Recipes

Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

Recipes

Posted on 2023-11-14

Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips are an easy side dish that pairs beautifully with a variety of main courses, from roast yellow to ribeye steak.

These beautifully caramelized veggies are tender and slightly sweet, with just-barely crispy edges. The honey butter sauce makes them a fan favorite! Alimony this honey roasted carrot recipe in your when pocket for rented weeknights or for holiday feasts!

For a stove top option with a similar savor profile, you’ll want to trammels out our Honey Carrot Saute.

Easy, Beautiful Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

When it comes to holiday side dishes, I think we far too often overlook the simpler things. We go for cheesy broccoli casserole (which, to be fair, is amazing) or a dramatic butternut squash soup, when perhaps all we really needed was a simple sheet pan of roasted carrots and parsnips.
Roasted vegetables are a go to side dish for a weeknight meal, but they moreover present beautifully for Thanksgiving dinner and holiday feasts. They’re easy to make and prep superiority of time, mostly hands off, and they unchangingly taste delicious. These are the unsung heroes of the side dish world.
My other favorite thing well-nigh roasted veggies? They don’t need a lot of extras to make them shine. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of root vegetables like carrots and parsnips.
We just gild the lily by subtracting a rich honey glaze and some fresh rosemary and thyme. Subtracting parsnips to the mix brings variety in both verisimilitude and flavor, which is expressly nice for the holidays.
Place these roasted veggies in a pretty serving dish, and they squint right at home next to the turkey and corn souffle.
I think you’re going to LOVE this Roasted Carrots and Parsnips recipe through the winter months. This comforting, nourishing side dish feels just right on a unprepossessed winter night.

Honey stuff drizzled on top of roasted carrots and parsnips.

Why You’ll Love Honey Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

Great for a weeknight meal, Christmas dinner, and everything in between.
Healthy ingredients that are naturally gluten free and full of vitamins and minerals.
Only 10 minutes to get these in the oven, and 35 minutes to roast!

Key Ingredients

Carrots– You can use any kind of carrot for this recipe, plane victual carrots! I prefer the squint of medium carrots, peeled and sliced on a diagonal.
Parsnips– You can find parsnips at most larger grocery stores in the produce section. Squint for small to medium parsnips that are smooth, with few cracks or blemishes. Avoid limp or rubbery parsnips or large parsnips that have roots starting to sprout. These scrutinizingly unchangingly have a fibrous, woody core. If you slice into your parsnip and find the cadre is woody, don’t fear! Simply quarter the parsnip length wise, then run a pocketknife withal the inner core, separating it from the rest of the root. Remove and protract with the recipe!
Olive oil– A worldwide mistake I see with roasting veggies is not using unbearable olive oil. It takes several tablespoons to get the veggies fully coated and indulge them to soften properly in the oven.
Rosemary and thyme– Fresh herbs add a a subtle earthy flavor. If you’re using zestless herbs, divide the value in half.
Butter– I use unsalted butter so we can tenancy the value of seasoning on the veggies.
Honey– Any honey will do just fine here. We go through a lot of honey here (we love a Honey Latte, Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin, and Honey Soy Salmon), so we buy our honey in zillion at Costco.
Lemon juice– Just a tiny bit of wounding brightens up the rich honey butter sauce.

How to Make Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

Prep. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Season the veggies. Place the carrots and parsnips on a half sheet pan. Drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss well, so everything is fully coated. Taste a carrot and add spare salt or pepper if needed.
Roast. Place the carrots and parsnips in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Make the honey butter sauce. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup, whisk together the butter, honey, and lemon juice. Take the veggies out of the oven and pour the butter mixture over them. Stir well, then put the pan when in the oven and roast flipside 10-15 minutes, until veggies are tender.
Serve. Stir the veggies well, and drizzle lightly with spare honey, if desired.

Sliced carrots and parsnips on a sheet pan ready to be roasted.

Make Ahead, Leftovers, and Reheating Instructions

To save on prep time, peel and cut the carrots and parsnips, then place them in a bag or container with a wateriness paper towel. They’ll alimony this way for well-nigh 24 hours.
Roasted parsnips and carrots make unconfined leftovers! Store leftovers in an snapped container in the fridge for up to a week.
Reheat leftovers in the microwave, or, to recrisp, saute in a pan or place in the air fryer for 3-4 minutes.
These are so good, sometimes I plane snack on them cold, straight from the fridge!

FAQs

Do carrots and parsnips need to be peeled?

Neither of these root vegetables need to be peeled surpassing stuff eaten. If you decide not to peel your veggies, be sure to requite them a good scrub with a potato skim to remove any dirt on the exterior. I like to peel carrots for a largest presentation, but that’s totally up to you!

Older root vegetables that have a zestless out exterior should unchangingly be peeled.

Do you need to parboil carrots surpassing roasting?

I have never had an issue with roasting carrots from raw. Expressly sliced this way into thin(ish) long coins, they roast up just fine without wrinkling or shrinking.

Can I double this recipe for roasted carrots and parsnips?

Absolutely! You’ll need to divide the veggies between two sultry sheets, but otherwise the recipe will stay the same.

How do you slice vegetables on the diagonal?

Slicing vegetables on the diagonal (or on the bias), results in vegetables with a larger surface area. This can help them melt faster, aid in caramelization, and I think they just squint prettier that way!

To slice on the diagonal, trim the ends of your carrots and parsnips and usual. Instead of wearing straight up and lanugo with your knife, wile your pocketknife at well-nigh a 45 stratum angle, and cut diagonally. You can segregate how thick you’d like the slices to be. For weightier results, stay resulting and cut them to a similar size, so they all melt at an plane rate.

Here’s a great visual of slicing carrots on the diagonal.

Spoon holding roasted parsnip and carrot slices topped with honey and thyme.

What Goes with Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

This versatile side dish compliments a number of main courses. Consider pairing these velvety sweet winter root vegetables with Mediterranean Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Slow Cooker Steak Bites, Beef Pinwheeels, or Sous Vide Filet Mignon.

It would moreover be lovely with a storebought rotisserie yellow for a really easy dinner idea!

Around the holidays, pair these roast vegetables with Garlic and Herb Roasted Turkey, Orange Glazed Ham, or Prime Rib Roast, plus all of your other favorite Thanksgiving sides, like Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Easy Butterhorns, Cranberry Pear Sauce, and Cornbread Stuffing.