Carrots Need Butter & Thyme

Carrots Need Butter & Thyme — it’s the truth! In this simple veggie side dish, roasting up a bag of baby carrots brings out their inherent sweetness, while butter and thyme pair up to enhance that flavor.

Let’s talk simple side dishes today! I love roasting veggies to bring out their very best, but I also love cooked veggies tossed with a little butter. So today, let’s mash those two concepts up in these roasted Carrots Need Butter & Thyme.

Middle School Guy loves snacking on baby carrots right out of the bag, so I usually stock up when they’re on major sale. Recently, though, I ended up with just a bit too many — so decided to roast up one of the bags he was probably never going to get to. (You could, of course, make this recipe with cut up regular carrots if you prefer.)

Butter & thyme add so much flavor to this sweet + savory side dish. You need just five ingredients and a little bit of time to bring out the best in a simple bag of carrots.

Carrots Need Butter & Thyme

Ingredients

16 oz bag baby carrots
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme (see Note)
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice all of the larger carrots in half lengthwise to make them match better with their peers, so that they cook evenly.

Add the carrots to a rimmed baking sheet, then pat off any excess water with a paper towel. Drizzle carrots with olive oil, sprinkle them with thyme & seasoned salt, toss to coat, and spread out in a single layer across the pan.

Roast at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until tender to your liking, stirring halfway through. (I did mine for 25 minutes because I like a little firmness in my roasted veggies; if you like yours more tender, just let them go a little longer.)

Melt the butter right before taking carrots out of the oven. Move the roasted carrots to a bowl, and toss with melted butter to coat.

Note: If you’re making this in the summer with fresh thyme, substitute 1.5 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves for dried.

Simple roasted carrots, simply the best

Butter and thyme really bring out the best in roasted carrots, and this is a deliciously different way to enjoy a bag of baby carrots beyond just snacking on them raw. Plus, their sweet & mild flavor makes them the perfect vegetarian side dish for just about any dinner.

I couldn’t stop snacking on these roasted baby carrots while I was trying to take these photos, so hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Carrots Need Butter & Thyme, printable recipe

Gimme five, on the side

It’s so easy to throw a pan of veggies into the oven to roast, when you already have the oven heated up for your main course. Plan your simple sides according to what else you’re making! You could roast these carrots at their happy 400 degrees along with, say:

• Paprika roasted chicken and potatoes
• Garlic rosemary pork roast & potatoes
• Easy flounder & asparagus packets
• Sheet pan pesto chicken with asparagus & mushrooms
• Sheet pan Parmesan chicken thighs & green beans
• Everything bagel whole chicken
• Homemade pepperoni pizza pockets

Choose your own favorite recipe that roasts at 400, then balance out your dinner by cooking up these seasoned buttery roasted carrots on the side.

Recipes in the real world

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Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!