Maple Glazed Carrots

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Maple Glazed Carrots are a great way to enjoy carrots. This side dish will add a touch of sweetness to your meal. The carrots are roasted to perfection, glazed with a delicious maple syrup mixture, and seasoned with a blend of spices that will make want more!

This carrot recipe is not only delicious but easy to make using just a handful of ingredients that you will probably already have at home. You'll regret not having made this easy recipe before!

What we love the most about it is its versatility. Maple Glazed Carrots can be a fancy side dish for your festive meals such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other Holiday meal, but also a great option for your Sunday Roasts, or a simple weekday meal.

With minimal effort and simple ingredients, you can have a festive looking dish that tastes fantastic.

Our Maple Glazed Carrots are:

• An easy side dish
• Gluten-free
• Vegan
• Festive, perfect for a Holiday dinner
• Family-friendly (great for picky eaters also)
• Oven-baked

Simple Ingredients

Carrots. To prepare this festive dish, we prefer using organic whole carrots, as they won't need to be peeled and they are better for you! You can choose to peel the carrots or leave them unpeeled. We prefer medium-sized carrots to larger carrots for this dish as they'll cook faster, and you won't need to cut them.

Maple Syrup. We use pure maple syrup to provide the carrots that lovely sweet flavor and help to caramelize the outer part of the veggies. You can choose to use honey (not vegan) or brown sugar for your glaze.

Butter. For the buttery maple syrup glaze, we are using vegan unsalted butter, to keep this recipe plant-based. You can find plant-based butter in most supermarkets. To make this dish vegetarian, you can use regular butter. You can follow this recipe using olive oil, or another type of vegetable oil.

Seasoning. To season the carrots, we use cinnamon powder, ginger powder, white pepper, and nutmeg. The mixture of these four spices gives this side dish a great flavor and festive kick. Instead of buying all the spices, you can get a mixture of them, pumpkin spice is perfect for this recipe and many other dishes. If you want to give this dish a spicy touch, consider adding red pepper flakes or chili powder.

Fresh thyme. To finish the dish, we like to sprinkle a good bit of fresh thyme to add color and taste. Dry thyme is good to use in sauces or other dishes that will be cooked, but in this recipe, we add the thyme right before serving, so you will need to use fresh thyme. If you just have dried thyme, add it to the marinate before baking the carrots. Alternatively to thyme, you can use other fresh herbs such as basil, sage, or fresh parsley.

Step-by-Step Method

1. Prepare the carrots by washing them, peeling them if you choose to do so, and placing them on a baking tray.
2. Using a small bowl, combine the vegan butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger powder, white pepper, and nutmeg, to make the maple glaze.
3. Coat the carrots with the buttery glaze and bake in a preheated oven at 410F (210C), fan-assisted oven for around 30 minutes, or until the carrots are fork-tender and slightly brown. Halfway through, stir the carrots to ensure even cooking.
4. Season with sea salt and black pepper and your glazed carrots will be ready to serve.

Variations to our Maple Glazed Carrots recipe

• Use the Air Fryer. You can cook this perfect side dish using the air fryer. Place the seasoned carrots inside the air fryer basket in a single layer. Avoid placing them on top of each other, as they won't cook evenly. Cook the carrots at 400F (200C) for about 20 minutes, or until fork-tender with crispy edges. Turn them halfway through, to ensure even cooking.
• Change the seasoning. When we cook parsnips, we simply use maple syrup and fresh mint. This is a lovely combination you can try if you don't want to add other spices.

Serving Suggestions

This delicious side dish is better when served hot. So leave them glazed and just bake them 30 minutes before you want to serve the meal.

Maple Glazed Carrots are such a festive side dish, that we normally serve it for Holiday Dinners such as Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, or Easter Lunch. Some dishes we love to pair these Maple Glazed carrots are our popular Nut Roast, or this delicious Vegan Mushroom Wellington. You can combine a few festive dishes to make a holiday feast!

You can make some other side dishes to go with these glazed carrots such as Parsnips, Yuca Fries, or regular Wedges. Make your Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving table colorful treat.

Store and Reheat

If you have any leftovers, you can keep the carrots in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheat using the oven or the Air Fryer.