Maple Balsamic Carrots are roasted to perfection in a cinnamon spiced glaze for an easy and beautiful side dish for holidays, weekdays, or anytime.
Whole roasted maple glazed carrots are a thing of simplistic beauty — easy and super flavorful with a sweet and spicy glaze. And if you’re feelin’ fancy, dress them up with my Carrot Top Chimichurri.
They pair perfectly with my Crock Pot Ham or Mini Turkey Meatloaf and love sharing the dinner table with delicious sides like Roasted Potatoes & Green Beans and Creamy Corn Casserole.
You’re going to love this
Pretty holiday side dish. Whole roasted carrots are rustic and elegant.
Sweet maple balsamic carrots take on a candy-like quality that will have everyone eager to eat their vegetables.
Warm spices like cinnamon and cayenne give these maple glazed carrots deep, rich, cozy flavor.
Fast and easy. Prep time is minimal, you don’t even have to peel the carrots.
Ingredients
The maple balsamic glaze comes together with a few simple ingredients you might already have at home.
Carrots with tops. Tender little organic carrots with tops aren’t as tough as those big guys in the bag, so it’s easier to feel good about not peeling them. Also, buying carrots with tops is a huge bang for the buck if you use the carrot tops, like in my easy carrot top chimichurri recipe.
Maple syrup. Lots of glazed carrot recipes use brown sugar for sweetener. When I’m making healthy recipes, I like to substitute processed sugar with maple syrup.
Balsamic vinegar. Balsamic vinegar adds another level of natural sweetness and a deep rich flavor.
Cinnamon. Confession: I put cinnamon in everything. Or… I think about putting it in almost everything. It almost never makes it into savory dishes, but this time it made perfect sense. Cinnamon adds rich, warm flavor to these maple balsamic carrots.
Cayenne. Cayenne pepper doesn’t have to blow your head off — and that’s not what this tiny amount does. It adds just a little kick of spice to liven these carrots up.
Substitutions
Carrots with tops. You can use regular carrots without tops — or super pretty rainbow carrots.
Maple syrup. Honey is a great substitute for maple syrup.
Balsamic vinegar. If you’re out of balsamic vinegar, you can increase the amount of maple syrup in this dish to 3 tablespoons and add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar.
Cinnamon. If cinnamon just seems too weird to you, you can skip it or try ginger, cloves, allspice, or a tiny bit of nutmeg.
Cayenne. If you are sensitive to heat, of course, leave it out or tone it down. You could also use red pepper flakes or sriracha.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 400.
Cut the tops off the carrots and scrub them thoroughly. I prefer unpeeled carrots. You can peel them if you want to, but you don’t have to. Read more about that here.
Arrange the carrots in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Step 2
In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.
Step 3
Pour the balsamic glaze over the carrots and toss so the carrots are completely coated in the glaze.
Step 4
Roast for 25-35 minutes, turning them every ten minutes. Roast until the carrots are tender when you pierce them with a fork.
Step 5
These maple balsamic carrots are perfect just the way they are.
Or you can serve them with this delicious Carrot Top Chimichurri and a little feta cheese.
Store leftover carrots tightly covered in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Expert Tips
Look for bunches of carrots that are all similarly sized so they’ll cook evenly.
Peel the carrots, don’t peel the carrots — it’s up to you!
If you’re not peeling the carrots, immerse them in cool water for a few minutes to loosen up any soil. Scrub them thoroughly under running water with a clean produce brush.
Save the carrot tops to make this easy and delicious carrot top chimichurri.
To make these ahead of time, scrub the carrots and mix up the maple balsamic glaze the day before. Store them separately in the refrigerator. Day of, toss the carrots in the glaze and roast them.
Recipe FAQs
If you’re making maple balsamic carrots for a holiday meal, I recommend serving them fresh from the oven. However, these glazed carrots do hold up pretty well in the refrigerator, you’ll just notice that they’re a bit softer and don’t have the same luster as the fresh ones.
Here’s what I would do, instead: remove the carrot tops, scrub the carrots, and mix up the balsamic glaze the day before — and store them separately in the refrigerator. Day of, just toss the carrots in the glaze and throw them in the oven right before serving.
Yes! A great time-saving and oven-space-saving idea for the holidays is to do as much cooking as possible in your Crock Pot and this glazed carrot recipe is ideal for that.
Just spray the slow cooker with cooking spray, place the carrots and glaze inside, and cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours, or until you can easily pierce the carrots with a fork.
Of course! You don’t need to use carrots with tops for this recipe, you can absolutely use baby carrots. If they are thin, they will cook more quickly than these whole carrots, so adjust your time down.
Oh, yes! There isn’t a vegetable I can think of that wouldn’t taste great glazed in this sauce!
If you choose to roast other root vegetables, such as potatoes or parsnips, as long as they are all cut to about the same size, they should be done around the same time.
Other vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, will take less time to cook. Here’s a handy guide for perfectly roasting any vegetable.
You can reheat any leftovers in the microwave or in a skillet on the stove.
Here’s the straight answer: you can, but they’re not going to be awesome. Texture-wise, anyway. The flavor will still be stellar, but they will get soft and lose that wonderful crisp-tender texture you get from roasting.
Serve alongside these easy holiday side dishes
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Maple Balsamic Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots with tops
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- salt and pepper
- Carrot Top Chimichurri, optional
- 1 tablespoon feta, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400.
- Cut the tops off the carrots and scrub them thoroughly. I prefer unpeeled carrots. You can peel them if you want to, but you don’t have to.Arrange the carrots in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.
- Pour the balsamic glaze over the carrots and toss so the carrots are completely coated in the glaze.
- Roast for 25-35 minutes, turning them every ten minutes. Roast until the carrots are tender when you pierce them with a fork.
- Serve maple balsamic glazed carrots just the way they are or with Carrot Top Chimichurri and a little feta cheese.
- Store leftover carrots tightly covered in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
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