Easy, Ridiculously Good Roasted Carrots
I'll give you once chance to guess where I got this recipe.
I know. That wasn't even a challenge, was it?
Cook's Illustrated, of course, is the source. (duh.)
I've been trying to add some variety to our vegetable dishes, since the whole steam-and-then-add-butter-salt-and-pepper thing gets awfully boring after a while. And raw veggies are lovely and all, but in the winter, I do tend to like my veggies hot at least some of the time.
So, I logged onto Cook's Illustrated, browsed the vegetable section, and printed off a bunch of recipes.
This happened to be the first one I tried.
And it was, as I like to say, marvy-fab.
Steamed or boiled carrots are ok, but now I know that they just cannot hold a candle to roasted carrots. Roasting makes them so sweet, you'd swear you sprinkled on some sugar along with the salt and pepper. I could not stop eating them.
And after dinner, I made another half batch because both Sonia and I wanted more.
(Seriously, when is the last time you felt like making another batch of veggies after dinner?? That's how good these are.)
To make 'em, first heat your oven up to 425° F. (Yup. Won't be making these in the summertime!)
Then peel your carrots (or don't, especially if they're organic). Cut them in half width-wise, and then lengthwise as necessary to make them into even pieces.
How much cutting is involved will depend on the thickness of your carrots. Just make sure they're fairly uniform so that they cook evenly.
Toss the carrots in a bowl with butter, salt, and pepper. If you can't eat butter, I'm sure you could use another fat, like coconut or olive oil.
Next, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper* and arrange carrots on the pan in an even layer. Cover the whole pan tightly with aluminum foil.
*this can be made without the parchment if you so desire, especially if your pan is non-stick.
Bake for 15 minutes, and then remove the foil. The carrots should be nice and steamed, and now they're ready for browning.
Put the carrots back into the oven and roast for another 30-35 minutes, stirring twice, until they're nicely browned. Your roasting time could vary depending on how thinly you sliced your carrots, so keep an eye on them.
They should look something like this when they're done.
Plate 'em up, and enjoy.
By the way, I really, really love having a membership to Cook's Illustrated's website (and no, they don't pay me to say that. I happily hand over my subscription fee every year because the recipes and reviews are so stinking helpful.)
I highly recommend subscribing, and hey, maybe someone who loves you muchly will give you a subscription for Christmas.
One can always hope. 😉
Or you can find this carrot recipe AND 1,999 more great recipes in this Cook's Illustrated cookbook that I use all. the. time.
2024 edit: I now make these even simpler.
- I use no foil; I just bake them in a bare pan the whole time
- I stick the pan in the oven with the butter just long enough to melt it, then I remove the pan from the oven, add the carrots, salt, and pepper, and use a spatula to mix it all up. And then I proceed to roast the carrots. That saves me a bowl!
Easy, Ridiculously Good Roasted Carrots
Easy 4-ingredient oven-roasted carrots that are seriously addictive!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds carrots, peeled, halved crosswise, and cut lengthwise if necessary to create even pieces
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Table salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425°F. In a bowl, toss together carrots, butter, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange carrots in an even layer on top of parchment, then tightly cover the whole pan with aluminum foil.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Take pan out of oven, remove foil, and return pan to oven for another 30-35 minutes, or until the carrots are lightly browned. Stir twice during cooking time.
- Season with more salt and pepper if desired, and then serve.
Notes
You can skip lining the baking sheet with parchment if your baking sheet has a nonstick surface.
This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's Cookbook.
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Hi Kristen,
Growing up my favorite meal was a roast beef with roasted potatoes, onions and carrots. The darker the potatoes and carrots were, the better! There never seemed to be enough carrots to go around . Each time my mom would make more and they'd still disappear. We never had leftover carrots!
These look really good.
Have a very Merry Christmas you you, and your family.
Patti
If you want a reuseable alternative to parchment, you might think about getting a Silpat. It's a silicone mat that works fantastically for stuff like this. They aren't super cheap though. I have a knock off one that seems to be the same but slightly smaller in size, and it has functioned well for me for several years. I still use parchment sometimes though.
I completely agree with the Silpat comment. I have four knock-offs in two different sizes. I got them when I got married 4.5 years ago and they are still in excellent condition. They get SO MUCH use at my house. I only use parchment for making pizza now because it's easy to slide it off the cutting board onto the stone in my 550-degree oven without burning my arms (most of the time).
