Easy Glazed Carrots Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to roast or boil carrots? ›

Roasting any vegetable is one of the greatest ways to bring out its earthy sweetness, but roasting carrots is especially effective. Carrots go from being a pleasantly flavorful raw snack, to being a deeply sweet and elegant veggie side dish.

Cooking instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the carrots and parsnips and toss to coat in the oil. Add the thyme, cinnamon, star anise and some seasoning. Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, turning the vegetables frequently, until golden brown and almost cooked through.

Glazed carrots coated in a mixture of brown sugar and butter are a versatile side dish you can serve alongside a weeknight meatloaf, a Sunday ham, or your Thanksgiving turkey. These caramelized carrots are a definite kid-pleaser but they're elegant enough to impress the adults as well!

The Oven Temp Is Too Low

You might be tempted to turn the oven down if you've ever burned a batch of roasted vegetables, but we'd advise resisting that temptation. A low-and-slow cooking technique is excellent for vegetables like carrots, beets or potatoes that you plan to puree into soup.

I only boil these for a couple of minutes; you don't want them fully cooked when you par-boil. You want them partially cooked so that you can finish them off by roasting them. If you don't par cook the carrots, they will cook faster on the outside than the inside when they are in the oven.

Roasting really brings out carrots' best qualities. To make them, just toss carrots with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake until they're golden on the edges and tender throughout.

Mixing carrots and oranges can be very dangerous. This mix has been known to cause heartburn and kidney damage.

Anthocyanins are water-soluble flavonoid compounds and confer red, blue, and purple pigmentation to plants. In addition to their important roles in plants, they are also beneficial human nutrients. Nonpurple carrots are considered to have arisen from purple carrots that acquired mutations.

Store glazed carrots in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat them on the stovetop with a little added butter or in the microwave. We do not recommend freezing glazed carrots because their texture after defrosting will be mushy and unappealing.

Can you buy glazed carrots? ›

Fits your lifestyle and your freezer.™ Green Giant® Simply Steam™ vegetables are not only delicious, they come in freezer-friendly, easy-to-stack boxes, with a microwavable pouch inside. Great for a meal, side dish or snack—anytime.

Flavor Enhancements

Use spearmint, marjoram, a small bay leaf, thyme, grated ginger root, chopped chives, dill or parsley.

Carrots go well with orange, either for savory or sweet dishes. They help to increase the sweetness in a pleasant way. Other citrus, such as lemon, can enhance the carrot flavors too. Add a little brown sugar to carrots to bring out the sweetness in carrots.

For example, carrots are said to pair exceptionally well with butter, ginger, lemon, maple syrup, orange, parsley, and sugar. Other ingredients that are said to pair well with carrots include cinnamon, coriander, dill, lime, spearmint, olive oil, parsnips, salt, tarragon, thyme, etc.

Carrots provide more antioxidants when boiled or steamed than when eaten raw, according to a January 2008 report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. In fact, researchers found that boiling carrots until tender increased the concentration of carotenoids by 14 percent.

What's the secret? Caramelization happens while roasting in the oven. The vegetables give up some of their water content and the natural sugars caramelize. Roasted vegetables also do not become mushy since there is no added water, so the texture is better, too.

Carrots can be cooked using several methods. Some common methods are steaming, boiling, braising, roasting, sautéing, stir frying, and microwaving. Carrots should be cooked only until they are tender-crisp to ensure maximum flavor. Overcooking may also destroy some of the nutrients contained in carrots.

It's best to cook carrots for the shortest time possible to preserve their nutritional value. Boiling, in particular, may lower some of the antioxidant activity in carrots and nutrients like vitamin C. But it makes it easier for the body to absorb the carotene in them.