Roasted Rainbow Carrots — Lightly caramelized around the edges, crisp-tender in the center, and seasoned with rosemary, thyme, and parsley!! A trusty side that you’ll make again and again for holidays or easy weeknight dinners!!
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It wouldn’t be a holiday celebration without carrots on the table. Whether it’s Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, my family always serves carrots.
But you don’t have to wait for a holiday to make these ridiculously easy, crisp-tender multi-colored carrots that are lightly caramelized and flavored with rosemary, thyme, and parsley.
They’re a great weeknight side dish and a nice way to get some vegetables into kids (or adults) who are picky when it comes to vegetables because most everyone likes carrots.
Since carrots have plenty of natural sugar, when you roast them at high heat they caramelize beautifully around the edges. I like mine pretty dark but not everyone does, so roast until you’ve hit your perfect amount of char.
Recipe Ingredients
To make the rainbow herb roasted carrots, you’ll need:
- Carrots
- Olive oil
- Fresh herbs
- Salt and pepper
- Lemon juice
What Are the Best Herbs for Roasting Carrots?
Because carrots aren’t strongly flavored and have a subtle sweetness to them, they pair well with almost any fresh herb.
For this particular rainbow carrot recipe, I used the following herbs:
- Fresh rosemary
- Fresh thyme
- Fresh parsley
Feel free to mix and match the herbs to suit your personal taste preferences.
And if you’re making this as an Easter, Christmas, or Thanksgiving side dish, don’t go out and buy any extra fresh herbs if you already have a couple on hand for other seasonal recipes! Use up what you have so nothing goes to waste after the big holiday.
How to Make Oven Roasted Rainbow Carrots
It doesn’t take much to transform colorful carrots into an elegant side dish! Follow these basic steps for roasting the tri-colored carrots:
- Peel and cut the rainbow carrots into chunks.
- Then, spread them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
- Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs, salt, and pepper, then toss with your hands.
- Roast the carrots for roughly 30 to 35 minutes, or until they’re lightly caramelized around the edges and fork-tender
Make-Ahead Instructions
You’ll need to wait to roast the carrots until the hour you plan on serving them. However, you can:
- Peel and chop the carrots. Seal them in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Finely chop the fresh herbs. Place them in a small airtight container and refrigerate up to 48 hours beforehand.
Everything else will need to be prepped day-of!
Recipe FAQs
There are lots of different colored carrots out there, so use any color or blend of colors you’d like! I find rainbow carrots at my local Trader Joe’s (they come pre-packaged and contain the colors shown in these photos).
Of course! Regular orange carrots will work just as well for making this carrot side dish recipe.
Most likely, yes. But you’d probably have to adjust the cook time since baby carrots aren’t as thick as regular carrots.
Yes, use any fresh herb or combination of herbs you like.
Tips for Making This Recipe
Size: Be sure to chop the carrots into even-sized chunks so they roast at the same rate in the oven. If using organic carrots, you may not need to peel them — your choice!
Fresh vs dried herbs: I don’t recommend using dried herbs in this carrot side dish. Dried herbs are more potent than fresh and don’t roast very well (they can become crunchy at high heats).
Leftovers: I prefer these oven roasted carrots straight from the oven, but leftovers will keep up to 5 days in the fridge. Toss the roasted carrots on salads, into soups, or reheat and enjoy plain.
What to Serve with Rainbow Carrots
Recipe Video Tutorial
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Herb-Roasted Tri-Colored Carrots
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces (I used tri-colored carrots but you can use all orange)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 to 3 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
- 2 to 3 teaspoons fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier cleanup.
- Add the carrots to the baking sheet, evenly drizzle with olive oil, and evenly sprinkle with thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and toss with your hands to evenly coat.
- Arrange the carrots in a flat layer with space between the pieces if possible and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until carrots are lightly caramelized around the edges and fork-tender. Baking times will vary based on the size of carrots and personal preference for doneness.
- Stir and flip halfway through baking to ensure all sides cook evenly.
- Evenly sprinkle with parsley, evenly drizzle with optional lemon juice (brightens up the dish), and serve immediately.
