18 Incredibly Easy Carrot Recipes That Taste Delicious

Smart home cooks who love roasting vegetables in large quantities know it's an easy way to have delicious veggie side dishes to eat for the rest of the week. That's just one of the many charms of these rosemary-roasted beets and carrots. Prep them in just 10 minutes, pop them in the oven for about 30, and wait till the house smells wonderful and your side dish emerges lightly caramelized, redolent of rosemary, and ready to be served alongside chicken, roast beef, or potato gratin. They make a wonderful addition to pretty much any autumnal, springy, or wintry main course.

There's nothing like a veggie side dish you can make with two staples you already have kicking around the fridge. These are the classic roast carrots of your dreams, and they employ a mere three ingredients (plus salt and pepper). The whole thing is brightened with slices of lemon that lightly caramelize during the cooking process, and it's a good idea to stop, toss, and return them to the oven so none of those slices char and become bitter. It's the one necessary step in a couldn't-be-easier 10-minute dish. The result is super-tender carrots that even fussy kids will consider.

Glazed carrots—the sort of thing you always see done so well at restaurants but perhaps find too daunting to try at home—are so much simpler than you'd think. Here, fresh carrots mingle with brown sugar, butter, and rosemary (which make surprisingly charming bedfellows). We love, too, that you can keep the oven entirely off while making this dish. It's a stovetop preparation, and crunchy toasted pecan halves can easily be made in the toaster oven. One tip: Don't skip the final squeeze of lemon juice, which is the ideal foil for the brown sugar–slicked veggies' sweet, buttery notes.

The secret spice-drawer weapon in this dish is cumin. When tossed with carrots, it lends them a sort of smoky barbecued note—especially when they're roasted over high heat, as they are here. Don't skip out on the orange segments the recipe calls for, as it lends brightness to the finished product. And definitely add scallions—the white and light-green parts, which tend to be less bitter—for vibrancy and a knockout green-orange color palette on the plate. Bonus: You can make this in advance, serve it at room temperature, and it's just as tasty.

Parsnips are one of those veggies that undergo a full, transformative makeover when they're roasted—just like their root veggie cousins, carrots. They become tender, golden, and so much sweeter, especially when slicked with olive oil, flecked with sage, and roasted for about an hour. Just be sure to check the oven twice as they cook, and give them a good stir each time: It's a slightly fussy step that will ensure you'll get evenly caramelized results and that the final product will be sweet enough you can call it "vegetable candy." (There's a reason our kids always ask for seconds.)

Cinnamon, cumin, and garlic give this wonderfully simple side dish a boost of unexpected, exotic flavor, while raisins and lemon add sweetness and a welcome splash of tartness. The hands-on time is only 10 minutes, so you can toss these in the oven just as a roast chicken is wrapping up. The best part? You can prep the whole thing in advance, and have an instant veggie side for any weeknight meal. Tip: While this dish is great with supermarket carrots, it's extraordinary during carrot season—late spring and autumn in much of the country—so keep an eye peeled at the farmer's market.

Is there anything maple syrup and butter won't improve? You know them as the classic combo everyone loves on pancakes and waffles, but if you haven't tried them with winter squash or these dreamy cooked carrots, well, there's no time like the present to give it a try. These carrots can be slicked up right on the stovetop, so if you grabbed a bunch of fresh carrots at the market this weekend, keep that oven off! This one-pan dish takes half an hour and only 15 minutes of hands-on time, and is absolutely fabulous alongside roast chicken (or turkey), salmon, or steak.

The best part of this fresh, crunchy, super-simple slaw? It only takes 15 minutes to make. (Yes, really.) Wait until you see absolutely gorgeous apples at the grocer or the farmers' market to make this knockout, because crisp grated apples and carrots form its base. The better the produce is, the more delicious the finished dish. From there, it's as simple as whisking yogurt, vinegar, and cumin together with seasoning, tossing them with the carrots and apples, fresh cilantro and plump raisins, and sitting back and having guests think you spent way more time on this than you actually did.

Maybe you've had a gingery carrot concoction at a fancy juice shop, but you've never combined the two for a savory dish. Well, today's the day! This snap of a recipe—mingling butter, ginger, a splash of sherry vinegar, and fresh carrots in a single stove-top dish—is ready in just 20 minutes. These carrots are just dreamy alongside a roast chicken (or turkey), a steak, a good piece of fish, or even a burger. Just prep in advance and toss them together as your roast sits for a minute; they're that easy.

In this sophisticated side dish, plush steamed carrots get a hit of protein from cannellini beans, a bit of brightness from fresh parsley, a bitter note from radicchio, and some round creaminess from buttery crumbled blue cheese. It's a salad that's as pretty as it is delicious, and we love it for a lot of reasons. Namely: you can make it using ingredients you have kicking around the fridge. It takes all of 20 minutes to prepare. And it's healthy: a mere three tablespoons of olive oil forms the base of the dressing, and crisp onions are tempered by a quick bath in red wine vinegar.

Finish this superb meal-in-a-bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, a dollop of tangy yogurt, and a sprinkle of cracked black pepper.

Spiced with coriander and topped with crumbled goat cheese, this easy dip will be a welcome edition to your next appetizer buffet.

Chewy golden raisins, crunchy toasted pecans, and creamy mayo complement each other beautifully in this unique chicken salad.

Orange zest in the dressing wakes up this simply seasoned fish-and-spinach combination.

Kids will love this buttery pasta dish; you'll love that dinner can be on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Cook chicken thighs on a single baking sheet with carrots and shallots for an easy, mess-free dinner.

A generous pinch of cayenne pepper brings subtle heat to a puree of steamed carrots and roasted red peppers.

Creamy avocado sauce and crunchy pepitas punch up cumin-spiced pork.