Honey-roasted carrots and parsnips

Sweet carrots and tender parsnips are the stars of the show in this recipe for honey-roasted carrots and parsnips. All you need are carrots and parsnips along with some honey, oil and salt and you can have this delicious side dish in the oven in next to no time.

**As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.**

Honeyed carrots and parsnips

This is such a simple recipe that I almost didn’t post it! I thought everyone knew how to make honey-roasted carrots and parsnips. But it appears not.

We had friends around for supper the other night and for the main I served my slow-cooker short ribs in monkey gland sauce on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes. For the vegetables, I made a green bean casserole and buttered cabbage and leeks with mustard seeds. And because everything seemed to be a bit green-looking, I decided at the last minute to add a dish of honey-roasted carrots and parsnips to provide a contrast of colour.

It turns out that nobody had eaten carrots and parsnips cooked in this way before, and they disappeared at an alarming rate. I (should have) could have made double the amount and they would still have been demolished!

With comments like ‘oh, I love the way you’ve done these carrots‘ and ‘you have to tell me how to make this’ I think we can say that the carrots and parsnips were a complete success.

If you’d like to try these honey-roasted carrots and parsnips for yourself, this is such a simple recipe. All you have to do is slice up carrots and parsnips, coat them in a mixture of oil and honey and bake them in the oven with a sprig of rosemary or thyme until they soften and start to brown around the edges.

The carrots and parsnips bake in the oven to tender perfection. And because we only use a small amount of honey, the sweetness of the vegetables is enhanced without being overpowering.

For those of you who’ve never made honey-roasted carrots and parsnips before, here’s the recipe.

What you will need

Equipment

For preparing the vegetables you will need a sharp knife and a chopping board. I also used a small mixing bowl to coat the vegetables with the honey/oil mixture.

For baking them, you will need a baking tray which I like to line with tin foil to make cleaning up afterwards easier. Nobody likes to spend hours scrubbing sticky baked honey off a baking tray!

Ingredients

This recipe will feed 4 people but you can easily adjust the quantities to cater for more.

**You can find the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making honey-roasted carrots and parsnips on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

Carrots and parsnips – you will need one small carrot and one small parsnip per person. The vegetables should be peeled and cut into batons approximately the size of your index finger. I like to remove the woody core from the parsnips too, but that is a matter of preference.

Runny honey – it must be runny honey. And here’s a great tip! Did you know that honey is the only food that never goes off! If you find your bottle of runny honey has crystalised, don’t throw it away. Instead, remove the metal lid and place the bottle in the microwave. Give it two or three 15-second blasts on full power and you will find that your honey has returned to its liquid state.

Oil – I prefer to use sunflower or other neutral-flavoured vegetable oil. You can use olive oil if you don’t mind the stronger flavour.

Salt – this is optional – use to your own taste.

Rosemary – fresh rosemary, not dried. I normally place one sprig on top of the parsnips and one sprig on top of the carrots. You could substitute this with sprigs of fresh thyme, or leave it out altogether. You may also like to garnish the cooked dish with chopped parsley before serving.

What to do

This won’t take long!

Start off by peeling the carrots and parsnips. Cut them into batons approximately the size of your index finger. (That would be about half an inch in thickness and three inches long).

Line a baking tray with tin foil and preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.

Place the carrots and parsnips in a mixing bowl and pour in the oil and honey. Optionally add the salt and mix well to combine.

And that’s it! Serve hot as a side dish with your favourite roast meat.

If you’d like to be notified of any new recipes, why not subscribe to my newsletter? As a thank-you gift, you will receive a free recipe e-book containing some of my most popular cakes and desserts.

Honey-roast carrots and parsnips FAQ

Save for later

If you would like to try this recipe for honey-roasted carrots and parsnips, why not save it to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click on the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Other recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also enjoy some of my other vegetable recipes:

• Middle Eastern-style runner beans – tender runner beans cooked in spices with onions and tomatoes .
• 10-minute pickled red onions – these easy pickled red onions are both sweet and tangy, making them a fantastic accompaniment to a cheese board or a ploughman’s platter.
• Glazed carrots (Vichy carrots)– sauteed fresh carrots glazed with brown sugar and butter.
• Spicy braised red cabbage with apple and onion – red cabbage braised with apple and onion with a spicy flavour.
• Buttered cabbage with leeks and mustard seeds – buttery cabbage, sweet leeks and a slight tang from the mustard seeds, this recipe transforms a boring old cabbage into something special. 

The recipe

If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I’d love it if you could give me a star rating in the comments below. And if you’d like to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can grab yourself a copy of my FREE COOKBOOK!

If you’d like to continue browsing, just click on this link to all my recipes.