Maple Thyme Roasted Carrots

The kitchen is in full fall mode. The oven at 375 (always 375), the crockpot on the counter, the pantry stocked with jars from last August's canning — the evidence of a woman who preserves summer against winter and loss against forgetting and food against everything.

The recipe this week: pot roast with more carrots. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.

The trees along the highway are turning — maples red, oaks gold, the Bradford pears doing their useless purple thing. Iowa falls are short and violent and beautiful. The kitchen shifts to slow mode: crockpots, Dutch ovens, the oven at 375 from September through April. The fall cooking is the cooking of a woman settling in for the long season.

When I wrote “pot roast with more carrots,” I meant it — more carrots, always more carrots, the way Marlene would have done it. But this week I kept thinking about those maples along the highway and the particular sweetness of October, and I ended up roasting a separate pan of carrots alongside everything else, glazed with maple and thyme, the oven at 375 the way it always is from September through April. They were so good I wrote them down as their own thing. This is that recipe.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (or halved lengthwise if thin)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Fresh thyme sprigs, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy cleanup.
Prepare the carrots. Peel and cut carrots into uniform 2-inch pieces so they roast evenly. If using thick carrots, halve them lengthwise as well.
Toss with glaze. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, maple syrup, thyme, salt, and pepper. Add the carrots and toss until evenly coated.
Arrange on the pan. Spread carrots in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet, making sure they are not crowded. Dot the tops with the small pieces of butter.
Roast. Roast for 25—30 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until the carrots are tender and caramelized at the edges. The maple glaze should be thick and sticky.
Serve. Transfer to a serving platter, spoon any pan juices over the top, and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs if desired. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Maple Thyme Roasted Carrots — The More Carrots the Story Called For