Roasted Honey Balsamic Glazed Carrots

 

Carrots.

They’ve always seemed pretty ordinary to me.  A little bitter, a little too, well, just ordinary.

I like carrots two ways. 

#1 – Raw and dipped in some kind of fabulous dressing or..

#2 Cooked with a roast.

That’s it.  That’s the extent of my carrot love-hate relationship.

Until tonight.  I had a leftover bag of carrots that I needed to cook.  I decided to roast them.  I’d seen them roasted with just olive oil, salt and pepper and maybe an herb or two, but I wanted something else.  Something less than brown sugar but more than just carrot.

Sigh…I think I’ve hit that middled-age woman, reach for the stars or nothing mentality. 

By the way, did you hear the latest study? For thirteen years, they studied middle-aged women and determined that they need to work out one hour a day just to maintain their weight.

Isn’t that special?

Sorry, but that’s been stuck in my craw since yesterday and I needed to vent once again!

This was a pretty good thing, I must admit.  I began by pre-heating my oven to 425º.   I’m a big fan of roasted vegetables and a hotter oven just seems to keep things nice and carmely, instead of mushy. 

I took a pound of carrots and peeled them up.  Then I cut them in half longways.

Take your carrots and put them into a baking dish.  Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Take some tongs, or heck, just use your hands and toss the carrots around until they’re completely coated with the oil , salt and pepper.

Pop this into the oven on the top rack and let those babies go for about 25 minutes.  Then they’re going to look scrumptious.

See those blackened ends?  Mr. Wonderful and I will be at war over those.

So at this stage, the carrots would be delicious all by themselves.  Roasted, carmelized and scruptious.  But while they’re cooking we will have been making a balsamic-honey glaze.

Take a small saucepan and dump two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and one tablespoon of honey into it.  Warm it over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes, or until the honey thins out and the mixture begins to bubble.

After about 25 minutes, remove your carrots.  Take your balsamic glaze and brush it over the top of the carrots.

Take your tongs and kind of turn the carrots over.  The other side needs equal love.

Brush the other side of the carrots with the honey-balsamic glaze. 

Then pop them back into the oven for another 3-4 minutes. 

Take them out and ohhhhhhhhh!

It’s a good night in the vegetable world. 

And I have another way to actually enjoy carrots.

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Roasted Honey Balsamic Glazed Carrots