Not sure how to make carrots exciting enough to eat a whole bunch of carrots? Try this Moroccan carrots recipe!

Red harrisa roasted carrots with optional honey glaze are a spiced up version of honey roasted carrots for a colorful delicious Christmas holiday spread or anytime you need an easy healthy dinner side.

Move over Sriracha, harissa is soo much tastier! What is harissa paste? Harissa paste is a Moroccan flavour bomb that can be bought mild or spicy depending on how much chili to red pepper is used. its made with clean ingredients that fits all diet types. Harissa is pretty thick and slighlty chunky so its almost a harissa sauce. Find harissa in the international section or by the hot sauce.

ingredients:

one small bunch of thin carrots (or if using large fat carrots, quarter them lenghtwise), peeled and scrubbed clean, keep the tops for presentation

2 tbsp of olive oil

tbsp honey, optional

1-1.5 tbsp red harissa paste (to tolerance, if using mild harissa the bigger amount can be used, the regular is spicy!)

sea salt

optional, 2 good pinches of ground cumin and a pinch black pepper

optional, toasted sesame and pomegranate for garnish and juiciness to offset the spicy harissa

optional tahini dressing:

1 tbsp tahini

tbsp. olive oil

sea salt

1 clove garlic, crushed

tiny dash lemon juice, aprx 1/4 tbsp

recipe directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. In a small bowl combine the honey, oil, red harissa and spices and herbs. Place Two layers of aluminum foil on a sheet pan (I find the extra layer helps with cleanup since some of the honey can go thru the first layer and stick to the pan). Place the carrots on top and drizzle them with the honey, oil, harissa & spice mixture and toss them to evenly coat. Bake for 20 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and tender (for older ovens like mine it took a good 35 minutes to become tender and still could use another 2 minutes to get it golden brown in spots).

meantime make the tahini dressing, drizzle tahini dressing over roasted carrots. if you want to thin it out add a tiny splash of water to the tahini dressing first.

For more decorative holiday sides check out my Christmas recipes which has over 20 of the best Christmas recipes that are paired well to match