Glazed Roasted Carrots

3 straight posts of veggies? No way! Well, that’s what we have for this week. Starting with today’s entry of roasted carrots!

My friend Lisa and I were holding another dinner party. We wanted to welcome summer with lots of colors, so we purposefully chose dishes that we knew would reflect a full rainbow. I think she got more creative than I did, because she even dyed some cauliflower blue!

Check out all of the colors, including the blue cauliflower!

The above plate is before the chicken finished (why does roast chicken always take its sweet time?). I hope she will share some of her recipes soon. She did a watermelon salad, a potato gratin (with mustard!) among many other delicious foods.

On the above plate, you can sneak a peek at the carrots for this post and the little roasted tomato (above the cauliflower) that will be in a coming post. I might also share the lemonade recipes (blackberry and peach) that turned out to be super popular.

The recipe for the glazed roasted carrots came from a cookbook I bought at the Le Creuset outlet by Sonia Stevenson called “Roasting”. I had been looking for some more savory recipes, and there were many in this book that looked interesting, starting with these carrots and the tomatoes. I have also made a fish recipe out of it. Everything has been yummy. Because of some ingredients, I have made some substitutions. I will include my versions below.

One of my colorful contributions

I made the candy above using the same ideas from SprinkleBakes‘ Chihuly glass bowls that I also did here.

Because we were cooking for so many, I doubled the book recipe. Technically, mine should serve 8-12. That sounds about right, but if you like your veggies like I do, you might be okay cooking it the way I am scaling it below. Another notable change is that I did not want to buy Madeira wine because I did not know if I would use it again, and it is expensive for a possible one-time ingredient. Instead, I reduced some Balsamic vinegar instead.

Following some tips I read online, I used half the amount of vinegar as the amount of wine that was in the recipe. So, this is 1/2 cup Balsamic simmering in a saucepan. I didn’t do anything to it, but just let it gradually cook down to this:

It was nice and syrupy with a nice fruit smell. Be sure to use good quality Balsamic so that the flavors are good!

Now to the recipe…

Directions for Glazed Roasted Carrots

• 2 pounds carrots (I used baby carrots, but you can use “young” carrots, too)
• About 5 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 teaspoons honey (you can also use sugar)
• 1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar that gets reduced (see above)
• salt and pepper
• Some fresh parsley to serve on top (curly or flat-leaf)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Prep your carrots (washing, possibly trimming or cutting as necessary). Boil the carrots for about 10 minutes. They will not be fully cooked at this point. Drain them.

Meanwhile, put the butter in a roasting pan (or other oven-save dish) and place in the oven. Let the butter melt. Once melted and the carrots are ready, put the carrots in the butter and coat them. Then, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Stir in the honey.

I love this Polish stoneware from my parents!

Place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn them and pour the reduced vinegar on top, stirring to coat.

Then continue in the oven for 15 more minutes. Sprinkle the parsley on top.

Directions for Glazed Roasted Carrots without pictures

• 2 pounds carrots (I used baby carrots, but you can use “young” carrots, too)
• About 5 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 teaspoons honey (you can also use sugar)
• 1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar that gets reduced (see above)
• salt and pepper
• Some fresh parsley to serve on top (curly or flat-leaf)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Prep your carrots (washing, possibly trimming or cutting as necessary). Boil the carrots for about 10 minutes. They will not be fully cooked at this point. Drain them.

Meanwhile, put the butter in a roasting pan (or other oven-save dish) and place in the oven. Let the butter melt. Once melted and the carrots are ready, put the carrots in the butter and coat them. Then, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Stir in the honey. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn them and pour the reduced vinegar on top, stirring to coat. Then continue in the oven for 15 more minutes. Sprinkle the parsley on top.