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This is the maple roasted carrots recipe your fam will actually want to make again every holiday. It's a stupid-fast, one-pan, zero-wacky-ingredients banger. Just effortless maple caramel-coated carrots that come out sticky-sweet, a little savory, and ridiculously hard to stop eating during weeknight dinners.
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Carrots are kinda the star of the internet lately, huh? They're stepping out from the sides and are now claiming a spot in the center of your plate. If you've tried my Moroccan carrot salad, that silky carrot lox, or those Indian carrot pickles, ya know what I'm talking about when I say "I carrot believe how good this recipe is!" (OMG, pls stop me before I joke again…)
Scroll on, m'dear, and I'll walk you through this one step at a time. You'll get the glaze ratio that never lets you down, the temperature and timing sweet spot, and a glorious veggie side that everyone from kids to Nana will freak out about.
These carrots were amazing! The party in my mouth with each bite was tangy & sweet, with umami YUM from the miso, which complimented this dish superbly! Ready to test this on my family at Thanksgiving…. 😀
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🥰 Why you'll adore this maple roasted carrots recipe
✊ Vegan AF: Like all my gluten-free vegan recipes, this one keeps it kind and clean without losing its punch. No butter, no honey, no dairy, just plants doing their thing and making it taste SILLY good.
🔥 Easy Peasy Sheet Pan Dream: Everything happens on one pan. You toss, roast, glaze, and call it a day. Not having 47 dirty pans in the sink makes carrots taste better.
🥕 Grocery Store Friendly: No ordering fancy stuff off the World Wide Web or hiking up Mount Rainier just to snag some herb you never heard of. It's likely that half of everything you need is already on your shelf.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all my vegan recipes, this one's been roasted and glazed on four continents, one sailboat, and a questionable AirBnB toaster oven (a.k.a my massive crew of recipe testers.)
🤘learn to make insanely flavorful vegan sides
This guide to my most popular vegan side dishes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
🥕 Roasted Maple Carrots Ingredients
Carrots
Go for carrots that look like they're on Ozempic. Thinner ones roast up brown and tender without taking forever to cook internally. If you're working with whole carrots that are chunky, no stress, just halve or quarter them lengthwise.
You can absolutely use multi-colored carrots too if that's your vibe. You can also make this recipe using thinner parsnips.
Sesame Oil
Use toasted sesame oil. It's nutty, a little smoky, and knows exactly how to hype up a carrot. That's why I love using some in my Korean carrot salad and carrot bacon. Some people hate sesame oil (or have an allergy), so if that's you, avocado oil or olive oil will also work in this recipe.
Maple Syrup
If you have a choice, go for Grade B maple syrup in this recipe. It has a more deeply mineral-tasting maple flavor, in my opinion at least.
Balsamic Vinegar
I use balsamic in this recipe because it opens up more dimensions of flavor in sweet roasted veggies. For that very reason, I also rock some in my butternut squash crostini. If you're out, apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar can hold it down just fine, with a slightly different (still yummy) end result, of course.
Dijon Mustard
Other mustards are fine, but if you are going to keep one kind on hand Dijon is it.
Miso Paste
Miso paste isn't just for Japanese recipes like miso-glazed eggplant or vegan yakitori. I use it all over the place whenever I want saltiness that also contributes to the overall flavor of a recipe. If miso didn't RSVP, tamari can stand in with a slightly less nuanced flavor.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯 Variations
Harissa Roasted Carrots
These baked harissa carrots are smoky, and spicy enough to qualify as a personality type. It gets plated extra pretty with a smear of yogurt on the plate in to cool things off, and then garnished with apricots and pistachios. I've served them up on more than one vegan wedding menu.
Maple Balsamic Carrots and Brussels Sprouts
These maple balsamic carrots and Brussels sprouts will make your holiday spreads legit jolly as heck. Kinda crispy in all the good spots. The type of side that makes veggie-haters during holiday dinners say unexpected stuff like, "Wait… I actually like this."
📖 How to make Maple Roasted Carrots
If you're so hungry you'd eat a raw carrot just to cope, I get it. Scroll to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and process. Or stay here and follow the full step-by-step process where I spill all my secrets and probably overshare about glaze ratios again.
Step One
High Season:
Set the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the carrots in a large bowl and coat them evenly with sesame oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes.
Step Two
Roastbusters:
Arrange the coated sweet carrots in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 25 minutes, turning them once halfway through cooking.
