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Easy Baked Carrots
Carrots are definitely my favorite vegetable. If you’re not taking my serious onion addiction into consideration. If you haven’t tried my caramelized carrots, you’ve been missing out! They are fa-bu-lous, dahling. But here’s another great way to prepare carrots, it’s called lazy cooking. You just throw everything in a big tray and let the oven do the work for you.
These carrots are juicy, crispy and fragrant at the same time. They almost have a slight Indian twist to them. I’ve only used basic ingredients, though; mainly stuff you can find in your pantry and that isn’t difficult to buy regardless of where you live! Tweak to your hearts content, make the recipe your own! Don’t forget to let me know what you’ve added/subtracted, okay!
Ingredients:
20 oz carrots
2 tbsp butter
1small garlic clove
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp brown sugar
cayenne
salt
Optional: oil/broth/white wine
Directions:
Now I don’t know if carrots are expensive where you live, but over here they’re cheap as dirt. These orange babies cost me exactly €0,79.
Cut off the leaves, but leave a little green on the end, will you! Not sure if this actually does something for the carrots flavor wise—I could imagine them being juicier this way—but it just looks better when you serve it like this. Fresher. At least I think it does.
Clean ‘em up and scrape ‘em. Not my favorite task.
I leave the smaller carrots whole and cut the bigger ones in half.
Until I end up with a big pile of these beauties. Terrible to photograph (white balance hell) but oh so pretty.
Just put them in a large oven dish or roasting tray.
You’re gonna love me for my storyboards, trust me. I made an 11 opening board just for this posting. Having to scroll down all of these would have given you RSI for sure.
Combine 2 tbsp butter (I’m using our Dutch liquid butter, but you can use soft butter or even oil) with 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, a slightly heaping 1/4 tsp curry powder (or turmeric), 1/4 tsp ground ginger (or fresh ginger), a touch of cayenne, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1 grated garlic clove and a good pinch of pepper. Whisk it.
Add the butter mix to the carrots and dig your hands in there. Make sure each and every carrot gets at least a little on top of it. Sprinkle a generous amount of kosher salt (or sea salt) over the carrots.
Tip: if you’re using slightly older carrots, or your carrots are larger, add a little chicken or vegetable broth to the baking tray. About 3 tbsp will do. You can also turn this into an adult dish by adding a splash of white wine! It’s divine.
Cover the baking tray tightly with aluminum foil. Really close it off; this way the carrots will steam and the flavors of the spices and garlic will blend together beautifully. Place them in a preheated oven and bake at 400F (200C) for about 40 minutes. This depends on the size of your carrots, so check them for readiness.
After 40 minutes I removed the foil and shuffled them a round in the juices and spices that were lurking at the bottom. They were perfect; tender with a slight bite to them. Precisely as I like them. Now all that’s left to do is give them another 10 to 15 minutes without the aluminum foil, until they’re slightly browned and caramelized.
Tip: if you really want to up the flavors, drizzle a little olive oil over the carrots before placing them back in the oven.
These were absolutely great. Simple, cheap, fast and utterly delicious. And what’s more important to me as a mom; kiddo loved them as well! The more vegetable recipes he really likes, the better.
Love the sound of this one. I think roasting is the best way to cook carrots, no doubt about it!
I have everything needed to make this. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks AWESOME! I cannot wait to try it. Do you not have a vegetable peeler? I couldn’t help but notice that you used a knife to scrape them, instead of a veggie peeler. I wondered if maybe you don’t have those over there… like we don’t have awesome graters here. :-)
@naomig:
I have great (oxxio) vegetable peeler here, but these carrots weren’t so big and I wanted to have as much carrot left as possible :)
What a lovely way to prepare carrots! Certainly going to try this recipe!
I never would have thought that carrots could be “pretty” but these are absolutely gorgeous!
I absolutely love roasted carrots and your rendition looks to please.
Kay, your recipes look so, so pretty and tasty! I’ve been wondering, are the recipes you prepare and share with us representative of Dutch cooking? Meaning, have you grown up with these dishes and do you consider them “Dutch food”? I’m wondering because I am of Dutch heritage but have no Dutch recipes under my belt! Neither do my relatives. Apparently, whatever favorite, homeland recipes my Dutch ancestors cooked, died with them many years ago. What specific dishes would you consider national treasures?
What a great, easy recipe! My husband will adore this one. I love your style of cooking. I’m totally going to do this next time we have carrots in the house.
Where do you get your carrots from? For some reason I hardly ever see carrot tops attached to carrots here. It’s a shame because my rabbit adores the green part of carrots so would be nice to give them to him. But no one seems to have them!
