Quick & Easy Roast Carrots

Claire Wright

Featuring:

Carrots

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

4 large carrots

olive oil

sea salt

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

Recipe for Veg Power by Claire Wright. Food photography by Claire Wright | addsomeveg.com

Claire Wright from addsomeveg.com shares 3 simple ways to prepare carrots that the whole family will enjoy. This first one is a quick way of roasting for kid-friendly roots.

Roasting carrots is really simple and brings out the sweetness, making it one of the easiest ways to get kids to enjoy it! Sealing the carrots in the foil helps them cook quicker to save time.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cut carrots diagonally, changing direction at each cut, so each small chunk is angled and shaped a little like a triangle. Toss in a drizzle of olive oil and spread on a baking tray. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and cover the tray with foil, scrunching it around the sides so the carrots are sealed in. Roast in the preheated oven for about 25-35 mins, or until the carrots are soft and starting to catch slightly and caramelise. Serve hot or cold on their own, topped with crumbled cheese, chopped nuts or pesto, or as a side.

You can change things up by sprinkling over some dried herbs like fennel seeds, dried mixed herbs, oregano or basil before roasting, adding spices like ground cumin, coriander and/or paprika, or adding a generous handful of roughly chopped fresh parsley or coriander at the end of cooking time.

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Chop the carrots, then let the kids drizzle then with oil and mix with clean hands. They can sprinkle the salt and scrunch the foil, too! Let them choose which herbs or spices to put in, or give them a few choices so they can pick what to add to it at the end.

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

Claire Wright

Communications Manager: After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English Literature, Claire worked in various fields ranging from youth work and charities to publishing, before starting up a food-focused website when her first child was born. After being asked to project manage the publication of Veg Power's Crowdfunder book, Claire came on board as a fully-fledged team member in 2018 to take on the role of Communications Manager, looking after Veg Power's website and social media platforms.

addsomeveg.com/

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