And now for another installment of Pickled Rose’s Fine Art Friday. This week’s artwork and recipe is brought to you by the letter D. D is for dip, 3 day weekends, long drives, and dear friends.

Last Labor Day weekend I went to Portland, OR for a girl’s trip with my best friend and her mom. They live in Illinois, and ever since moving from the Midwest to the West Coast 12 years ago, we’ve been planning long weekend trips together almost every year. Countless trips to wine country, eating and drinking our way through San Francisco, and there was that one time we took mud baths in Calistoga, which was hilarious and horrifying all at the same time. D is also for dusty rose, which is an inside joke, but I bet you can hazard a guess as to what that means.

This year we decided to go to Portland, OR to eat and drink ourselves silly for 3 days. We got a hot tip by a local friend to go to Tusk and eat all of the things. We decided to go for happy hour one evening, and grab some cocktails and a pre-dinner snack. One of the most memorable things we had that night was this caramelized onion tahini dip. I vowed to recreate it when I got home. And I did, but with a twist.

My version has roasted carrots, and in my honest opinion, is equally as delicious as the Tusk version. The carrots provide a slight sweetness and a gorgeous burnt orange hue to the dip. I like to slather this on thick, crusty bread, stuff it inside medjool dates, or let’s be honest, shamelessly eat it by the spoonful while standing in front of the fridge.

Roasted Carrot and Caramelized Onion Tahini

Ingredients:

7 small to medium carrots, peeled and quartered

4 small red onions, sliced

1/4 C avocado oil*

1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more for seasoning roasted vegetables

pepper

1/4 C lemon juice

2 small cloves of garlic

1/3 C tahini

2 tsp ground coriander seed

1 tsp sumac

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss carrots and onions in avocado oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes until the carrots and onions have caramelized and started to char in some places. It will look like you burned them, but trust me, you didn’t. That char is what’s going to give your dip its amazing flavor.

Place roasted veggies in food processor, and add 1/2 tsp kosher salt and remaining ingredients. Puree until everything is combined into a smooth, thick paste.

*If you don’t have avocado oil, feel free to substitute it for olive oil. I prefer avocado because it has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point. But you do you, OK?