Thanks for the endorsement of this recipe. It looks delicious and I have a bag of carrots that I need to use up before leaving for Christmas. Ta-da!
I bought one Silpat myself..but then needed another one to keep up with all the cooking and baking I did (they make AMAZING cookies).
So..last Christmas I got another. And I saw on freecycle that a woman was getting rid of a bag full of old used ones. Of the ones she had, only two were really useable. So..now I have 4 and I only paid for one.
You might check to see if other people have some that you can take off their hands!
I agree about veggies! I do love raw, steamed, etc. veggies, but sometimes, especially in the winter, a little something different is good.
I love roasted vegetables! Brussel sprouts, asparagus, potatoes, etc. I always roast my carrots so I know how much you love them.
Seriously considering Cook's Illustrated.
I love roasted veggies, and have never bothered to line the pan. I just toss my veg around in a bit of oil and seasonings (you can do this right in the pan, athough it's easier to coat them if you roll them around in a bowl) and bake 'em. Delicious, and no fuss.
Also, when I do use parchment paper or aluminum foil, I wash and reuse it unless it is hopelessly cruddy.
Me too!
My experience is that while the cover is important (so I used a covered 9x13 I have), the lining isn't. The grease slips under the liner anyway so it doesn't even save me much on the clean-up.
The technique works with many (most?) root veggies, with appropriate changes in the timing. You can do the same with broccoli or cauliflower as well.
Oooh, nice! You have an oven-safe lid, huh? I have a lid for one of my pans, but it's plastic, sadly.
I never bother to line or cover the veggies, and cauliflour especially is tasty when done this way, I just heat up the oven to 450, toss veggies with oil and seasonings and bake. Don't move them around too much or they don't get those nice brown spots on them.
I've done this without the parchment. Sine it does make a mess on my pan it goes in the sink with soap and water as soon as the carrots are removed.
I agree with how tasty roasted carrots are and have eaten a half pound by itself for dinner. Some times I make some peanut sauce and treat it like french fries and ketchup.
I noticed you need an alternative to the aluminum foil used to line the baking sheet. One word - Silpat! I have 2 and they are awesome! I use them all the time when baking cookies, buns, veggies (pretty much everything). They are awesome! A little on the pricey side, but you should get many years of use if properly taken care of.
P.S. Check amazon, that's where I purchased mine.
I've done this same recipe with potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and many other veggies! It brings out the nutty flavors in broccoli! Then jut before serving squeeze a little lemon juice on it. Fantastic!
Interestingly, I tried roasting carrots just the other day. I used an oiled Pyrex rectangular baking dish (I have an old oven and the heavy glass seems to even out the cooking as compared to a baking sheet). Not knowing any better, I skipped the steaming/covered step altogether and simply baked 'em for 30 minutes at 400. They tasted great. Outstanding. Fantastic. But cleaning the pan was a Giant Pain. Perhaps a silicone liner is in the cards.
Next time you have a pan with burned food on it, put a little BAKING SODA in it, and it will all clean right out with ease. My grandmother showed me that secret 40 years ago, and so I not only keep the stuff in my fridge to help with odors, I keep it there in case I can't get something out of a pan. Has even worked BEAUTIFULLY with a very badly burned pan once when I forgot something on the stove! #Ditzy
I roast my carrots without parchment all of the time. I roast in a stoneware pan, which tends to be non stick. I also don't cover and steam, but just roast. I probably stir them more this way so that they don't scorch.
I agree with the stoneware. It's always non-stick (with a little oil sometimes) and adds great flavour once it's seasoned. PamperedChef has a bar pan one that has sides like a cookie sheet.
I roast veggies like this a lot and never have used parchment. I just add a little bit of oil either to the veggies or right in the pan and I never have problems. Might need to stir them a little more frequently to make sure they don't stick, though.
You've sold me. I'm going to make these for Christmas dinner at my in-laws. They look delish!
I think I'll try roasting them in my biggest glass casserole dish. That's what I use for roasting other root vegetables. I'll let you know how it goes.
If you wanted to remove half of the disposable products used in this, I bet you could steam the carrots in the microwave or on the stovetop first, then transfer to the sheet to roast.
I'm not sure if you need the parchment or not. Carrots do have a lot of sugar though, that could get pretty sticky when caramelized. Maybe take your cue from how dirty and crusted on the remains on the parchment paper are. I guess it's a question of which you hate more, scrubbing dishes or using disposable parchment paper. Although the silpat suggested by other readers might be a good compromise.
