19 Carrot Recipes to Root for This Season

All the carrot recipes you need to showcase the vegetable's versatility in soups, salads, and even latkes.

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The Serious Eats Team
The Serious Eats Team
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Updated October 05, 2020
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J. Kenji López-Alt

As summer fades away, and with it the season's bountiful produce, we find ourselves turning to root vegetables to get us through the fall. Carrots are among our favorites, and though their moisture and sweet flavor profile make them delicious in carrot cake, we find that savory applications are best for showcasing their versatility—bright and crunchy when raw, intensely sweet and tender when roasted, and all along the spectrum in between. All you need to unlock their potential are a few simple techniques. To get you started, we've rounded up 19 of our favorite carrot recipes, from roasted carrots with black sesame paste or harissa to a make-ahead carrot and chickpea salad and a creamy vegan soup.

  • Chilled Carrots With Tahini-Ginger Dressing

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    Vicky Wasik

    One of our favorite ways to cook carrots is to blanch them quickly in salted water before shocking them in an ice bath, which takes off the raw edge while leaving them pleasantly crisp. Here, we serve the blanched carrots in a simple vinaigrette flavored with just a couple teaspoons of creamy, nutty tahini paste.

  • Roasted Carrots With Black Sesame Dressing

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    Vicky Wasik

    Try to roast raw carrots, and they'll end up shriveled and unappetizing—a better idea is to par-cook them in boiling water before finishing them in the oven. Roasting carrots does a great job of bringing out their natural sweetness, which we balance out in this recipe with an earthy, slightly bitter black sesame dressing.

  • Roasted Carrots With Harissa and Crème Fraîche

    Roasted Carrots With Harissa and Crème Fraîche
    It's difficult to get carrots sweet and tender all the way through without having them shrivel up. Par-boiling skin-on carrots and parsnips lets you soften them without losing too much moisture. Then, a stint in the oven lends that browned, caramelized exterior. Get the recipe » [Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]. J. Kenji López-Alt

    Once you've mastered the boil-then-roast technique, you can dress up your roasted carrots with anything you want, really—in this recipe, that means coating them in a mixture of spicy harissa, cumin, and black pepper before they go into the oven and balancing them out with rich and lightly tangy crème fraîche for dipping. If you can't find the latter at your grocery, it's ridiculously easy to make your own crème fraîche at home.

  • Grill-Roasted Carrots With Sweet Soy Glaze

    Grill-Roasted Carrots With Sweet Soy Glaze
    Time spent roasting on the grill helps these carrots develop a deep caramelization. The glaze, a mix of honey and soy sauce, hits the sweet-and-salty balance on the nose. Get the recipe » [Photograph: Joshua Bousel]. Joshua Bousel

    Even when it's not exactly cookout season, the tastiness of this recipe just might make it worth your while to fire up the grill. Roasting carrots over indirect heat for about 45 minutes leaves them sweet and tender. Here, we brush the carrots with a glaze made of honey (to enhance their sweetness) and soy sauce (for some salty contrast) toward the end of cooking.

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  • Carrot Salad With Yogurt, Ghee, and Barberry Dressing

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    Vicky Wasik

    For the most interesting combination of flavors and textures, this quick salad uses carrots two ways—thinly shaved strips and sliced carrot cores that are pickled in a simple brine until bright and tangy. We pair the carrots with tiny, sour-sweet barberries (though you can substitute chopped unsweetened dried cranberries or cherries if barberries prove elusive) and counteract those vegetal and tart flavors with a rich dressing of yogurt, ghee, and herbs.

  • Roasted-Carrot Salad With Peanut-Sesame Mole

    Roasted Carrot Salad With Peanut-Sesame Mole
    A hearty salad of roasted carrots flavored with cumin and chilies, served with a simple mole sauce, radishes, greens, and crunchy pumpkin seeds. Get the recipe » [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]. J. Kenji López-Alt

    This hearty salad pairs roasted carrots with thin-sliced radishes, mixed greens and herbs, pumpkin seeds, and mole poblano for a dressing. Because real-deal mole is an all-day project, here we use a simplified version that still gets tons of flavor from chilies, toasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, peanut butter, dark chocolate, and raisins.

  • Easy Make-Ahead Carrot and Chickpea Salad With Dill and Pumpkin Seeds

    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Chickpea salads are among my favorite lunches—they're easy, nutritious, and affordable, and they taste even better if you make them the night before and let them sit for a while to absorb the dressing. They're also incredibly versatile, as chickpeas lend themselves to pairing with all sorts of other ingredients. This chickpea salad is made with soft and juicy grated carrot, toasted pumpkin seeds, and crunchy celery, then dressed with a simple dill vinaigrette.

  • Carrot and Rye Berry Salad With Celery, Cilantro, and Marcona Almonds

    Carrot and Rye Berry Salad with Celery, Cilantro, and Marcona Almonds
    Toasted Marcona almonds add a fatty crunch to complement the rye berries' chewiness. Get the recipe » [Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]. J. Kenji López-Alt

    For a salad that's as filling as it is bright and refreshing, try mixing chewy cooked rye berries—we love their flavor, though wheat berries or barley would work, too—with carrots, onions, cilantro, celery, and toasted Marcona almonds, plus a simple olive oil vinaigrette. To cook the carrots evenly and give them the best flavor, we simmer them whole until they're tender, then cut them into bite-size chunks.

