These Rosemary Roasted Carrots are simple, healthy, and delicious. Fresh carrots are tossed with olive oil and rosemary, and roasted to perfection. Yum!
Recipes by me, photos by Rikki Snyder.
These delicious roasted carrots make a healthy, simple side dish that's pretty enough to serve for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!
Even though I have a food blog, I have to confess that I get overwhelmed when cooking a few things at once. Does that happen to you too, or is it just me?
It seems like the more I have going on in the kitchen, the more likely things are to end up charred and inedible. So when developing recipes for a vegetarian Thanksgiving, I wanted a good mix of dishes that were a little more involved and dishes that required very little time, effort, or thought. These Rosemary Roasted Carrots are one of the latter!
I also decided to add some simple roasted vegetable recipes to our Thanksgiving line-up because I wanted to have some lighter, healthier options in the midst of the stuffing and dessert and mashed potatoes.
Tips, Tricks, & Variations
Use heirloom or rainbow carrots for this recipe if you can find them. While any carrots will work, the beautiful colors will really make this holiday side dish feel special.
If you like things a little spicy, you can add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes, in addition to the rosemary. That's how my husband likes them!
This basic roasted carrot recipe can be used as a base for your own creation too - just experiment with your own favorite spices and herbs. Try whatever is in season near you!
For more holiday recipe ideas, be sure to check out our Vegan Thanksgiving and Vegan Christmas cookbooks.
And you love these rosemary roasted carrots, be sure to check out these other delicious recipes:
Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 bunches of small carrots about 24, peeled
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp rosemary minced
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Toss the carrots with olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with rosemary, salt & pepper.
- Bake 20–25 minutes or until tender.
Robin says
So colorful and delicious looking!
Carolyn says
Love these, Kiersten! Thanks for participating in my big WDD Initiative.
Kiersten says
Thank you for hosting it!
Kelly @ A Girl Worth Saving says
Seriously beautiful! I'm going to have to make this next week 🙂
Hungry Huy says
Sometimes simple can be very satisfying. These colors look wonderful!
Richa says
those carrots are so pretty. i need a photographer around.. it takes me less tme to cook in the kitchen than everything else, pictures, editing, post editing, posting:)
the day i am cooking a large meal i dont ever have time for the camera.:)
Kiersten says
I know, I wish Rikki could photograph everything I make. 😉
Kelly @ Texas Type A Mom says
Your carrots looks beautiful and with the abundance of rosemary in our garden, I have all the ingredients on hand!
Kiersten says
Our rosemary is still going strong too! I need to make more recipes with it.
Kim Bee says
New to your blog. So happy to have participated so I could find you. Really loving this recipe. Your photos are stunning.
Kiersten says
Thanks for stopping by! I've found a lot of great new blogs through Carolyn's event too--I can't wait to check yours out!
Bridget @ The Road Not Processed says
Heirloom carrots are my favorite! They're beautiful and healthy, how it should be
Peter @ Feed Your Soul says
I really like the earthiness of this dish. I featured it on my Friday Five Thanksgiving addition over @ Feed Your Soul - http://chefpeterskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-friday-five-thanksgiving-addition.html
Kiersten says
Thanks for the mention!
Sheila says
Dang.. Now I want to eat those.. today!! I have some carrots and am going to make these with our meal tomorrow night. Thanks for a great veggie alternative dish 🙂
Sheila says
I meant a great veggie dish.. instead of the boring ones I make... LOL
Kiersten says
I hope you liked them! 🙂 I serve roasted veggies as a side at least once a week--they are so easy!
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
These carrots are beautiful! I love the mix of colors, and of course the simplicity of this dish. Yum 🙂
mjskit says
These are so lovely and I know they would be delicious because I love roasted sweet carrots! If I can find a a couple of bunches, these beauties will be gracing my Thanksgiving table.
Kiersten says
Thank you! And yes, I think roasting is my favorite way to make carrots too. 🙂
Christa says
Drool. These look amazing!
Jennifer H says
yum, yum!!
Jenn @therebelchick says
I need to try this, I love anything with rosemary on it, and I usually just cook my carrots with nutmeg and brown sugar!
Kiersten says
Ooh, nutmeg and brown sugar sounds really good!
Dee @ Cocktails with Mom says
That last pic is absolutely gorgeous.
Stephanie @ henry happened says
These are so pretty - I don't think I've ever seen a purple carrot! Type 2 diabetes runs in my family (my mom had it, apparently it's strongly correlated to pancreatic cancer) so thanks for the shout out!
Kiersten says
It runs in my family too. It's definitely motivation to take better care of ourselves...
Jennifer says
thank you for this recipe! I am not usually a fan of cooked carrots but I just imagine I would absolutely LOVE these.
Meg @ Beard and Bonnet says
These were a stunning addition to our Thanksgiving Dinner! I was hoping for seconds for myself, but everyone else gobbled them all up. Thanks for the recipe and I hope you enjoyed your long weekend too!
Kiersten says
Ha! Don't you hate it when that happens? 🙂 I need to make these again too--I wish my rainbow carrots would hurry up and grow!
Daria says
Today I decided to try this recipe:) And I decided to experiment - I used not only carrots but also parsnips and onions (cut into halves). All of them turned out delicious! Thank you:)
Kiersten says
I'm glad it turned out well!
Lisa says
Beautiful colorful carrots! I usually use dill or thyme with these roots, so I can't wait to try them with rosemary. And thanks for raising diabetes awareness.
Kiersten says
I love thyme with carrots too, but I've never tried dill! I'm going to have to do that.
Lisa says
Absolutely - here's my recipe 🙂
http://vegwithlisa.com/2011/07/14/roasted-root-vegetables-with-dill/
It's for mixed roasted roots, but I do it with just carrots all of the time and it's yummy!
Kiersten says
Thank you! 🙂
Bailey says
What would you recommend I make with these beauties?! 🙂
Kiersten says
These were part of a full Thanksgiving menu feature I did with another blogger, which you can find here: https://ohmyveggies.com/a-vegetarian-thanksgiving-menu/. But really, these are the kind of side dish that goes with just about anything!
Phyllis says
I would like to subscribe to this blog. How?
Kiersten says
At the top of the page, there's a subscription box and under every post there's another one. Enter your email address there; once you do, you'll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription.
Heather says
These look so yummy! I'm planning to make them for Thanksgiving this year (along with several of your other recipes 🙂 ) - I'm wondering how you think it would turn out to make them ahead and reheat them on the stove so I can save my oven for other dishes? Might work or bad idea? Thanks!!
Kiersten says
I think roasted veggies are just better fresh out of the oven. Which probably isn't what you want to hear. 🙂 It's not that they're bad, and it's definitely doable, but for a Thanksgiving dinner, I think they'd be better made that day.
Susan says
Beautiful pictures! Can't wait to try this. Where did you get the beautiful wooden dish from?
Kiersten says
I collaborated with another food stylist/photographer for this post and the bowl is hers, so I'm not sure! But I saw similar bowls at World Market a few months back...