Of all the carrot recipes on Inspired Taste, these garlic butter carrots are my absolute favorite! We roast them until golden brown and tender, then toss them with the most delicious garlic parsley butter before serving.
These herby carrots are impressive. I’ve made them for the holidays and special occasions so many times!
They are also easy enough to make on a weeknight. If you’re tired of bland carrot recipes, this one is for you!
How to Cook Carrots – My Favorite Way!
Of all the ways to cook carrots, my favorite is oven roasting. Carrots don’t take long to cook in the oven — 25 to 30 minutes. And the oven does a magical job of bringing out the carrot’s natural sweetness.
For this carrots recipe, we roast our carrots tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper. I use a hot oven (425°F) and leave them in the oven until the edges start to wrinkle and lightly brown.
When our carrots come out of the oven, I toss them with the most delicious garlic parsley butter. It’s incredible.
Making the Garlic Butter
I love tossing carrots in this flavored butter. It’s also perfect tossed with other cooked or roasted veggies and spooned over salmon or chicken.
We’ll melt butter in a small pan over low heat to make it. Then add a smashed garlic clove and chopped fresh parsley.
Allow the butter to bubble gently around the garlic and parsley for a minute, then set the infused butter aside. I remove the garlic clove before tossing it with the carrots.
Make-Ahead Tips
These carrots are super easy to make ahead! Roast them 3 to 4 days in advance and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
For longer storage, freeze them for up to 3 months. To reheat, pop them in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes, or use the microwave for a super-quick fix.
The garlic parsley butter tastes best fresh the day you make it, but you can make it a few days ahead. Just store it in the fridge after it cools. The parsley might lose some bright green color, but it will still taste delicious.
What to Serve with These Carrots
These simple carrots with garlic butter always impress. We love to serve them next to Pan-Roasted Chicken, my mother’s Baked Salmon with Lemon and Dill, and our Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples. They are also perfect for topping grain or rice bowls.
Our carrots recipe calls for garlic and parsley butter, but feel free to get creative! This recipe is more of a guide than a rulebook. Love basil? Toss it in! Want a kick? Add some red pepper flakes! Dill, cumin, or other favorite flavors are also delicious!
Makes 4 servings
You Will Need
1 ½ pounds carrots, peeled with ends trimmed (8 to 9 carrots)
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, chopped
Directions
Roast Carrots
1Heat your oven to 425°F (218C) degrees F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup.
2Chop your carrots into sticks 2 to 3 inches long. If the thicker ends are wide, cut them in half lengthwise for even cooking.
3Toss the carrot sticks with olive oil and salt on the prepared baking sheet. Spread them in a single layer. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring twice, until tender and lightly browned on the edges.
Make Garlic Parsley Butter
1While the carrots roast, melt butter in a small pan over low heat. Gently crush a garlic clove with the back of a knife, remove the skin, and add it to the melted butter and the parsley.
2Let the butter bubble gently for about 1 minute. Then, slide the pan off the heat and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes to infuse the flavors.
3Discard the garlic clove.
To Finish
1Slide the roasted carrots into a bowl with the garlic parsley butter. Toss then season to taste with additional salt as needed.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
To make this vegan, swap the butter for vegan butter, coconut oil or olive oil.
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the carrots and parsnips and toss to coat in the oil. Add the thyme, cinnamon, star anise and some seasoning. Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, turning the vegetables frequently, until golden brown and almost cooked through.
Or, to bring out their fresh, woody flavor, add some anise. If you're roasting your carrots, toss them in olive oil first. This will help keep the moisture in them. To bring out the sweetness in your carrots, season them with orange or lemon juice or a little brown sugar and butter.
No matter which way you cook them, carrots are a healthy choice. Steaming is a slightly better pick since the carrots don't lose as many of their nutrients to the water. (Steaming is also more environmentally friendly since it uses less water.)
You don't want to soak them, you want to cook them. The prep and method of cooking will determine how long it will take to soften the carrots. Quickest: slice and boil in salted water; done in a few minutes. Best tasting: clean carrots, toss in oil and a little bit of salt.
Instead of simply tossing carrots in the vegetable drawer, take a few minutes to cut off the greens and submerge the carrots in water. You'll be rewarded with carrots that stay crisp for weeks, not days.
The healthiest way to cook carrots is by steaming or baking them. Steaming carrots helps retain most of their nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin K, and fiber, while also preserving their natural flavor and color.
The fiber in carrots (and any high-fiber vegetables, actually) acts like a natural vacuum cleaner in your gastrointestinal tract, picking up debris as it runs through your body. Carrots can also help keep gut cells healthy, supporting a decreased risk of illness and improving your health overall.
Carrots pair well with fresh or dried herbs like thyme, rosemary & parsley. Bring out extra flavor in carrots by adding spices like ginger, paprika, cinnamon or curry powder.
Cut a thin slice off the bottoms and submerge them in a bowl of cold clean water, which you'll place in your fridge on the coldest shelf. Sure, you can use them after about an hour of soaking, but if you ignore them until the next day you should have crisp carrots just begging to be eaten.
There are a few possibilities for why your carrots aren't as sweet as they should be. You are right to think about your soil--a crop of carrots can deplete a soil of nutrients. Be sure to rotate crops in your garden, rather than planting carrots in the same place year after year.
You'll have to store your carrots in the refrigerator, but how you store them can actually make a difference. Raw carrots, when properly stored will usually stay fresh for around 3 to 4 weeks in the fridge.
“And carrots tend to be particularly good at absorbing odors from other produce.” For this reason, he suggests keeping apples and carrots away from each other, adding that cabbage, figs and onions can also absorb an apple's odor.
Steaming carrots is also a low-fat cooking method, as no additional oil is required to transform the carrot into a softened bite. Like boiled carrots, steamed carrots are just a little boring. They have a livelier color and more of a tender-crisp bite, but they need to be spruced up to make them enjoyable.
First cut the carrot into a julienne, then gather the sticks and cut down into ⅛-inch squares. This method of finely chopping carrots helps flavors to infuse evenly throughout your dish, especially when sautéeing.
Peeling carrots before cooking or eating is reflexive for most people, but is it necessary? The truth is, no, you don't have to peel carrots. You can, but it's certainly not a requirement, especially if you give this root vegetable a proper scrubbing.
Carrots. Raw carrots are fine, but cooked carrots are better for you. Cooking carrots allows beta carotene, an antioxidant compound that gets converted to vitamin A in the intestine, to absorb more easily in the body, explains Beckerman.
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