Wow, cool, I am eating roasted carrots right now! I toss mine in olive oil and rosemary. I also cook mine at 425, but don't use parchment paper and do flip them when the are about done.
After you posted that picture of roasted carrots the other day, I had to go home and fix that very thing for dinner! It was yummy! Thanks for the idea/suggestion.
We LOVE roasted veggies around here! I love how it brings out the sweetness of the veggies. We roast everything, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, you name it.
Yours look divine!
I'm a huge roasted vegetable fan so I'll have to try these. I mostly roast potatoes and broccoli. I have a friend who hates green vegetables of any kind; they bring her to the point of almost being physically ill. I roasted her some broccoli, and after much coaxing, got her to try it. She inhaled it. 🙂 I use this recipe, but usually without the basil: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html It's magical and Ina Garten is a genius. 🙂
Hi Kirsten, I came upon the same dilemma of wanting to avoid disposable materials when roasting, whether it be meat or vegetables (or fish "en papillotte").
With vegetables, I found that slightly reducing the temperature and prolonging the time in the oven seemed to work well. Carrots are pretty hard, they really need quite some time. But they seem to get even sweeter and they are less likely to burn this way. I hate waiting for my roasted vegetables only to find them burnt...
We roast potato wedges in a similar way, and even reducing the temperature (and thus avoiding parboiling) they need hardly more than 30 minutes.
oops sorry I missed the other reaction! Seems we all pretty much found the same solution 😉
Ever since you posted a picture of these, I was hoping for the recipe. Yea! These will be on next week's dinner menu. 🙂
Me, too! Thank you for giving us all the how-to's! 🙂
I made these yesterday for the FIRST TIME because we didn't have anything else to eat and... they were delicious!!! we are definitely having these again.
Now to add even more flavour, sprinkle with Rosemary and Thyme before baking - heaven!
Yum...I made these for supper tonight and they were a big hit. I didn't line the pan and they turned out just fine! Next time I need to make a bigger batch, though.
I made these last night and they were great -- thanks! I like the idea of finding a bunch of recipe s on Cooks' Illustrated (I'm a member too) and printing them out. Sometimes I don't want to go online right before dinner.
I used my fake-Silpat silicone liner and it worked really well. I bought a package of three at Costco this summer and I think they were less than $20. It's only been a few months but so far I am very happy with them for baking and roasting. I'm saving the parchment for very hot things like pizza, and smelly things like fish. I've also rolled dough out on the silicone sheet and that works pretty well.
I just made these tonight and they were delicious!!! Almost as sweet as sweet potato fries. Yum!!!
Made these 2 days ago along w/some brussel sprout halves & broccoli.
Didn't much care for the carrots but the other veggies were GREAT!!
Making again today w/broccoli, cauliflower & zuchinni slices.
This is super duper good indeed. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
These look so good....I have these carrots on my menu for next week. Can't wait to try them!
I just made these tonight, and they were so yummy! I think this may be my new favorite way to eat carrots. I had a bag of baby carrots (they were free with a coupon) so there was even less prep. Super easy!
I also got a similar carrot recipe out of Parade Magazine where you combine 2 T orange juice, 1 T honey, salt and pepper and roast on parchment paper. Also delicious!
I am about to roast my carrots using my silpat. I have three and love them like crazy as well as everything ele demarle makes. No clean up.
Can I do this with a microwave oven or with a small toaster? I live in a small apartment in Japan.
I'm not sure that would work very well...the microwave would be too moist, and I don't know if the toaster would get hot enough.
Made the carrots with coconut oil. Absolutely fantastic. Did not use parchment the first time and pan cleaned up easily.
Good to know about the parchment!
I googled roasted carrots and came across your site and recipe. I made them tonight and you are not kidding! I ate almost a whole cookie sheet full 🙂
I would rather eat these carrots than the carrots that are cooked with a roast. Thank you so much for sharing!
I know...they are so seriously good.
Made the carrots tonight and you're right, they were ridiculously delicious! I don't understand the less lemony lemon bars, I LOVE lemon, but that's another post all together 🙂
Loved all the pictures. I made it with baby carrots and they were delicious!
1) Why take off the aluminum foil?
2) Mine came out dry-ish and more wrinkly. I made it in the toaster oven. Should I turn the temperature down?
Well, I've never made this in a toaster oven, so I'm not sure! If yours were too dry, then you could try leaving the foil on for longer.
