Oven Baked Carrots

Week night dinners consist of a main dish and two sides at my house. I like sides that come together quickly and easily. After seeing a lot of posts on baked vegetables, I decided that this was something I wanted to try for myself.

The way we fix carrots around here is to slice them, boil them just until they are soft, drain off the water, and then toss them with a little brown sugar and butter. I had a feeling that baking them might just result in a different texture and would do a better job at bringing out their natural sweetness. So, I gave it a go....

The first thing you do is wash, peel, rinse, and slice your carrots. I like my slices to be nice and thin.

Next up, toss them with a some salt. At this point you could play around with other seasonings too.

Add some olive oil, and make sure you stir them so that they are evenly coated.

Spread your carrots out in a single layer on a foil lined cookie sheet. Make sure the foil is lightly greased. I'm using a pizza pan here, but that's because my cookie sheets are at the other house.

Bake them until they are JUST tender. I made this batch of carrots to go along with meatloaf and mashed potatoes. During the last half hour of baking, I slipped these into the oven right along with the meatloaf and everything came out perfectly!

Transfer to a serving dish and ENJOY!

This olive oil and salt version is definitely in the savory category. Baking the carrots does bring out their sweetness, but if you're used to a butter and brown sugar version you may find that this one takes some getting used to. 

I enjoyed it enough to share with you, so I think you'll enjoy it too!!!

Some other combos I've been dreaming up are: adding garlic, using coconut oil instead of olive oil, and of course, going the brown sugar route and skipping the salt. This is truly a recipe you can play with!!!

Oven Baked Carrots
serves 4

4 carrots
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 350F .  Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with foil and lightly oiling the foil.

Wash, peel, rinse, and slice carrots into 1/4 inch thick rounds.

Toss in a medium bowl with salt and olive oil.

Spread carrots in one even layer on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or just until tender.

Transfer to a serving dish and ENJOY! 

What are some of your favorite weeknight side dishes?

Do you ever bake your veggies?