Honey Orange Roasted Carrots

This honey orange roasted carrot recipe is savory and slightly sweet. The carrots are glazed in honey, orange juice, and olive oil to create a simple and delicious side dish. 

Next year, among many other things, we will grow carrots in our garden. Beautiful carrots like these in bright orange, plum, and gold. I'll have to settle for store-bought until then, which isn't so bad when store-bought is this delicious.

Orange and honey is one of my favorite combinations and it's just the right for balancing the earthiness of these particular carrots. Glazed in the citrus mixture and slow-roasted, the carrots emerge from the oven caramelized, sticky-sweet, and tender.

Gone are the days of bland steamed carrots – it's time to treat this root vegetable right.

It's too late to plant carrots now, so we'll spend the winter thinking and planning our spring garden and dreaming about the foods we will grow. For now, I'll keep babying our still-producing greens and the hopeful cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts that seem to double in size each day. I don't know if they'll produce anything before the hard frost, but I am crossing my fingers.

A lot of hard work has gone into them – we laid out pallets to create the raised beds and filled them with organic soil. Clark made a rail barrel so we could water them without chemicals. We planted from seed and waited patiently. When they started to grow, we thinned out the weaker plants to give the stronger ones a better chance. We chased off cabbage moths and checked the plants for eggs and other pests. That was just 6 short weeks ago. Now our brussels sprouts are almost 2 feet tall and the cabbage plants are 2 feet wide.

Next year, Clark and I plan to expand the garden. We'll need to add more pallets, which is something that we have to do because the soil is not fit for growing food. I'll take photos of the process this spring showing the step-by-step process and I'll post it here for anyone interested. Depending on how much room we have, we want to grow several types of greens, tomatoes, beans, plenty of peppers, brussels sprouts, okra, herbs, and sweet corn. Ambitious, yes. But it is also a money-saving, satisfying, and enlightening experience.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be talking garden right now, I would've laughed at you. Yet here I am, boring you with next year's planting plans. If you've ever tasted garden-fresh arugula and greens, you probably understand the appeal. If you haven't I encourage you to buy a pot, fill it with soil, and plant greens. Within 30 days, you'll be harvesting your own salad. And it will be the best salad you've ever eaten. It's like that with everything we grow.

Next year, our carrots will be even more delicious than the ones that I started this post to share with you. Which is hard to believe, considering how good these tasted. When, not if, you make this dish, select organic carrots that come in a small bunch. You want to pick carrots that are on the small size – not super thick and chunky. They'll be more tender, sweet, and flavorful. Then, follow this honey orange roasted carrots recipe and take it to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, or to your own dinner table later this week.

Honey Orange Roasted Carrots

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★★★★★

5 from 1 review

• Author: Jordan Cord
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

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Description

This roasted carrot recipe is savory and slightly sweet. The carrots are glazed in honey, orange juice, and olive oil to create a delicious side dish.

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Ingredients

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• 1 bunch of rainbow carrots
• 1 Tablespoon of raw honey
• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil

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Instructions

1. In a bowl, whisk together honey, orange juice, and olive oil. PS – Maple syrup works as a great substitute for honey.
2. Preheat the oven to 400º.
3. Chop the tough tops off the carrot, about ½" off each one. If the carrots are large, cut them in half lengthwise and chop them down the middle. This will make them cook faster. If desired, you can chop the carrots into 1-inch chunks and cook them that way – they will be done even sooner! I like to leave mine whole because of how pretty it looks.
4. Arrange carrots in one or more large glass baking pans and pour orange mixture over them. Use a spoon to roll them around and coat them. Make sure the carrots have plenty of "breathing room." You want them to be evenly spread out, not all piled up on top of each other in the dish.
5. Bake for 40-60 minutes, using a spoon to mix them around every 20 minutes or so. They are done when they feel fork-tender. Note: These will not be quite as tender as steamed carrots as they keep a hint of their crunch after baking.

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 60 mins
• Category: Side Dish

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cup
• Calories: 140
• Sodium: 120 grams
• Fat: 7 grams
• Carbohydrates: 19 grams
• Fiber: 4 grams
• Protein: 2 grams