Recipe: Roasted Toasted Sweet and Savory Carrots
Roasted Toasted Carrots are great as a weekly side dish. And we also make them as a Thanksgiving side every year!
We make roasted carrots every week as part of our food prep routine. We buy the GIANT bag of organic carrots from Costco and use a quarter to make roasted carrots, another quarter to make carrot ginger soup, and the rest to munch on with nut butter! I will also use the petite tri-color carrots from Trader Joe’s for this recipe especially when having company over because they are very pretty! (The end product though will taste the same).
For the Roasted Carrots:
Wash/Scrub the carrots. No need to peel them as you waste so much of the carrot when you do.
In a small pan, heat olive oil with salt, cumin seeds and a bit of orange peel/zest (if you have it). Zest or peel the orange the way you would for an Ol’ Fashioned.
Place carrots on a sheet pan or in a cast iron skillet. The carrots taste sweeter and toastier on a cast iron.
Once the oil mixture is heated, pour the mixture over the carrots so that they all glisten.
Add 1-2 teaspoons of cumin powder and rub over the carrots.
Then add a table spoon or so of balsamic vinegar and rub it all together. (Note, I don’t use sugar, but a sprinkling of brown sugar or a drizzle of honey also makes the carrots taste amazing!)
Place skillet/pan in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees.
Depending on your oven, it will take between 30 - 45 minutes for the carrots to soften, roast, and brown a bit. So keep an eye on them and stick a fork in to see when they are cooked to your desired level of softness. I tend to go longer, because our family likes them browned. You can also do all of this in your grill using a cast iron skillet and the cook time is usually even faster.
Add salt and pepper to taste!
Note - during kumquat season, tossing in a few slices of kumquat with these is TO DIE FOR!