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spice-roasted carrots
You’ll love these sweet and savory roasted carrots a whole “bunch!”
Prepare Ingredients
Gather Cooking Equipment
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Aluminum foil
- Cutting board
- Chef’s knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Small bowl
- Spoon
- Oven mitts
- Cooling rack
- Tongs
- Serving platter
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Place carrots on cutting board and use chef’s knife to trim green tops from carrots, leaving about 1 inch of greens attached; set greens aside and save for garnish or another use. Use vegetable peeler to peel carrots. Transfer carrots to foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.
In small bowl, combine oil, salt, paprika, pepper, cinnamon, garlic powder, and cayenne (if using). Use spoon to stir mixture until combined.
Drizzle oil mixture over carrots. Use your hands to toss and rub carrots until evenly coated. Spread carrots into even layer on baking sheet. Wash your hands. Cover baking sheet tightly with aluminum foil.
Use oven mitts to remove baking sheet from oven (ask an adult for help). Place baking sheet on cooling rack. Ask an adult to remove foil (be careful as steam is released). Use tongs to flip carrots over.
Use oven mitts to return baking sheet to oven and continue to roast, uncovered, until thick ends of carrots are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Food for Thought
Full Steam Ahead!
Cooking whole carrots requires only a tiny bit of prep (just peel and go!), but they take longer to cook through than smaller chopped carrots, especially on their thicker ends. If you roast whole carrots uncovered, the dry heat inside your oven will turn the carrots’ outsides dry and leathery before the insides are tender and cooked through. Plus, the spices on the outside of the carrots will burn and taste bitter. The solution? A two-step cooking technique.
Step 1: Steam
Carrots contain a lot of water. When the carrots heat up in the oven, some of that water turns to steam. Covering the baking sheet tightly with foil traps the steam and the moist heat helps the carrots cook evenly—and won’t dry them out.
Step 2: Brown
Removing the aluminum foil after 15 minutes lets the steam escape and dries the outside of the carrots a little bit. Once the surface of the carrots is dry, it starts to turn golden brown in the hot oven, creating lots of new (delicious!) flavor molecules.
