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This easy roasted carrots recipe is tossed with a garlic rosemary honey butter and sprinkled with flaky sea salt. Absolutely irresistible!
I could happily make a meal just out of these roasted carrots. ♡
Seriously. I don’t usually rank carrots high on my list of favorite veggies. But the garlicky rosemary honey brown butter here is absolutely divine and helps the carrots to caramelize beautifully while roasting in the oven. Oh, and we’ll save half of the butter to drizzle on just before serving, creating a lovely finishing glaze for the carrots as well.
It’s a simple recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to prep, it’s naturally gluten-free (plus easy to make vegan if you’d like), and it can be paired with any number of entrées or holiday spreads. It’s on the menu here in our house for Thanksgiving this year and I already can’t wait to roast another batch. Just be warned — you can easily pop these little carrots like candy straight off of the baking sheet, so there’s no guarantees they’ll all make it to the table.
Let’s make some roasted carrots together!
Roasted Carrots Ingredients
Here are a few quick notes about the ingredients you will need to make this roasted carrots recipe:
Carrots: Fresh carrots are perfect for roasting, soaking up the buttery glaze and caramelizing beautifully in the oven. I recommend slicing the carrots on a diagonal into bite-sized pieces to maximize the surface area for caramelization.
Butter: Creamy butter balances the sweetness of the carrots and honey and helps with the caramelization process. We’ll brown the butter when making the glaze, giving it an extra layer of delicious toasted flavor.
Garlic: I highly recommend either grating or pressing the garlic in this recipe so that it melts seamlessly into the honey butter and infuses each bite with savory garlicky flavor.
Rosemary: Rosemary adds a burst of earthy, woodsy, fragrant flavor that pairs perfectly with the sweetness of the carrots. I recommend very finely chopping fresh rosemary here, or you could swap in 1 teaspoon dried rosemary powder.
Honey: Don’t worry, the honey here doesn’t make the carrots overly sweet! We’ll use just a touch to enhance the flavor of the carrots and add a hint of floral flavor to the glaze.
Flaky sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper: Finally, I recommend liberally seasoning the carrots with flaky sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper. The crunch of the flaky sea salt adds a nice bit of texture and enhances all of the flavors, and the black pepper rounds things out perfectly.
Recipe Tips
Step-by-step instructions are included in the recipe below, but here are some extra tips to keep in mind too:
Slice the carrots uniformly. Try to slice the carrots into uniform thickness so that they cook evenly.
Grate or press the garlic. As mentioned above, I recommend either grating or pressing the garlic so that it blends seamlessly into the honey butter and doesn’t burn.
Adjust ingredient amounts to taste. Feel free to add more/less honey, rosemary or garlic here to taste, depending on what flavors you prefer. All of the ingredient amounts are quite flexible here.
Roast to your desired level of doneness. Everyone has different preferences with how soft they like cooked carrots. I’ve found that the recipe as written strikes a nice balance of soft and caramelized, yet still with a slight bit of crispness. But please feel free to leave them in the oven more or less time as desired to achieve the texture you prefer.
Season liberally with salt and pepper. Don’t be shy with the flaky sea salt and black pepper here. Good seasoning is essential for this recipe!
Recipe Variations
Here are a few variations that you’re welcome to try with this recipe:
Add citrus: Add a squeeze of fresh lemon or orange juice to the honey garlic butter.
Add Parmesan: Finish the roasted carrots with a dusting of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.
Add spice: Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, cayenne or smoked paprika to add some heat.
Add nuts: Add a sprinkling of slivered almonds, pine nuts or walnuts to the carrots for some extra crunch.
Use a mix of carrots and parsnips: Use half carrots and half parsnips for a mix of flavors.
More Vegetable Side Dishes To Try!
Looking for more crowd-pleasing vegetable side dish recipes to try? Here are a few of our favorites:
Prep the oven and baking sheet.Heat oven to 425°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Chop the carrots.Slice the carrots on a diagonal into ½-inch-thick pieces, slicing the larger pieces in half lengthwise if needed so that they are bite-sized.
Make the rosemary honey butter.Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until the butter solids turn lightly golden. Add the garlic and rosemary and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and stir in the honey to combine.
Toss the carrots.Place the carrots in a pile in the center of the baking sheet (or you can do this step in a mixing bowl) and drizzle half of the butter mixture evenly on top of the carrots. Gently toss the carrots so that they are evenly coated, then spread them out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Season lightly with salt and black pepper.
Roast.Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the bottoms of the carrots are lightly golden and caramelized. Remove from the oven and immediately drizzle the carrots with the remaining rosemary honey butter. Toss gently until evenly coated, then season once more with salt and black pepper to taste.
