Perfect Roasted Carrots (Three Ways!)
Who knew carrots could be SO good?! Roasted carrots are an easy, healthy and affordable side dish. This is the only roasted carrot recipe you'll ever need!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 2, 2024
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Move over, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts! I have a new favorite vegetable side dish—roasted carrots.
Like those other vegetables, carrots develop deep, concentrated flavor and golden, caramelized edges as they roast in the oven. So delicious! Carrots are also affordable and easy to keep on hand.
If you’ve ever been underwhelmed by steamed carrots (been there), I promise that they’re far more interesting in roasted form. Roasted carrots are an easy and healthy weeknight side dish, and would also add a welcome jolt of color to your Thanksgiving table.
Today, I’m sharing my recipe for perfect roasted carrots. I love variety and I know you do, too, so I developed two fun variations as well. One is a little spicy and the other is a little more indulgent, featuring a light honey-butter sauce. Who knew carrots could be so tempting?
1) “Basic” Roasted Carrots
I put “basic” in quotes because these are not boring! Roasting really brings out carrots’ best qualities. To make them, just toss carrots with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake until they’re golden on the edges and tender throughout.
Serve these simple roasted carrots with traditional or heavy main dishes, like standard Thanksgiving fare, lasagna or mac and cheese.
2) Spiced Roasted Carrots
If you’re a fan of spicy sweet potatoes, you’re going to love these spiced roasted carrots. You’ll make them in the same way as the regular roasted carrots, but toss in a hefty amount of chili powder and ground cinnamon with the olive oil and salt. Those two spices might sound like an unlikely pairing, but work so well with the sweet and savory carrots.
I offered a range for chili powder so you can control the spice level. You could serve these with hearty Mexican dishes, such as enchiladas. I also incorporated these into a Moroccan-ish salad in my cookbook (page 62).
3) Honey Butter Roasted Carrots
If you aren’t sold on roasted carrots yet, these honey butter carrots will convert you. They’re sweet and salty and irresistibly buttery.
To make them, toss “basic” roasted carrots in a super simple honey-butter sauce. You can make the sauce on the stove in under 5 minutes with one tablespoon each of butter and honey. For maximum flavor, let the butter brown for a minute before removing it from the heat and stirring in the honey.
These carrots are perfect for serving at a special brunch or family meal, including Thanksgiving (they’d be delicious next to mashed potatoes). You could also serve them with this arugula and wild rice salad, stuffed acorn squash or lentil baked ziti.
Got extra carrots? Here are a few more of my favorite carrots recipe:
- French Carrot Salad
- Roasted & Raw Carrot Salad with Avocado
- Farmers’ Market Bowl with Green Goddess Sauce
- Roasted Carrots with Farro, Chickpeas & Herbed Crème Fraîche
- Extra Vegetable Fried Rice
Please let me know how your carrots turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Watch How to Roast Carrots
Perfect Roasted Carrots (Three Ways!)
Who knew carrots could be SO good?! Roasted carrots are an easy, healthy and affordable side dish. This is the only roasted carrot recipe you’ll ever need! Recipe yields 4 to 6 side servings.
Ingredients
Basic roasted carrots
- 2 pounds carrots
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Optional garnish: 2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives, green onions, parsley or dill
For the spiced version, you’ll also need*:
- ½ to 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder (use less for more mild carrots, or the full amount for spicy carrots)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the honey butter version, you’ll also need**:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup, if desired.
- To prepare your carrots, peel them and then cut them on the diagonal so each piece is about ½″ thick at the widest part (see photos).
- Place the carrots on the baking sheet. Add the olive oil, salt and a few twists of pepper.*
- Toss until the carrots are lightly coated in oil and seasonings. Arrange them in a single layer. Roast the carrots until they’re caramelized on the edges and easily pierced through by a fork, 25 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway.** (Heirloom carrot varieties will roast in as little as 25 minutes, but regular carrots are more dense and typically require 35 to 40 minutes.)
- Sprinkle fresh herbs over the roasted carrots, if using. Serve the carrots warm, straight from the sheet pan or from a serving dish. Leftover carrots will keep well, covered and refrigerated, for 3 to 4 days. Gently reheat before serving.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my cookbook, Love Real Food.
*If you’re making the spiced version: Add the chili powder and cinnamon with the olive oil and salt.
**If you’re making the honey butter version: When the carrots are nearly done baking, melt the butter in your smallest saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, cover the pan to avoid splatters and continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally, just until you start seeing golden flecks at the bottom, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the honey. Once the carrots are done, drizzle the mixture over them and toss to coat.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Simply make the basic or spiced versions.
Prepare in advance: You can peel and slice the carrots in advance. For maximum freshness, store them in a bowl of water in the refrigerator until you’re ready to roast them. Drain and pat dry before proceeding.
Double it: You can roast two pans of carrots in the oven at once. Just position two racks near the center of the oven before you preheat it. When you toss the carrots halfway through cooking, swap the pans on their rack positions (from top to bottom, and bottom to top).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
OH MY GOSH, KATE!!! Those honey butter carrots! They were so friggin’ good! The star of our Easter table, and that’s saying a lot! The only change I made was to brown the butter before adding the honey. INCREDIBLE!
