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Simple and flavorful, these Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots addictively delicious!
Our local club store has been selling packages of gorgeous baby carrots this Spring, and after enjoying some of these tender little carrots on Easter at our friends’ house – we rushed to the store to buy some for ourselves!
Today’s Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots recipe is loosely adapted from a carrot recipe originally found in “Tuscan Cookbook: Recipes And Reminiscences From The Italian Cooking School” (a cookbook we received as a gift many years ago for our wedding). Over the years, we’ve changed up the original recipe to suit our tastes – and we typically make this with sliced carrots. But with these baby carrots on hand – these Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots are even better!
It takes just five minutes to prep these carrots for cooking – simply toss the carrots with extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, salt, and pepper. Spread the carrots onto a metal sheet pan with some sliced lemon – and roast for about 45 minutes.
Once the carrots come out of the oven, place the sheet pan on your stove top – then pour some balsamic vinegar over the carrots and heat until the vinegar evaporates and starts to caramelize.
These addictively-good Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots are the true hallmark of Tuscan cooking – simple ingredients with fantastic flavor! (You’re going to love this recipe!)
By the way – for those of you still interested in Whole30 recipes, just use an organic balsamic vinegar to make this compliant.
More Carrot recipes:
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Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
- 2 pounds baby carrots (or sliced carrots if baby carrots are not available)
- 4–5 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 whole lemons, each sliced into four thick slices
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, toss carrots with the garlic, salt, pepper and oil. Pour out onto a sheet pan or roasting pan, lay lemon slices over carrots and place in preheated oven.
- Roast for 20 minutes, flip, turn pan and roast for 20 more or until tender.
- Place pan over two burners and turn heat to medium high.
- Add vinegar and scrape up pan bottom. Once vinegar evaporates, maybe 4-5 minutes, remove from heat and pour into a serving dish and enjoy.
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I love mixed roasted vegetables—do you think this would work if I added sweet potatoes and beets to the carrots? I’ve never tried balsamic vinegar with them. (I have not tried this recipe yet…..looking for a tasty and pretty side dish for Thanksgiving this year!)
Hi Denise! We actually have a recipe that combines sweet potatoes and beet with carrots. You can see that here: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/dinner-party-series-part-2-roasted-root-vegetables/ – this doesn’t use balsamic vinegar but you could certainly adapt the Tuscan-Style Roasted Carrots recipe too.
Another show-stopper vegetable side dish is Harvard Beets: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/harvard-beets/ – I wouldn’t combine other veggies in this particular recipe. But the roasted carrots and the Harvard Beets (presented separately) would definitely make two very pretty (and delicious) side dishes. Hope that helps!
I’ve made these a couple times now and they are delicious and beautiful visually as well. I trim the stalks to about 3 inches or so and follow directions! I forgot the balsamic last night (critical ingredient) and they were still delicious!
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Thanks David – glad to know the recipe works without the vinegar!
I made this dish this evening. I was a little disappointed. I am a balsamic vinegar lover but my husband and I were overwhelmed with the balsamic flavor. We were looking foreword to the carrots but it didn’t hit the spot. I will try it again but will either leave the balsamic vinegar out or use very little.
Thanks for your feedback Stephanie – we’re sorry you were disappointed!
This recipe looks yummy, but calls for baby carrots. The carrots in photo look like whole full size carrots. Which should I use?
Hi Maxine – Any carrot can be used for this recipe – the whole gourmet baby carrots shown, slices, etc. Those carrots we used were about 4-inches in length. If you want to use the other kind of ‘baby carrots’ (the 2-inch sized sold in the bags at the supermarket) you can use those too. The cooking time will vary depending on the size of carrot you use. Hope that helps!
Regarding the Tuscan style roasted carrots, when you say put pan over med.-high heat, do you mean the roasting pan?
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Yes! To avoid dirtying up a skillet pan, you can just place the roasting pan/baking sheet over the burners of your stovetop.
Hi Martha, your recipe for Tuscan Carrots looked delish enough to eat off the page. I will try it. I care for my mother who is nearly 100 years old & she is asking for something different all the time because her tummy can’t tolerate many foods, she is tired of basic plain meals. Your other carrot dishes also looked great.
Thank you Aniela – we hope you both enjoy the recipe!
Hi, I want to try your Tuscan carrot dish, for an Italian fare camp out dish, but I need to freeze all my cooked items. Do you know if it is advisable to freeze this dish or not?
Hi Rachael – We haven’t tried freezing this finished recipe ourselves, but I think you should be ok. I’d suggest under cooking them a bit before freezing, then once you are ready to serve and reheat, they will finish cooking then but not overcook. Hope that helps!
On YUM 😋! Always looking for a “something different” veggie to serve on thanksgiving…think this one is this year’s! Thanks!
You’re very welcome Rebecca – We hope you love the recipe!
These little carrots are adorable! I love all the flavors you packed on these carrots…yum! Plus lemon with carrots is perfection!
I’m probably going to make these tomorrow night! Those are seriously some gorgeous baby carrots!