If you want to do these in the summer, just put them in a foil packet and throw them on the grill!
Thank you for these! I boldly made them for the first time on Christmas Day and they worked out really well! (I even threw in some parsnips!) Again, thank you, and Happy New Year. 🙂
I can vouch that these are AMAZING!!! I seriously wanted to get a double oven just because of the times that I couldn't make these when something else was in the oven at a very different temperature, and I was craving these carrots. They are sooooooo good. I also got the recipe from Cook's Illustrated (November 2010 magazine). They also have some great "variations" in the magazine, which can also be found online.
I'm posting a link to this on my blog this Friday. Our family LOVES these carrots! Thanks for the recipe!
They're so good, aren't they? Crazy delicious.
Finally a recipe I can't ruin 🙂 Beautiful, i'm not a roast veg person butI am making the effort to eat proper food and i put some potatoes in with the carrots for the same time and came out lovely 🙂
We made these tonight. They were great! My husband said they were the best carrots he's ever had. He hates raw carrots, and he's very picky about cooked carrots. Definitely going in the rotation.
Isn't it amazing how delicious they are? I'm shocked every time I make them.
I should have heeded your warning about having to make more. Seriously, so good! I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots except inside other dishes. Never been one to love a side of cooked carrots. These were amazing. I ended up microwaving for the first step only because I was running out if time. These will be a staple in my house. Thank you!
They are crazy good, aren't they? I never can believe it!
OMG! ....I should continued reading before I served dinner tonight then I would have had these carrots. Can not believe I'm saying this..... but now can hardly wait to prepare (tomorrows) dinner. My daughter in law made sweet potatoes this way... HEAVENLY.
Regarding the parchment paper, my Aldi (Dallas, TX) sells a reusable parchment sheet around this time of year (with their holiday baking supplies). It is like a slipmat but at Aldi prices. I have had mine for three years and use it regularly and it is still in great shape. So keep you eyes open at Aldi...maybe you'll spot one!
These is a SERIOUSLY great recipe. Thank you so much. Can carrots get more carroty?
These carrots are to-die for, seriously. I made them in a 9x13 pan, didn't bother lining with parchment and used my silicone cover rather than foil and they turned out great (this way I didn't waste any consumables). Honestly, this recipe turns carrots into candy. They'll come out tasting candied, they're that good!
I'm only 13 years old and I made this with my friend for a family get together. They came out amazing!
wow, an amazing recipe, really!
Love these and so does everyone who I serve them to. I'm including a link to this post in my blog on Thursday.
So glad you like them. They're just amazingly good for how simple they are, right?
And thanks so much for linking to my blog!
i buy unbleached parchment paper and then compost it. not perfect, but better than putting it in a plastic bag and sending it to the landfill.
Hi,
I LOVE the sound of these carrots and want to make them this friday as part of a harvest dinner for a fundraising event for our not for my son's school. We are having a harvest dinner with roasted chicken, roasted carrots, green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. Can you please give me an idea of how much I should make and if we can make them a day ahead and reheat?
Thank you in advance, I am really looking forward to these.
I'm not sure how many people you're feeding, so it's hard to say how many carrots you should make. I'd say that one recipe of these would feed 4-6 people, depending on how many carrots each person eats.
I've never made them a day ahead, but I'm sure it's do-able, although the texture would probably suffer a little bit.
Thanks so much for getting back to me. Sorry, just got the final numbers for the dinner and we have 50 adults and children! I am really excited about it but also so nervous as this is my first time feeding so many people. We are serving roasted chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes and of course carrots. I have purchased 10 pounds of mini carrots (to make it a little easier). Do you think that will be a safe amount? Any advice would be really appreciated.
Do you think these could be made in a Nesco roaster? We have a 23# turkey this year that will be occupying the oven!
I don't know...I'm not familiar with a Nesco roaster. I'm sorry!
My 6.5 y/o son just got a peek in the oven and practically squealed. "Those are my FAVORITE carrots ever! I LOVE those carrots with the black spots!!!"
That's hilarious! I love it.
This is the ONLY recipe you need for cooked carrots. I used to only like raw carrots because cooked just didn’t taste right. But with only better and salt, a little steaming and a little roasting this recipe brings carrots to a whole new level. While the recipe only calls for a little bit of salt, I use about 3/4 of a tablespoon and no pepper. It is DELICIOUS!!