Right! It’s almost like a treat. Thank you for sharing, Jessica. I’m delighted you enjoyed them.
Omg. Who knew carrots could taste so amazing? I made the basic version and I added paprika, dried thyme, and a little more olive oil. It paired perfectly with chickpea patties, vegan mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and vegan gravy. Definitely be using the recipe again and again.
I know! I’m glad you agreed. Thank you for you review, Lily.
Good!
Thank you, Debbie!
These look amazing, thanks Kate! A recipe I love is blanching the cut carrots for 2 minutes, then simmer them for 5 minutes in a hot pan with some butter and either fresh or dried tarragon. No extra salt, no pepper needed. Simple and delicious.
so delicious!!
Great to hear, Jenny! Thank you for your review.
This is a super helpful recipe…love the variations and simplicity! Made with rainbow carrots and my 4 yo daughter loved them!!
Hi. I’d love to make your recipe. However, I’m unable to find the temperature at which I’m supposed to roast the carrots. Can you please specify?
Hi Caroline, please see step 1.
Question: Do you put the honey butter mixture on the carrots before or after roasting? I plan to make them for tonight’s dinner.
Hi Laura! See the notes below the instructions. It’s all outlined there. I hope you love them!
I tried this roasted carrots for the first time today. I julienned them, tossed them in a plastic bag with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt and black pepper. WOW!
THEN, I found this recipe on the internet. This will be a regular side in this house.
I love the carrot recipe using honey and butter. Can I partially cook the carrots and finish later? Can they also be reheated the next day after putting the honey and butter on them?
Rated 5 star.
Hi Irene, I find they are best right away. But, you can reheat them later. I don’t know about partially cooking them without trying it. Sorry!
Can the roasted carrots be made the day before and just reheated on Thanksgiving?
Hi! I find they are best right away. But you can try to reheat them. Enjoy!
I love to cook and I have found over the years that I never enjoyed many things I should have. But I learned that carrots was something I could always enjoy the taste of. Thanks to you I now see I have a few new ways to cook them up.
Below is one of my favorites and I hope this is not out of line to place this here.
Carrots and brussel sprouts for instance. Clean them up with a good bath, fine tune the burssel sprouts by slicing of the end, then slicing them in half. Set them aside.
Grab up a bag of baby carrots give them a bath and if they are more than an inch long cut them in half.
Now mix a small bowl of olive oil and lime juice before you place all of your carrots and sprouts in a tray to be cooked dip them all in the oil and juice mix.
Place them in the oven to cook for about 40 minutes at around 350 degrees. about every 15 minutes add more lime juice over all of them and turn them. By the time you remove that tray you have had in the oven, you can add things like Tuna or chicken to the mix and find you have a great meal
Chinese 5 Spice is another exotic flavour on the carrots instead of cinnamon & chili
Came out great! Combined the spiced version with the honey butter version using Trader Joe’s rainbow carrots – really tasty. Thank you for this simple recipe!
Great to hear, Eva! Thank you for your review.
Absolutely love your roasting carrots recipe. I use multi colored carrots that come in yellow ,red and orange. They are so sweet and look beautiful as a side dish. Love to pair the roasted carrots and roasted beets recipes of yours as sides when I have friends over. Crowd pleaser every time. Thank you a huge fan of yours. Got the cook book and use it often. Hugs , Debbie.
Just used sea salt black pepper dried chives and olive oil and they came out like candy! The carrots were super fresh spring carrots.
This is definitely a recipe I’ll be making regularly. The roasting really compliments the carrot. Next time I’ll add roughly chopped shallots
If you are making a vegan version..use vegan butter and maple syrup…cruelty free and very delicious..Linda
I must admit I did question the combination of cinnamon and cayenne but it was delicious! A very easy and satisfying carrot dish.
Thank you for yet another easy and wonderful recipe.
I’m glad you loved it, Shoba! I appreciate you sharing.
These were my favorite new holiday recipe! I’ll make these again and again, thanks.
Carrots with orange juice and ginger
I just cooked your recipe for baked honey and butter carrots and the family loved every bite. Next I need to try sweet potatoes. Thanks for the help.
the basic roasted carrots are my go to, easy to make easy clean up. Thanksgiving everyone loved them – I made them last night for Christmas eve, I assumed all 2 lbs would not be finished with all the food, but I hear my son say I’m getting more carrots and hear my niece say “i already went to they are all gone” before we were even through eating.
Hooray! That’s great, Kim.
Delicious, but I want to heavily reduce the oil for roasting, possibly by half. I ended up draining it through a colander before placing it in my slow-cooker for transport to my parent-in-law’s for Easter to place on warm just before the main event meal. I’m sure they’ll love it. :)
(P.S. That in indeed my real email, willing to prove it. I got it at the dawn of gmail time, and I’ve been defending its misuse and attempted steal since.)
Can you cook to semi tender in microwave, and then roast (to save electricity)?
I recommend this recipe best as written.
Just made the brown butter honey carrots, they’re great!!
Great to hear, Monika!
How do you recommend gently Reheating them? I’m making for guests and would like predone if taste good still.
You could try to gently rewarm them in the oven. I hope they are a hit!