Roasting brings out the natural sweetness of the carrots. Add some butter and cane syrup and sprinkle in a little thyme and you have a wonderfully special side dish that's perfect for any entree.
Estimated Time 50 minutesminutes
Servings 6Servings
Here's What You Need
2poundsfresh carrots
2tablespoonssugar
½cupButter
1teaspoondry thyme
4-5sprigsfresh thyme
⅓cupcane syrup
Kosher salt and Fresh Ground Pepper taste
Here's What You Do
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a shallow baking sheet by covering with aluminum foil and a coating of non-stick oven spray.
Clean and slice carrots in about 1 to 1 ½ inch lengths; half or quarter thicker pieces.
Add the carrots to about 4 to 5 cups of boiling water with a pinch of salt and the sugar. Parboil for about 3 minutes (after water comes back to a heavy boil) until they just start getting soft.
Drain off the water but leave the parboiled carrots in the same pot. The pot should still be warm, so add the butter and mix well until all the carrots are liberally coated. Don't skimp, use a little more butter if you need to.
Add the thyme, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper and mix well.
Pour the carrots onto the prepared baking sheet; spread out until the carrots are in a single layer, add the fresh thyme sprigs on top of the carrots.
Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and roast for 15 to 20 minutes or until the carrots are beginning to brown and the butter is getting a little bubbly.
Remove them from the oven and pour the cane syrup over all the carrots and mix well with a rubber spatula or spoon, careful not to break the carrots.
Return the carrots to the oven and roast for 5 to 10 minutes, until the cane syrup and butter begin to form a glaze.
Notes
Roasting really brings out the natural sweetness in the carrots, adding sugar to the parboiling water and the honey at the end really plays well against the thyme.If you choose not to parboil the carrots, increase the roasting time-start out the first 10 minutes or so covered with aluminum foil to get a little steaming action going. Make sure to check them for tenderness after about 20 minutes.If you don't have cane syrup, you can substitute maple syrup or honey.