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  • Gingery Glazed Carrots

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Glazing vegetables seems straightforward enough, but on a home burner, it can be hard to get the liquid to boil violently enough to emulsify correctly. Our solution is to add a little bit of thickener (xanthan gum is great, but cornstarch works, too), which helps keep the mixture stable. The glaze for these carrots is a simple one flavored with fresh thyme and sharp ginger.

  • Sous Vide Glazed Carrots

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Sous vide isn't usually the best technique for cooking produce; it tends to erase the fresh flavor most of us are looking for in our vegetables. But carrots are a great candidate—they take well to slow-cooking, and sous vide seals in their flavors, producing more intensely carrot-y carrots. After they've cooked sous vide, empty the butter and sugar from the vacuum bag into a skillet and cook for a few minutes to reduce them to a shiny glaze.

  • Orange-Glazed Carrots With Ramp Barley and Spinach

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Once you're comfortable with a basic glaze, you can start adding flavors—in this case, that means a dash of sunny orange juice and zest. We serve the glazed carrots with barley cooked with spinach and spring ramps; outside of ramp season, use a mixture of scallions and garlic instead.

  • Roasted Squash and Raw Carrot Soup

    Vegan: Roasted Squash and Raw Carrot Soup
    Another drool-worthy autumn soup from Kenji. It'll fit right in with your other Turkey Day flavors. Get the recipe » [Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]. J. Kenji López-Alt

    Yes, you could make a fine soup by simply sautéing squash and carrots and blending them together. This vegan recipe, however, uses a different approach for each of the two main ingredients in order to maximize what they contribute. We roast the squash, which concentrates and deepens its flavor, but instead of roasting the carrots as well, we juice them and use the juice in place of water, giving the soup the proper texture and plenty of bright, fresh carrot flavor.

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  • Spicy Carrot and Ginger Soup With Harissa

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    This soup uses the fiery North African spice paste harissa to flavor an otherwise mild mix of carrots, ginger, and aromatics. We finish the soup by puréeing it in a blender and slowly drizzling in olive oil, leaving it smooth and creamy without so much as a drop of dairy.

  • Moroccan-Style Spicy Carrot Dip

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Be sure to save some of your homemade harissa for this Moroccan carrot dip, made by blending up carrots with cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger, capers, olives, and parsley. Since our version of the dip starts with sweet roasted carrots, we like to use at least two tablespoons of harissa to give it enough heat for balance.

  • Slow-Cooker Spiced Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash

    Slow-Cooker Spiced Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash
    Butter, heavy cream, and milk play up the natural sweetness in the carrots and sweet potatoes. A long cooking time at a low temperature enhances the candy-like quality and makes them extra-creamy. Get the recipe » [Photograph: Jennifer Olvera]. Jennifer Olvera

    Though this looks like nothing more than plain old mashed sweet potatoes at first glance, it's actually a combination of sweet potatoes and carrots—the potatoes on their own can be a little one-note, and adding carrots lends the dish some vegetal complexity. It's still plenty rich, given all the butter and cream added to the mix, and gently warmed up with a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

  • Spiced Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Acorn Squash Latkes

    Spiced Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Acorn Squash Latkes
    These latkes combine a holy trinity of sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. Freshly grated ginger adds a bright, spicy hit, which is rounded out with smoky paprika and a pinch of cumin. Get the recipe » [Photograph: Vicky Wasik]. Vicky Wasik

    Traditional potato latkes are hard to improve upon, it's true, but we see no reason not to expand your repertoire with a few latke variations. In this version, sweet potatoes replace the usual russets, while shredded acorn squash and carrot add extra flavor. A mix of ginger, paprika, cumin, and coriander keeps the sweetness in check.

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  • Glazed Carrots With Burnt Honey and Gochugaru

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    Sasha Marx

    For classic glazed carrots with a twist, we sought inspiration from Korean sweet soy-glazed potato banchan. First, we keep the glaze from veering towards dessert territory by burning the honey in a saucepan. This imparts a subtle bitterness that balances the honey’s sweet natural flavors. Then, we reach for gochugaru, minced ginger, and garlic for their salty, funky, and spicy notes. The carrots are boiled in the glaze and then cooked until tender for a side dish with the perfect balance of sweet and savory.

  • Carrot Raita

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    Nik Sharma

    This variation on raita, a yogurt-based condiment, incorporates carrots for a refreshing and simple accompaniment to your favorite rice or meat dishes. After mixing shredded carrots, thinly sliced shallots, grated ginger, and finely minced green chili into full-fat Greek yogurt, we prepare a standard tadka that involves blooming mustard seeds, caraway seeds, and various chili powders in hot oil. This oil is then swirled into the yogurt base for a cooling condiment that still brings the heat.

  • Easy Vegetable Pancakes

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    Sho Spaeth

    These savory pancakes are one of our favorite ways to sneak in some vegetables—especially sweet carrots—both for the kids and for ourselves. The batter is made up of a mix of all-purpose flour and a low-gluten alternative flour like whole wheat, rice, roasted rice, or chickpea. For an extra bit of savoriness, we add doubanjiang, but you can use any fermented bean paste you like, such as miso or gochujang. Throw in some grated carrot, sliced scallions, and and salted cabbage or kimchi, and cook until crisp and browned.

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