Notes
- Carrots are best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Roasted Vegetable Side Dishes:
Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey-Cinnamon Dip – The honey glaze and the creamy cinnamon dip make these potatoes irresistible!!
Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts — Think you don’t like brussels sprouts? The balsamic glaze on these will change your mind! BEST brussels sprouts ever! Fast, easy, and accidentally healthy!
Parmesan and Herb Roasted Potatoes — Easiest potatoes ever and packed with so much flavor! Olive oil, herbs, and everything is better with CHEESE! A family favorite that everyone loves!
Roasted Orange Glazed Carrots — A fast, EASY, and holiday-friendly side dish everyone will love!! The honey orange glaze adds such great FLAVOR and really jazzes up roasted carrots!!
Cheesy Roasted Asparagus — Even picky eaters will LOVE asparagus when it’s roasted with onions and covered with melted CHEESE!! A fast and EASY side that’s perfect for busy weeknights!!
Parmesan Roasted Broccoli — This is a super simple side dish that’s perfect for anything from busy weeknights to holiday celebrations.
I do carrots all the time. Never in my life have I seen all those colors of carrots at my supermarket.I feel lucky just to find them with the tops on. I will make this for family’s party. Looks so so delicious!! Thanks for your sharing and wait a new your recipe!!
I guess I’m blessed to live in Southern California where produce is abundant and very colorful.
Very nice recipe…would love to be able to post it to my Facebook recipe page.
I remember these–so good! Happy Thanksgiving!
Would this work with frozen vegetables?
No they need to be fresh.
I put this recipe up against a few others to add to Easter Dinner, and your carrots one handily in my family/guest email survey. Look forward to trying them soon!
Great, enjoy!
I love how beautiful and simple this recipe is. And I absolutely love tri-colored carrots. Great job Averie!
These look so good…I love all roasted vegs..I’ve been eating my share of roasted beets lately but I’m ready for these tri colored carrots.
Oh I LOVE roasted beets! I don’t make them often because everything in my kitchen seems to be sprayed with little red droplets of beet juice for days after I done rinsing, peeling, etc. :) but they are so good!!
Averie I love roasted vegetables and these look so delicious!! Pinned!!
Thanks for pinning!
oh yummy! These look really good!
I have 2 bags of these carrots at home and was wondering what to do with them. I did mix some the other day with other root veggies and roast them similarly. I will definitely make these for Easter. They look yummy. Can’t wait to try them.
Hope you enjoy them!
What a GORGEOUS dish!! I love roasted veggies they always have so much flavor, this is so pretty!
I know they don’t taste different, but the rainbow carrots are so much better!!
I don’t like raw carrots AT ALL.
I’m not a raw carrot person either. If it’s that or some super salty crackers to say use as a dipper for hummus, I’ll do the carrots but much prefer carrots when they’re roasted!
Delicious AND nutritious! Win-win!
Roasted veggies are the BEST! I really never want to make them any other way anymore. I think I could eat that entire plate myself. Totally going on the list for this weekend!
If my veggies aren’t roasted and I don’t see some char around the edges, it’s just not a good veggie day for me :)
Beautiful carrots!! I’d love to make this over the weekend. I should be able to find some tri colored carrots by now. I love this kind of simplicity for vegetables–some fresh herbs and a hot oven. Perfection!
I got mine from Trader Joe’s and the 2 lb bag (organic) was like $2.29 or something insanely cheap. Cheapest blog recipe I’ve ever made :)
These were just lovely and perfect for our Easter dinner! Roasted vegetables are so good–I can’t think of any I’ve tried that haven’t been enhanced by the process (even radishes).
Hope you guys had a great Easter! And happy to hear the carrots were perfect! I love roasting veggies…but you’ve got me on radishes, never tried that. Years ago with a CSA I was in I used to get TONS of radishes and not know what to do with them. And now it’s pretty ‘trendy’ in the foodie circles to roast radishes so I guess I need to try!
These carrots are so beautiful, Averie. I think that we’re going out of lunch on Easter, but I need to make these sometime during the week. :)
Have fun going out and NOT cooking!