Rustic Roasted Carrots

Roasted carrots, simply seasoned with salt and a buttery spread, make a vegan addition to your holiday or Spring table

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Getting my family to eat cooked carrots can be a challenge.  Sure, they don't mind if I stretch our tacos or meatloaf with diced or shredded carrots.  Eating raw carrots as a vehicle to convey dip into the mouth is also no problem around these parts.  But every cooked carrot dish I've tried has been politely attempted and then untouched.  Until now.  This is too easy and too basic not to share.  I'm becoming enamored with side dishes that let the fresh flavor of the vegetables shine through--without overpowering sauces--and this is a good example of that.

I first made these carrots when I was overwhelmed with carrots from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, which is a testament to the wonderful soil our famers are creating.  When we first joined this CSA most of the carrots were stubby and deliciously sweet--not really useful for much in the way of a meal, but delicious to snack on.  After consistently amending the soil with a wide variety of organic materials, from manure and compost to donated straw and old hay, our farmers grow still delicious but now fat and long carrots, in large amounts. Which leads to me being overwhelmed with carrots.

Getting bulging bags of fat carrots each week--and not eating an entire bagful in between pick-ups--meant that our crisper was on carrot overload.  The composting guinea pig was thrilled with the tops and tips.  I saved out the largest carrots for eating raw.  I shredded and froze the smaller carrots for adding to all sorts of meals over the winter, like my Thai Turkey Cold Busting Hot and Sour Soup.  That left the medium sized carrots, and since I was roasting beets and radishes I figured I'd try roasting carrots, too.

I lined them up like I'd seen young carrots served at a restaurant in Atlanta in a previous life, gave them a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt, and secured them in a foil packet.  When it came time to serve, my daughter grabbed some parsley to tuck into the sides for the photo--but this pretty dish never made it to the table.  We ate this with our fingers while standing in the kitchen and called it our appetizer.    Then I had a hankering for it again--inspired by some marked down carrots at the grocery store.  This time I roasted them on a rimmed baking sheet. The results again never made it to the table--or even a serving tray! We ate them off the baking sheet. Simple.  Rustic.  Good.

Since I had fun with HashtagOrangeWeek last month, where I shared a week's worth of recipes using the fresh Florida citrus from the Band Fruit Fundraiser, I thought I'd do it again.  With Easter coming up, I've decided to have HashtagCarrotWeek.  I'll start with this rustic side dish, continue on Friday with some sushi, and finish up the 'week' with muffins on Monday. So a week's worth of recipes using carrots, but stretched over more than a simple calendar week.  I wanted the savory squash pie linked up well before April Fool's day, you see.

For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.


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Rustic Roasted Carrots

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, scrubbed but not peeled if you don't want to mess around with that
• 1-2 Tablespoons cooking oil (I use olive oil)
• kosher salt, a healthy couple of pinches, plus more to taste
• pepper, several grinds, plus more to taste
• 1 Tablespoon butter or buttery spread
• parsley, for a garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  
2. In a large bowl, toss carrots with oil.  
3. If using a foil packet, place carrots onto a sheet of foil, season with salt and pepper, and seal the packet before placing it on a rimmed baking sheet.  
4. If you're skipping the foil packet, spread the oiled carrots onto the rimmed baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.  
5. Bake fat carrots 30 to 40 minutes and thin carrots 20 to 30 minutes until tender.  
6. Toss (same bowl if you like) with buttery spread or butter, taste one, and add additional salt and/or pepper if desired.  
7. Eat out of the bowl or decorate with parsley and let me know if your carrots make it to the table.

This post is shared with Fresh Foods Wednesday, What's Cookin' Wednesday, From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Simple Supper Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesdays, and Fiesta Friday, Food on Friday