Oven-Roasted Honey Glazed Carrots

With Autumn upon us, I’m in that mindset to switch to my colder weather cooking – casseroles, crockpots and last Sunday, my mouth-watering pot roast.  I’d bought the most perfect carrots at the Farmer’s Market and thought they’d be a colorful and tasty side dish.

While I could have dropped them in with the simmering pot roast I wanted to change it up and do something visually stunning and delicious.  Though it’s in the seventies today, on Sunday our furnace was on and having the oven fired up was welcome, making the kitchen cozy.

After perusing lots of recipes, as usual, I took those ingredients that looked the best from several recipes and came up with this.  Visually stunning – check.  Delicious – check. I wanted to share it as it would make a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving.

Oven-Roasted Honey Glazed Carrots

• 6-8 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3 inch long sticks
• 3-4 T honey
• 1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 t coarse black pepper
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 2 t balsamic vinegar
• chopped flat leaf parsley, chives and thyme for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a shallow baking pan with foil (for super easy clean up), drizzle with olive oil and smear to cover the surface.

In a bowl, mix the olive oil, honey, pepper, salt and balsamic till blended.  Add the carrot sticks and toss to completely coat them.  Place the carrots in a single layer onto the pan, use a spatula to get any excess glaze out of the bowl and drizzled over the top.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, onto your serving platter and top with the chopped herbs.  If you don’t have honey or want to make this vegan, maple syrup would be wonderful as a substitution.