Our honey roasted carrots recipe

  
Honey roast carrots are without a doubt one of the tastiest ways to enjoy this humble and inexpensive root vegetable. They are the perfect accompaniment for any roast dinner and can also be enjoyed as filling snack that makes a delicious, healthier alternative to a bowl of chips.

This simple honey glazed carrot recipe uses just a handful of ingredients that most will have in the cupboard, plus some optional fresh herbs to make them extra special. For me honey roasted carrots provide the ultimate sweet and savoury flavour, if you've only ever had bland boiled carrots, you are in for a real treat!

To make honey roasted carrots, you will need:

• 500g medium sized Carrots

• 2 tablespoons raw honey

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Sea salt

• Black pepper

• 5 or 6 fresh sage or coriander leaves (optional)

• A mixing bowl

• A large baking tray

• kitchen foil

• Tongs, plastic spatula or something similar to mix and turn your honey carrots.

Time to prepare and roast: 45-50 mins.

I'm ready, lets get roasting!

1: First things first, let's get the oven on!

We want to Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 or 200C, if you have a fan oven then lower it down to around 180C.

2: Next get your tray prepared.

The best method is to simply line the tray with kitchen foil, even though the carrots will be coated in lovely sticky honey they won't stick to the foil. It also makes cleaning up really easy because after roasting you won't have a messy tray with caramelised honey that needs cleaning off.

3: Next prepare the carrots.

To peel or not to peel, that is the question!

Whether you peel your carrots is entirely up to you, I don't. I just give them a good scrub in some warm water but if you want to peel them then feel free to do so. I have a little scrubbing brush that I use only for cleaning vegetables. If you hate peeling vegetables as much as me, you should be able to find a suitable brush from your local pound-shop!

After cleaning, chop the carrots at an angle into what I call 'large thumb sized' pieces, just be careful that your own thumb isn't part of the cutting process! When you are cutting raw carrots a very sharp knife is much safer than a blunt one. If some of the carrots look a bit fat you can cut them in half down the middle to create pieces that are a little more even in thickness.

4: Glaze the carrots with the other ingredients.

When you have the carrots all chopped up, put them in the bowl and add the olive oil, honey and a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Give them a good mix around so the carrots are all coated and glistening with the honey and olive oil.

5: Transfer the carrots to the tray.

Spread the carrots out on the baking tray. For the most even roast, it's best if they aren't touching. If there's any oil and honey left in the bowl you can drizzle that over the top too. There's no argument for 'less is more' here!

7: Roast for around 30 mins.

Pop the tray on the middle shelf and set a timer for 15 minutes. At that halfway point we want to give them a little toss and turn. It's best if you can flip them over and swap the carrots in the middle of the tray for the ones on the edges. This will give you the most even roasting on the carrots, but don't stress about it too much, it's just the general approach to take, not something that needs perfect execution! It's also an opportunity to give them an extra roll around in the honey.

Return them to the oven for another 15 minutes, this is an approximate time but should be perfect for most carrots, you may need to adjust the time 5 mins or so each way if you have slightly smaller or larger carrots, so do keep an eye on them. They are done when they are soft inside but with a slightly al-dente texture, we don't want them to be mush.

8: Remove your honey roasted carrots from the oven

If you are serving your honey carrots as part of a meal, then you can transfer them straight to the plates, there's enough here for a family of four as part of a full dinner. If you are serving them for people to help themselves at the table, I like to sprinkle them with some chopped sage or thyme and a couple of whole sage leaves for decoration. If you are eating them as a snack I like to put them in a bowl and sprinkle a little extra salt over them. Another option that tastes fantastic is to sprinkle them with some chopped coriander. 

Some notes on the ingredients:

I recommend our Original Raw Vitamin Honey but you can use any honey you may already have.

Your choice of carrot is entirely up to you, but I tend to just use medium sized inexpensive carrots that you can find in your local supermarket or grocers. Cooking carrots in this way is perfect for making cheap, ordinary carrots taste a million dollars!

If you are cooking for a special occasion, then you could use organic carrots or even multi-coloured carrots from a farmers market (they come in a beautiful array of colours!) If they are nice and small you could roast them whole with the tops still on, which can look fantastic on a serving plate!

If you are serving for more people or want bigger portions, simply use 1kg of carrots and double the amounts of the other ingredients.

About the oven temperature:

I've designed this recipe to work at the oven temperature of Gas Mark 6 because that is the temperature that I roast a whole chicken at and I wanted it to work easily as part of a full roast dinner. If you are roasting a large piece of meat at a lower temperature, then I would recommend keeping the oven at the correct temperature for the meat and just extending the cooking time for the carrots.