The Back Yard Lemon Tree

Years ago, I used to make slow cooked parmesan carrot dish as one of my regular dinner party dishes. It was so good… carrots cooked down with loads of butter until they were dense little nuggets of carroty, caramelized, buttery goodness and sprinkled with parmesan – each bite was a umami flavour bomb.

When I first made these miso roasted carrots, I was reminded of those parmesan carrots from long ago. They have similar dense, caramelised umami flavor without the copious amounts of butter and parmesan. Sweet, savoury, sticky and completely delicious. Carrots are a very under rated vegetable!

The trick to roasting any vegetables is not to over crowd the pan. I use a large 30cm (12 inch) shallow casserole dutch oven which has lid for roasting these carrots, but if you haven’t got a similar pan use a large roasting pan and cover with foil for the baking.

Sticky vegan miso roasted carrots

Adapted from Cook Republic

• 1 kilo of smallish carrots (peeled and cut into thirds on the diagonal)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon miso paste
• 3 tablespoons of maple syrup (or honey)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, chopped (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon of black and white sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 200C (420F) fan forced or 220C (conventional)
2. In a large oven safe pan heat olive oil and garlic, when garlic begins to sizzle add miso paste and maple syrup. Saute until garlic begins to caramelise. If you haven’t got a roasting pan you can use on the stove top make this marinade in a small fry pan and transfer to a roasting pan to mix in with your carrots.
3. Add carrots, salt and pepper to taste and stir through until all the carrots are coated with the marinade. Cover pan with lid or aluminium foil. Bake carrots for about 20 minutes until carrots are tender. Remove cover from pan bake for a further 5-10 minutes until carrots become sticky and begin to caramelize.
4. Remove from oven, Sprinkle with parsley, thyme and sesame seeds.