who has just completed a TV series solely focused on vegetables. I am not normally a fan of savoury muffins, but these were terrific. Packed full of spinach, grated carrot and buttery onions and with the occasional burst of a crunchy pumpkin seed, these are definitely much more healthy than a regular muffin, but do not sacrifice on flavour. I decided to crumble a few nuggets of feta on top of each muffin which adds a delicious salty tang and creates a wonderful golden cheesy top. I snaffled my first one straight out of the oven with a steaming bowl of home-made beetroot soup. Scrummy.