Roasted carrots. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Like you don’t even need a recipe? Not so. We’ve tried countless roasted carrot recipes in the last decade or so, and all of them left us with sadly unevenly cooked carrots that everyone just pushed around on their plates.
Until this recipe. Simple perfection that requires only 10 minutes of effort to produce an inexpensive, kid-friendly, easy side dish for serving alongside spiced roast chicken, roast turkey with stuffing and vegetables, or a roasted pork loin.
Why Our Testers Loved This
Our testers love that these carrots are “tender, soft, and perfect,” quick and easy to prepare, and make an inexpensive, healthy side dish everyone likes. They also said it can be served with a ton of other dishes.
What You’ll Need to Make This
- Carrots–We recommend peeling the carrots for this recipe, but if you’re in a hurry, it’s ok to just give them a good scrub. You can use baby carrots, but keep them whole.
- Unsalted butter–If you need to substitute regular salted butter here, reduce the amount of salt in step 2 to 1/4 teaspoon.
How to Make This Recipe
- Heat the oven to 425°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or foil. Cut the carrots into quarters so they’re all approximately the same size, then toss them with butter.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Spread them out in a single layer on the baking sheet and cover with foil.
- Roast the carrots. Cook the carrots covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and continue to roast until the carrots are tender. Season to taste and serve.
FAQs
I find these roasted carrots to be quite lovely just as they are. However, you can fancy them up by tossing them with curry powder to make curried roasted carrots, or finishing them with fresh tarragon, chives, or any herb you have on hand, even fried sage leaves.
Or you could multitask and add some slender wedges of red onions or shallots (as in the photo above) to the pan alongside the carrots and roast them at the same time.
You can, but leave them whole and keep an eye on them during cooking, as their roasting time may need to be adjusted.
For this recipe, I found it takes about 45 minutes of total cooking time to get perfectly tender, slightly browned carrots. If you prefer them a little crunchier, you can reduce the cooking time that they roast uncovered by 5 or 10 minutes.
Helpful Tips
- To get ahead, peel and cut your carrots up to 4 days in advance. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in a 400°F oven or in a skillet over medium-low heat until warmed through.
- If you’ve got lots of leftover roasted carrots, use them to make carrot soup.
More Great Roasted Carrot Recipes
Write a Review
If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
What a simple yet sublime side dish these carrots are! Crunchy, sweet, and caramelized, this will be my go-to method from now on. I served them with braised short ribs and mashed potatoes for a delightful Sunday supper. Between the two of us we ate almost the whole batch.
lisa
Easy Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled
- 2 tablespoons (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut each carrot in half crosswise and then cut each half lengthwise in halves or quarters as needed to create uniformly sized pieces. Toss the carrots in a large bowl along with the melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and toss to coat.
- Dump the carrots on the parchment-lined baking sheet and spread in a single layer. Cover the baking sheet tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 15 minutes.
- Remove the foil and continue to roast, stirring twice, until the carrots are well browned and tender, about 30 minutes more.
- Transfer to a serving dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Notes
- Get ahead–Carrots can be peeled and cut up to 4 days in advance. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Storage–Leftover carrots can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 4 days. Rewarm in a 400°F oven or in a skillet over medium-low heat until warmed through.
- Add spices–You can add your favorite spices to the carrot mixture before roasting, or top them with fresh herbs after cooking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
These easy-roasted carrots have a wonderful caramelized flavor. This is a great dish to accompany a more complicated meal because the carrots are quick to prepare. Then, for the next 45 minutes, you can smell the delightful scent of the carrots roasting while you prepare the rest of the meal.
I chose to use a variety of carrots and found that although they all had wonderful flavor, some were much sweeter than others. I found the traditional orange carrot to be the sweetest.
We followed this recipe for easy roasted carrots to a T, even peeling the carrots, which we never do. And guess what? The method works. It always delights us when a recipe using a few ingredients teaches a method that is exceptional.
This recipe works as described, and the finished carrots are delightful and delicious. Yes, we’ll make these simple roast carrots again, and we’ll play with seasoning additions–crisp buttered sage, or a sprinkle of curry, or a handful of herbs.
Amazingly delicious and simple roasted carrots. Roasting the carrots with the foil on made the carrots lovely and tender on the inside with a crisp exterior. They were sweet and buttery with just the right amount of spice from the salt and pepper.
They would be fantastic with other vegetables as well—maybe some parsnips, potatoes, and onions or sweet potatoes. The possibilities are endless. The perfect method for perfect results. An incredibly tasty vegetable.
Oven-roasted carrots are a weeknight dinner staple in our house because carrots never seem to go bad and are always the last vegetable remaining once time-sensitive veggies have been consumed. But I can never get the timing and temperature down to produce properly roasted carrots. Mine always end up a little too charred before the insides are tender. So we eat scorchingly hot carrots that are somehow still crunchy inside.
This easy roast carrot recipe changes this forever!
Covering the carrots for some of the cooking time gives them the steam they need to cook through. Using butter instead of oil was also key, as it browns while the carrots caramelize to produce the most incredible flavor. My husband insisted the carrots had cinnamon on them. He couldn’t believe it was just the carrot and butter producing the warm, sweet flavors.
This recipe has been downloaded to my permanent memory and will be how I cook carrots from here on out! I look forward to trying this again with different spices and using the same technique on other root vegetables!
File these easy roast carrots under cheap, versatile, and easy sides that everybody likes.
I prepped the carrots in about 5 minutes—melt the butter in a bowl large enough to toss the carrots in to save yourself a dish. Before tossing everything together, I stirred the salt and pepper into the butter for better coverage.
The carrots are equally delicious straight from the oven or at room temperature. They won’t last long, so make extras.
This is my new favorite way to cook carrots. I live with someone who much prefers raw carrots and always turns his nose up when I serve them cooked. But we both really enjoyed these. I love that they are hands-off and that you can customize the spices you use depending on what you are serving them with.
When one of the farmers at the market I manage had the season’s first carrots, I kicked myself for having already purchased carrots at Trader Joe’s, thinking this recipe would benefit from the best and most tender carrots of springtime. I needn’t have been concerned. As I sat oven-side with a fork and the baking sheet, I devoured the better part of a pound of these roasted carrots solo.
Whether it was the method, the carrots, or a combination of both, they were sweet and rooty, much like a roasted parsnip. They would be tasty year-round and an easy and excellent addition to any meal needing another vegetable or a hint of color. I’d like to try a mix of yellow, orange, and purple carrots with a future batch.
These easy-roasted carrots turned out tender, soft, and perfect! I thought they were tasty and tender. However, I would have used maybe another two tablespoons of butter and maybe tried some different spices-and-herb blends with the carrots to give them more flavor.
These are terrific! The carrots get almost candied, and are a sweet, delicious treat!
Fantastic, Kristin! We are so pleased you enjoyed them.