Maple Ginger Roasted Carrots

These maple ginger roasted carrots are a flavorful, lighter spin on classic glazed carrots.  They are flavored with maple syrup, fresh ginger, and garlic, and are a unique, lightened-up twist on on that classic flavor. These roasted carrots are easy enough for a weeknight side dish, but pretty and tasty enough to serve to a crowd.

What you’ll need to make this recipe

• carrots
  • I used small carrots and left them whole, because they looked beautiful! But you can use larger ones and cut them smaller.
  • For this recipe, you want to end up with 1 pound of carrots once they are peeled and prepped.  So start off with a bit more than a pound.
• maple syrup (use the real deal, now is not the time to use sugar-free)
• squeeze ginger
• kosher salt
• garlic powder
• fresh cracked pepper
• olive oil spray

How to make maple ginger roasted carrots

I used to make this recipe on the stove top, and it was delicious, but a little time consuming.  I just find roasting things in the oven to be so much more convenient, especially when serving a crowd.

This couldn’t be easier (if I had a dollar for every time I said this…)

Preheat the oven to 425F. In the meantime, grab a baking dish of your choice.  You can also do this on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, your choice.  I chose a baking dish so that I could serve the carrots right from the dish.

Peel your carrots.  If your carrots are big, you can cut them in half.  I like the idea of serving the carrots whole here.  You can cut them into smaller pieces, but I would advise against cutting them super small; since we are roasting them, we want them to have some size to them.  Otherwise, they will burn right up in the oven.

Spray the dish with olive oil spray, and then add the peeled carrots.

In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, ginger, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Pour this mixture over the carrots, and then toss them to coat.

Roast the carrots for about 40-45 minutes or until they are tender.

Why can’t I use sugar-free syrup?

Truth is, you can.  Especially if you need to use sugar-free products for health reasons.  But the thing is, this recipe is so low calorie and low point as it is (while using real maple syrup) that I think it’s a really key ingredient and should be left alone.  It gives the dish a lot of flavor, and you only have to use one tablespoon.

I also find that when you are serving others (family members, kids, etc) that it’s a good idea to use the real deal versus sugar-free.  You don’t know how someone will react to the artificial ingredients.

This is just my opinion, you can of course make this however you want!  I just like to encourage you to use the real deal when you can, just less of it.

How to serve these carrots

These carrots make a great side dish for almost anything.  I feel like carrots are one of the most overlooked vegetables when it comes to side dishes.  These roasted carrots are the perfect pairing with any protein.  Since they have a pretty neutral (yet flavorful!) taste, they aren’t really specific to any one cuisine.

This recipe serves four.  The serving size for this recipe is just 1/4th of the entire batch.  I just eyeball it.  It really depends on the size and cut of carrots you use; if you use the small, full carrots like I did in the photo, a serving would be three carrots.