What do you do with purple carrot juice?

Good question, huh? You may not have a friend who passes along cool food finds like purple carrot juice (thanks Sarah!), but you might have a fridge or pantry with ingredients you need to use. Maybe you just can’t recall why you bought coriander seeds or orange vinegar in the first place. Or maybe you found a new fruit or veggie at your farmer’s market or grocers that you’d like to use.

When you’re looking to use a new ingredient, here are a few ideas to get you experimenting…

Taste it. I know, I know, that sounds obvious, but you might be surprised. I was sure that purple carrot juice would have a sweet, mild taste, something similar to the flavor when I roasted them. Poured myself a big glass. The pungent juice had an almost molasses-like taste and a strong steamed carrot smell. I’m sure some people like drinking it straight but I figured the best way for my to enjoy the flavor–and the nutritional punch–was to put it into something.

Bake it in. Since the flavor mimicked molasses and went well with veggies, I decided to replace some of the apple sauce in my favorite bran muffin recipe with the purple carrot juice. I swapped out 2 Tablespoons. The juice gave the muffins a slightly darker color and a hint of carrot I liked. I’m thinking next I need to try it in carrot muffins. Doesn’t that sound tasty? Or add it to fruit leathers?

Marinate with it. Mixing new-to-you ingredients in marinades is a great way to play with the flavors. I thought the carrot juice would work well with a strong soy sauce-based marinate. I wouldn’t use it in Mexican dishes, but Asian or standard BBQ marinades, toss some in!

Sauce it. Now about BBQ–lately we’ve been doctoring our BBQ sauces, either making our own from scratch (recipe coming) or tweaking our favorite bottled variety. My hubby starts with about 1 cup of juice–usually cranberry for a bit of tartness–and he boils it down by half until it thickens slightly. Then he adds 1 1/2 cups bottled BBQ sauce and then tweaks it with spices according to what we’re putting it on. Last week it was ground ancho chiles to go along with shredded pork. I’m thinking the black carrot juice would make for a cool BBQ sauce. I’m going to give it a try. But at your house, think tossing pureed or fresh squeezed juice into sauces and dips. Better yet, let your kids think up the combinations. One of my favorite Asian dipping sauces is simply equal parts lime juice and soy sauce. Hum, I wonder what apricot-soy would taste like…

Your turn–any ingredients that you’ve been wanting to use but weren’t sure how to use ‘em? Any ingredient experiments that worked well, or maybe tasted awful?