Honey Glazed Carrots
Can I just say one thing about this Honey Glazed Carrots recipe? It is so good, it will have even your pickiest non-carrot-eating friends asking you to make these carrots.
I really only like cooked carrots a few ways- slow cooked in a roast, stir fried with a lot of other veggies or roasted like in my Roasted Carrots with Tahini Turmeric Dressing.
Last night was our first night off the Daniel Fast. We have been on it for 21 days, eating all plant-based food and small amounts of chicken and fish (added by us to the diet). I felt fantastic on this eating plan and since I love all things vegetable, I plan to continue it in moderation. Needless to say, we’re a tad tired of chicken and fish so last night we grilled up some steaks topped with my Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms.
We have a restaurant here, called Charlestons that we absolutely love. Their carrots have been a love interest to me for year. They are fork tender and coated in this delightful sweet butter glaze. I’ve always wanted to play around with finding a recipe for them so I decided…no time like the present and started experimenting.
I started by peeling and cutting up about 2 pounds of plain ol’ regular carrots. You could fancy them up with those pretty multi-colored carrots too which would be gorgeous, however, I wouldn’t take the shortcut and use the baby carrots for this – they just are kind of weird in texture when cooked to me.
In order to cut them relatively the same size try this trick…
Cut the ends off and peel them. Then starting at the larger end. cut a chunk off at a diagonal one way.
Then turn your knife the opposite way diagonally and cut another chunk off.
Keep doing this all the way down the carrot, leaving the pointy end piece longer so it’s not so tiny.
When you’re done with all of them put them into a shallow pot, and cover with water and simmer for for about 10-12 minutes, covered, or until the carrots are fork tender but aren’t mushy. They should have a little firmness to them.
Then drain them in a colander and throw in 3 whole cloves of garlic.
Add 3 Tablespoons of butter into the pot you just dumped your carrots out of. Then add 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar and 2 Tablespoons of honey. Sprinkle in 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of cracked black pepper.
Stir it around over low heat.
This is totally not what Charlestons does, but I added 1/4 teaspoon of this.
It gives them a lovely low heat you can barely feel but it’s a nice warmth and the flavor is amazing. I might even add a tad more next time. I also 1/2 teaspoon of thyme leaves. Oh to have my garden right now and have fresh thyme! Even MORE the better!
Once it’s all mixed up, add your carrots and garlic.
The garlic is just there to flavor the carrots but if you’e lucky enough to get one of those honey glazed cooked cloves?
Yum! Thank your lucky stars!
Stir this around in the glaze for about 5 minutes, until it looks nice and syrup-like and the carrots are nicely coated. The honey glazed carrots will now be all coated with the herbs and honey, and the garlic will have kissed them along with the ancho chile.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Then serve them right away so they’re hot and gooey and delicious.
I hope you’ll try this Honey Glazed Carrot recipe out on your family. It’ll bring the carrot haters around!
- 2 lbs. whole carrots
- 3 cloves whole garlic
- 3 T butter
- 1 T. brown sugar
- 2 T. honey
- ½ t. thyme leaves
- ¼ t. ancho chile powder
- ½ t. salt or to taste
- ¼ t. black pepper
- Peel carrots and cut into chunks
- Leave garlic cloves whole or you can cut in half
- Put carrots into pot and barely cover with water
- Simmer 10-12 minutes until fork inserts easily but remain slightly firm
- Drain into colander, toss in garlic with the carrots and put pot back on stove
- Add butter, brown sugar and honey to pot over medium-low heat and add all spices
- Stir just until butter melts and all spices are mixed in well.
- Add carrots and garlic and cook stirring often until glaze becomes syrupy on the carrots about 5 more minutes
- Serve hot!
