Lately I’ve been trying to branch out beyond my garlic and onion obsession and play with new flavors. Miso is something I haven’t experimented with in the past, but I’ve wanted to explore for ages. So the other day I picked up a small container of white miso (the milder variety) and whipped up these super simple Maple Miso Roasted Carrots.
Never heard of miso? Here is a good miso primer to get you started. :)
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The maple miso butter that drenches the carrots and caramelizes while the carrots roast is an amazingly rich and has an almost caramel-like flavor. If you’re not into carrots, these flavors would go equally as well with sweet potatoes or even sweet winter squashes like butternut or acorn. The amount of maple miso butter in the recipe below would probably be enough for up to 1.5 lbs. of carrots, sweet potatoes, or squash, so you can probably get a little more milage out of it and reduce the cost per serving even more (I only had 1 lb. of carrots on hand).
How to Serve Maple Miso Roasted Carrots
I made these carrots to go in my weekly meal prep bowl, but you’ll have to wait until Sunday to see what I paired them with! ;) In the mean time, here are some other dishes that these carrots would pair beautifully with: Slow Cooker Sesame Beef, Soy Marinated Tofu Bowls, Slow Cooker 5 Spice Chicken, or Stir Fry Beef Noodles.
A Little Goes a Long Way!
Oh, and one more note. Both miso and real maple syrup are definitely pricier ingredients, but because they are both potent in flavor and incredibly shelf stable (refrigerate them after opening), I am able to work them into my budget. I use only a small amount in a recipe and the leftovers can be saved for the next recipe instead of going to waste.
Also try our classic Roasted Carrots Recipe.
Maple Miso Roasted Carrots
Servings 4 about 3/4 cup eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp white miso ($0.78)
- 2 Tbsp real maple syrup ($0.60)
- 1 Tbsp melted butter ($0.13)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.03)
- 1 tsp soy sauce ($0.13)
- 1 lb. carrots ($0.89)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a bowl, combine the miso, maple syrup, melted butter, grated ginger, and soy sauce. Stir them together until smooth.
- Peel and slice the carrots into about 1-inch sections (for thicker parts of the carrots, cut them slightly shorter, for thinner parts of the carrots, cut them slightly longer). Place the carrot pieces on a non-stuck baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with foil.
- Pour the maple miso butter over the carrots and stir the carrots until they are evenly coated. Spread the carrots out over the sheet so there is a little bit of space between each piece. This is critical to the caramelization of the maple miso butter.
- Roast the carrots in the oven for 15 minutes, then stir. Make sure to spread them back out after stirring, then return them to the oven for an additional 15 minutes. If the carrots are nicely golden brown at that point they are finished. If not, stir one more time and roast for an additional 5-10 minutes to achieve browning.
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How to Make maple Miso Roasted Carrots – Step by Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 400ºF. In a bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp white miso, 2 Tbsp real maple syrup, 1 Tbsp melted butter, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger, and 1 tsp soy sauce.
Peel and slice one pound of carrots into approximately 1-inch sections. You want the pieces as close to the same size as possible so they roast in an even manner, so cut the thicker parts of the carrots into shorter pieces and the thinner parts of the carrots into slightly longer pieces.
Drizzle the maple miso butter over the carrots and stir the carrots until they are evenly coated.
Spread the carrots out on a non-stick baking sheet or a baking sheet covered with foil (for easy cleanup) and make sure the carrots are spaced out a bit. If they are too close together the maple miso butter won’t caramelize properly.
Roast the carrots in the fully preheated 400ºF oven for 15 minutes, give them a good stir, spread them out again, and roast for an additional 15 minutes. At that time check to see if you have any browning action. If not, stir again and roast for another 5-10 minutes, or until the maple miso butter is brown and jam-like. The maple miso butter around the edges will burn a little, so just make sure not to scrape up that part as you stir.
And that’s it! The Maple Miso Roasted Carrots are ready to serve. :) I garnished with a few sliced green onions for color, but they’re not necessary for flavor. These sweet and salty carrots are amazing on their own!
I dream of these carrots all the time. And I don’t usually even like cooked carrots!!! So good. Had no issues with burning but I also was cooking a sheet pan of baby potatoes at the same time and put them on the bottom rack knowing the sugar in the dressing may burn more easily.
I wanted to LOVE this, but I had some troubles with execution. My tray was fully burnt up before the full 30 minutes was up, and I could not avoid tossing the carrots in some of the burnt bits at the halfway point. The carrots did come out super tender but I was really missing flavor, which surprised me because I sampled the miso sauce ahead of time and it was amazing. I made a second batch of the sauce and tossed the roasted carrots in it, and that made them so much better. My suggestion would be to do everything as-is, but only roast with half the sauce at first, and save the other half to toss the carrots in after they come out.
This recipe didn’t work for me. The sauce was burnt at 15 minutes and none of it stuck to the carrots.
The dressing pretty much over carmelizes within the first 20 minutes and THR saltiness actually goes away. I didn’t like this and wasted a lot of carrots. I would try again but add the dressing at the last 10 minutes or so
I doubled the recipe and put it on chopped butternut squash along with the carrots, and now I will be daydreaming about this incredible flavor until I have it again. My very picky wife, who hates carrots, called this dish, “the real star of the show,” during our meal tonight. Thank you so much for expanding our palates, and especially for this recipe!
These are excellent! I made the recipe exactly as written and we loved them. They go really well with some homemade veggie egg rolls. Thank you so much for the awesome recipe.
Sounds like a great meal!
This looks great, and we always have an abundance of carrots on hand. We already have a tub of red miso, but have never cooked with it before. Do you think it would make a huge difference instead of the white?
If I can’t find the miso paste, is there another product you recommend?
This recipe is specific to miso, unfortunately. It has such a unique flavor and consistency that I don’t think there is an adequate replacement for it.
These were divine! I had a golden miso on hand which also had a bit of texture to it, but it worked. I found it very important to spread the carrots out on a shallow cookie sheet, as you recommend, in order to get that caramelization. I made no other changes at all. Got lots of compliments.
Looks great! I think I’ll swap the butter for oil to make it vegan.
Would these work with brown sugar instead of maple syrup? I have all of the other ingredients on hand. They look delicious!
The miso mixture will be more like a paste, so I’m not sure you’ll be able to coat the carrots as well. I think if you perhaps added more moisture somehow, like maybe more melted butter it might make up for the change in texture.
It seems like in the pictures, there is a lot of the glaze that is left on the baking sheet unused. Could the carrots be dipped into the glaze and covered before placing on the sheet? Seems like such a tasty thing going to waste would be a bummer!
Hmm, do you mean like tossing the carrots in the glaze in a separate bowl then placing them on the baking sheet? Some of the glaze will come off the carrots and stick to the baking sheet as you stir them no matter what. You really want the glaze to bake on the sheet because that thickens and caramelizes it. When you scoop the carrots off the sheet at the end you scoop up the thickened glaze with it (minus the burned stuff around the edges, of course). :)
These look good and so easy! I’m definitely going to try them!
These look so good! It’s easy for veggies to get boring, but I think these ones would really add something special to an otherwise ordinary meal.