An unusual jar of honey and a ripping hot sheet pan were the keys to remaking what too often can be a forgettable side dish — roasted carrots.
First, the honey. We’ve seen our fair share of infused varieties, everything from ginger and saffron to lavender and matcha green tea. Most haven’t impressed, but in Mumbai, India, we discovered turmeric-infused honey.
We loved drizzling the honey over roasted cauliflower and suspected its rich, earthy flavors would work equally well with carrots. It did, such as in this recipe from our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor.
We get the most flavor out the carrots with a very hot oven — 500 degrees, in fact. For even richer caramelization, we first heat the baking sheet in the oven before adding the carrots. It is essential to add the honey only after the carrots roasted; the high heat would burn the sugar. But this also gave us an opportunity to warm the honey on the stovetop, better infusing it with turmeric and another common Indian seasoning, whole cumin seeds.
