Name: Simple Roasted Carrots
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 2 pounds baby carrots (two 16-ounce bags); 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon table salt

Why This Recipe Works

For our roasted carrot recipe, we wanted to release the sweetness from the carrots, yielding a caramelized exterior and a smooth, tender interior. We liked prepared baby carrots, which require no cleaning or cutting. Tossing them with olive oil and salt (no pepper—it masks the carrots’ flavor) and roasting them on a broiler pan in a hot oven for 20 minutes got us the roasted carrots recipe we were after.

Before You Begin

Inspect your bag of baby carrots carefully for pockets of water. Carrots taken from the top of the supermarket’s carrot pile are often waterlogged. This not only makes carrots mealy, it also dashes any hopes of caramelization in the oven.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Toss carrots, oil, and salt in broiler-pan bottom. Spread into single layer and roast 12 minutes. Shake pan to toss carrots; continue roasting about 8 minutes longer, shaking pan twice more, until carrots are browned and tender.