Step Three
Planet of the Mapes:
As the carrots roast, combine maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and miso paste in a bowl. Whisk using the tines of a fork until the sauce is smooth and free of miso lumps.
Step Four
Glaze Anatomy:
Remove the roasted carrots from the oven and drizzle them with the glaze. Return them to the oven for 15-17 minutes, turning once or twice during that time, until they are tender and caramelized all over.
✅ Watch closely to prevent the glaze from burning. If your oven has hot spots, make sure to switch levels and rotate when flipping the carrots.
Step Five
All You Seed Is Love:
Transfer the roasted carrots to a serving platter and finish with black and white sesame seeds, parsley, and chives.
💡Serving Ideas
If you're plating up these maple-roasted carrots as part of a holiday feast, you'll want side dishes that can keep up with that sticky-sweet yet savory masterpiece.
A heap of dairy-free mashed potatoes will gladly catch all that leftover glaze from oozing out of your plate like the perfect side dish that it is. If you're going feastplosion at the dinner table, then it's time to call in the stuffed vegan turkey roast or maple mustard glazed vegan ham (and the crowd goes wild).
For a more casual dinner without a hankie sticking out of their breast pocket, or with a hat that is sans feather, vegan schnitzel or vegan shepherd's pie will not disappoint you one little bit. Anywayyy, if it's more of a snack-'n-graze type hang, vegan pigs in a blanket or cranberry puff pastries are your new besties.
👉Top tips
- Size matters: Keep your carrots roughly the same thickness so they roast evenly. If you're using thicker carrots, slice them in half lengthwise to match the thinner ones.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat: This helps prevent the maple syrup from burning to the pan, causing all your carrots to stick (which is NOT as fun as it sounds to have to clean). Caramelization is great, burnt sugar smoke in your oven is not.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Yes, it might be an easy way but you'll miss that broad, almost broth background flavor it gives the carrots. That being said, substitute with a splash of soy sauce or tamari for a somewhat similar depth of flavor and comparable saltiness.
Roast the carrots first, then glaze them near the end, as the recipe recommends. Maple syrup cooks fast, so this trick keeps it glossy and golden instead of burnt and bitter before the centers of the carrots graduate from Crudité University.
Bees make honey for themselves, not for us. Vegans skip honey not because we hate fun, but because we respect that bees aren't tiny employees making us condiments. Their hard-earned stash isn't ours for the taking! Besides, in many industrial honey farms, bees are smoked out of the hives, which kills many of them. That's just not very nice to do to someone.
Only if the skins look rough or dirty. Otherwise, just give them a nice scrub. Totes a preference thing, but wild fact: the skin of root veggies actually carries a bit of digestible B12. So keeping the skin on gives you a teensy little bit of nutrition.
❄️ Refrigerating:
Let the carrots cool completely, then transfer them into an airtight glass container. Refrigerate for up to 4 days. The glaze will thicken slightly as it chills, but that just means more caramelized goodness when you warm it back up.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating:
Place the carrots in a skillet over medium heat with a splash of water to loosen the glaze. Stir occasionally for about 5 minutes until heated through and glossy again.
♨️ Oven Reheating:
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C) and spread the carrots out on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Add a tiny splash of water or maple syrup if the glaze looks thick or clingy. Cover loosely with foil to keep them from drying out and bake for 8-10 minutes, just until they're hot and glossy again.
Oh honey (well… maple), no. Don't even think about it. Once roasted, these little beauties break bad in the freezer. The second they thaw, they go from caramelized and dreamy to weirdly squeaky and rubbery.
✌️You'll love these vegan holiday recipes too:
Easy Maple Roasted Carrots Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. skinny carrots orange or multicolor
- 4 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons miso paste
Optional Garnishes:
- ½ teaspoon black sesame seeds
- ½ teaspoon white sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon chives sliced thinly
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl toss the carrots with sesame oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes until evenly coated.
- Spread them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 25 minutes, turning once halfway through.
- While the carrots roast, whisk together the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and miso paste until smooth.
- Remove the carrots from the oven and drizzle the mixture over them. Return to the oven and roast for an additional 15-17 minutes, turning once, until the carrots are tender and caramelized, making sure not to let the maple syrup burn in the hot oven.
- Transfer the carrots to a serving dish and garnish with black and white sesame seeds, chopped parsley, and sliced chives.
Notes
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Linda says
These carrots were amazing! The party in my mouth with each bite was tangy & sweet, with umami YUM from the miso, which complimented this dish superbly! Ready to test this on my family at Thanksgiving…. 😀