I’m a total side dish person, like if I could, I would just order a side dish platter at restaurants. Smashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, and roasted root vegetables sounds like my perfect meal. Okay, maybe it would need a side of this sweet honey cornbread, but then it’d be perfect. These honey roasted carrots are one of my new favorite side dishes and after eating them last week with some ham and mashed potatoes, they just got added to our holiday menu! The thing I love most about these carrots is that they’re super easy to make and the honey in the recipe just brings out even more of the carrot’s natural sweetness. They’re soft, flavorful, and even people who don’t normally like veggies will like these! My toddler loves them.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Carrots – while we love using rainbow carrots in this recipe, you can totally just use regular carrots as well. The rainbow carrots are just prettier! Wash them completely and cut off the bottom tip if needed. Pomegranate seeds – Garnishing the carrots with pomegranate seeds takes this recipe up a notch. The tartness of the pomegranate really balances out the sweetness of the honey, but they’re good regardless. So if you don’t have pomegranate seeds, feel free to make these without. Honey & butter – the flavor of the carrots comes from these two ingredients, so I recommend using high-quality butter and high-quality honey rather than the cheap stuff. We love getting raw local honey for recipes like this one where the honey really stands out!
Instructions
These honey roasted carrots are really easy to make, but there are a couple of really important things to keep in mind. Like really important – you don’t want to have burning honey/butter/caramel in your pan important. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then chop your garlic and wash your carrots. No need to peel or cut them unless the bottoms are funky and you want to chop off the very tip. While you’re washing your carrots, melt butter even in the oven on low heat or on the stove. Remove the butter from the heat and add your rosemary, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic. Stir until everything is well combined. Toss your carrots in the mixture until they’re all well coated. This is the important part – don’t just put the mixture in the pan you’ll be baking in and toss your carrots there. Do it in a separate dish so you can really toss those carrots in the mixture. I learned from experience that if you just toss it all in one dish, the honey doesn’t stick to the carrots very well and you’ll end up with something that resembles burnt caramel surrounding your carrots. That’s not what you want. Once the carrots are well coated, then you want to put the carrots into a baking dish you’ll actually be roasting the carrots in. You can add the chopped garlic from the mix into the dish as well. Put that baking dish into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Stir the bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the carrots are sweet and soft. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds (if desired), and serve warm. I personally like to just eat them from the pan because I can’t wait to serve them with dinner but they’re still good if you wait for a few minutes to enjoy.
Expert Tips
Roast the carrots on a baking sheet with parchment paper if you don’t have a baking dish available. Like for Thanksgiving when sausage stuffing and pumpkin crunch cake are taking up all your baking dishes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley or fresh mint instead for a different flavor profile or if you don’t have fresh rosemary. Start checking the carrots after about 35 minutes total. Depending on your oven, they may roast faster or slower than the recipe calls for.
More Easy Side Dishes
Easy corn succotashCoconut riceSweet corn pureeTwice baked potatoesGarlic breadsticks