@Karen:
No, they’re not. If I were to serve this the Dutch way, I’d boil the potatoes, boil the carrots, add some butter and nutmeg (always nutmeg:) to the carrots and serve them with gravy and meatballs or something. Dutch cooking is straight forward, no frills, nada.
I have a Dutch section with some very typically Dutch dishes, like split pea soup or stoofvlees. I plan on adding more of them.
@Genie:
I buy roughly 80% of my vegetables on the farmers market. I also buy my cheese there. The ingredients are top quality and cost only a fraction of what I would pay for it in the store.
Sounds lovely and sweet, have to try this one.
Have a nice day,
Nadja from a rainy Sweden
@In Nadjas kitchen:
It’s pouring here as well! I want my sunshine back!
I was wondering what veggie sides to do for a dinner party this Friday and nothing was taking my fancy, but I think this will be one of them, now to be struck by inspiration for a green veggie. hint hint :-)
Those carrots look cooked to perfection. My dad would prefer his more done (black in some spots), but I think yours look excellent.
What an interesting spice combo! The white wine sounds really good.
I’ve never heard of liquid butter. I can see how it would be handy.
That spice combo is almost Moroccan. That is basically what I use when I make a tagine, including the carrots but not the brown sugar. I have wondered why you scrape or peel the carrots when you cook them. I was always taught that the peel had a higher concentration of the good stuff so I just clean them very well and leave the skin on. Doesn’t look so pretty maybe the taste is wonderful. About the only veggies I peel are potatoes and sometimes zucchini and cukes.
@dick:
It indeed has a Moroccan/Indian twist to it! I still have to buy a Tagine (we call it Tajine). I actually only peel my carrots if I didn’t buy organic carrots. The pesticides used on the veggies collects in the outer layers. Have to admit I’ve never heard of carrot skin containing a higher concentration of vitamins or so.
I should have held out to buy my carrots at the market today or tomorrow, but after seeing this recipe yesterday, I went ahead and bought the more expensive carrots from AH, because I couldn’t wait to try this recipe! I’ve got them roasting in the oven right now for a late lunch for me today. I’m hoping my boyfriend will try them and like them, too. He’s not a big fan of carrots, but how can anyone not love roasted carrots! Especially with all those lovely spices and herbs. I bet these will change his mind!
A great way to liquefy butter is to add a tiny bit of olive oil, it breaks down the fats and makes it lovely and spreadable, or if you need it to pour add a bit more.
Brown sugar is such a staple in so many of these recipes, I can’t do it for dietary reasons – is there anything else that could be substituted that would help the carmelization process??
@Heidi Renee:
Heidi, I would just leave the sugar out all together, if I were you. I like to give them a little boost every now and then, but roasting carrots brings out their natural sweetness anyway.
Thanks Kay, that’s what I usually do, just thought there might be an alternative. They’re my favorite veg too.
@Kay:
I am a lot older than you and during WW II that was the accepted wisdom on nutrition. In most vegetable the nutritionists then suggested that with most veggies the skin had more good stuff than the meat of the veggies themselves. That is the reason that whenever I makes fried potatoes I usually leave the skins on and scrub a lot and the same with cukes.
Highly recommend a tagine/tajine. One of the things I like about it is I need to put so little broth when I make the tagine/tajine. In mine it only takes less than 1/2 cup and because of the way the pot works I get plenty of liquids. The first time I made one my recipe said to use 2 cups of chicken broth. Within half an hour I had chicken broth all over the stovetop. I had to spoon out almost all of it and I still ended up with plenty of liquid at the end. The other thing I like is that the meats always come out so tender and juicy. They have become a regular part of my cooking schedule since I got that pot.
The one I got was one of the ones from Morocco and it only cost $24 with free shipping. Far cry from the ones at the local shops which run about $120 and up. I have been using it a couple of times a month for about a year now and it works just great. I think of it as a Moroccan vegetable soup where I just toss in whatever is there. All the combinations seem to work just great.
@dick:
Ahhh potatoes, yeah, that’s a different story all together! Potatoes are far healthier when you don’t peel them because potato skins store many nutrients and fiber! Never heard it about carrots skins, though. My mother lived through WW II as well and because of their stories alone I have a tough time throwing food away. It’s something I seldom to never do. I clean out my vegetable drawer once a week and make a pie, soup or stew with whatever there’s left in there.
Been meaning to buy a tajine, and after hearing your stories I’ll get one soon. Have a Moroccan neighbor who provides me with the best recipes possible!
I make them almost the same way – but with orange juice and a little zest added. Never tried with garlic, but I will next time.
orange juice – that exactly what I needed Rick – thanks so much!