If you’re looking for the perfect side dish for your holiday table (or next roast dinner) then look no further then my Maple Roasted Dutch Carrots. The baby carrots are lightly dressed in a maple dressing and then roasted until absolute perfection. Not only are these roasted carrots so yummy but they are so pretty as well! I like to top the roasted carrots with some chopped pistachios to make them look extra beautiful.
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If you’re looking for other sides to serve alongside your next roast dinner or on your holiday table this Thanksgiving or Christmas, then you need to try my Hasselback Red Potatoes, Crispy Smashed Potatoes, Green Beans with Cranberries & Almonds and Roasted Brussels Sprout & Bacon Salad.
Ingredients Notes & Substitutions
You only need 5 ingredients to make this simple recipe. Below is a list of everything you will need along with any possible substitutions.
- Dutch carrots – sometimes known as baby carrots, Dutch carrots are the small orange carrots that have the leaves still in tact. You can swap the Dutch carrots for regular carrots, but you will need to slice the carrots at least in half, if they are quite large then in quarters lengthways. I’ve used two bunches, which serves around 4. You can always increase the quantities for larger groups. Other vegetables you could use for this recipe are sweet potato and parsnip.
- Extra virgin olive oil – I always use extra virgin as it is minimally processed, meaning it retains more nutrients than regular olive oil.
- Pure maple syrup – always choose pure maple syrup and not maple flavoured syrup (which is just high fructose corn syrup, yuck!). You can substitute the maple syrup for honey.
- Sea salt flakes – if you’re using finely ground sea salt then just use a few pinches.
- Cracked black pepper – just add the pepper to taste.
Optional
- shelled pistachios, roughly chopped (you could also use chopped walnuts, toasted pine nuts or toasted chopped hazelnuts)
How to Make Maple Roasted Dutch Carrots
This is one of those recipes that, while being quite simple, needed a bit of testing to get right. One of the main things I learnt when testing this recipe was to not just dump all of the carrots and maple mixture into the baking dish, as the maple mixture burns onto the dish, which doesn’t taste great but also is very hard to get off the dish! Here’s how I make them:
Preheat the oven – you want the oven to be preheated before adding the carrots so that the timings all work out perfectly.
Prepare the carrots – wash the carrots thoroughly and cut them so that there is about an inch of stem left on them. There’s no need to peel the carrots. Once roasted, the stems are nice and crispy and yes, you can eat them! Roughly dry off the carrots.
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Make the maple mixture – add the olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper into a bowl and whisk to combine.
Dress the carrots – add the whole carrots to the bowl and toss to coat them all evenly.
Roast the carrots – add the carrots to a large greased baking dish or a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place them in one by one, lined up so they have a centimetre or so space in between each carrot. Reserve the maple dressing in the bowl for drizzling over the carrots once they’re done. Place the tray or baking dish into the preheated oven and roast for 40 minutes or until perfectly tender, with crisp ends. Use a fork to test the largest carrot, if it is tender then remove from the oven.
Serve – once roasted, drizzle the remaining dressing over the roasted carrots and then arrange on a serving dish or platter. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachios and serve warm.
What to Serve Maple Roasted Dutch Carrots With
These carrots go with so many dishes but here are some of my favourites:
- roast chicken, pork, beef or lamb
- a nice steak like a rib fillet or porterhouse
- roast turkey
- use to make a roasted carrot salad
Storage
Store any leftover maple roasted dutch carrots in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Maple Roasted Dutch Carrots
Equipment
- Whisk
- Colander
- Sharp knife
- Large Baking Dish
Ingredients
- 2 bunches Dutch carrots, washed
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- cracked black pepper, to taste
To serve
- 2 tablespoons shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a medium sized baking dish and set aside.
- Trim the carrots so that they still have about an inch of the stem left on them. Rinse well and dry off.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the maple syrup, olive oil salt and pepper. Add the carrots to the bowl and toss to coat evenly in the maple mixture.
- Transfer the carrots to the greased baking dish, making sure they are all separate. Reserve any maple mixture.
- Place the carrots into the oven and roast for 40 minutes or until tender.
- Once roasted, remove from the oven and using a spatula to scoop the last bits of the maple mixture over the roasted carrots. Toss the carrots through the mixture.
- Arrange the roasted carrots on a serving platter and top with the chopped pistachios. Serve warm.
Notes
Serving Suggestions
Serve alongside:- roast beef, lamb, chicken, turkey or pork.
- steak.
- grilled fish.
- crispy smashed potatoes
- green beans with cranberries & almonds
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