Roasted Carrots with Tarragon Pesto
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These Easy Oven Roasted Carrots are served with homemade tarragon pesto sauce. Simple to make and bursting with gourmet flavors, this side dish takes roasted veggies to the next level!
Why you’ll love this recipe!
Gourmet roasted carrots – Just when you think roasted carrots can’t get any better, fresh tarragon pesto takes them over the top! It’s like an explosion of sweet, savory, and anise-herbaceous flavors.
Low-effort side dish – Roast the carrots, make the pesto, and then serve the two together. You can even make the pesto ahead of time.
Versatile – Carrots with pesto pair well with everything, from this fancy-ish fish en papillote to these festive braised boneless short ribs.
Table of Contents
Oh, how I adore roasted carrots, AKA the ultimate side dish! From maple roasted carrots to carrot apple ginger soup, there are a zillion ways to cook and season this veggie. For me, I love to reach for the fresh tarragon. I don’t use this herb super often, but when it comes to carrots, its mildly sweet licorice flavors pair perfectly.
These Tarragon Pesto Roasted Carrots make a simple side dish feel extra fancy, with fork-tender oven-roasted carrots served on a platter with homemade tarragon pesto on top. This recipe is both easy to make and bursting with fresh flavors, making it an instant hit for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any big family dinner.
If you’re looking for more ways to dress up your carrot side dishes, check out my honey butter roasted carrots next.
These carrots look delicious! I love having them roasted and they look so pretty this way too!
– Debs
Tarragon Pesto Carrots Ingredients
Carrots – I kept it classic with orange carrots, but rainbow carrots would be really fun, too.
Fresh tarragon – If you’ve ever eaten a French dish and wondered, “What is that aromatic, gourmet flavor?” chances are you were tasting tarragon. This leafy herb is blended right into the pesto to bring an elevated freshness and a ton of aroma that goes so well with the roasted carrots.
Basil pesto – You need all of the classic basil pesto ingredients, like fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.
This list is to provide further clarification on a few of the ingredients. See recipe card below for the full ingredient list.
Variations
- Tarragon pesto swaps – Maybe tarragon isn’t your thing; that’s okay! In this case, I recommend serving the roasted carrots with my pistachio pesto or my almond pesto instead. Even my carrot top pesto hummus would be good here.
- Pine nut substitute – Make the pesto with an equal amount of walnuts or cashews.
- Dairy-free option – Replace the parmesan with vegan parmesan shreds or nutritional yeast for a dairy-free pesto.
- Combine the carrots with more roasted vegetables, like potatoes, beets, brussels sprouts, or broccoli florets.
How to Make Roasted Carrots with Tarragon Pesto
Step 1: Season the carrots. Place the carrots in a bowl and toss them with the oil, salt, and pepper.
Step 2: Roast. Transfer the carrots to a baking sheet and roast until fork-tender.
Step 3: Make the pesto. Meanwhile, add the pesto ingredients to a food processor or small blender and blend until smooth.
Step 4: Serve. Transfer the roasted carrots to a serving platter and dollop the tarragon pesto on top. Serve warm and enjoy!
Erin’s Tips and Tricks
- My carrots were done after about 35 to 40 minutes, but the cooking time will vary depending on how thick your carrots are. You can slice them vertically, as I did, or chop them into thick half moons to speed up the cook time.
- Make carrot top pesto instead: If the leafy green tops are still attached to your carrots, you can add about 1/2 cup to the pesto. This cuts down on your food waste and gives the pesto another layer of freshness.
My Pro Tip
Blend to Your Preferred Consistency
Both a food processor and a small blender can be used to make the pesto, but they’ll yield different consistencies:
- Food processor: Best for a slightly thick pesto with more texture.
- Small blender: Best for a silky smooth and creamy pesto.
Recipe FAQs
Sure! To prevent it from browning, store the pesto in a glass container with a sheet of plastic wrap pressed directly on top. Seal the lid and refrigerate the pesto for 1 to 2 days before serving.
Tarragon pesto is not just for roasted carrots. Its aromatic, herby, anise flavors pair just as well with roasted beets, this super simple fennel salad, and most roasted potato recipes, like these parmesan-roasted red potatoes or these pesto smashed potatoes.
Please stick with fresh herbs if you can. Dried tarragon or basil just isn’t as fresh and flavorful!
More Elevated Vegetable Side Dishes
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Roasted Carrots with Tarragon Pesto
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb. carrots
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
Tarragon Pesto:
- 1 ½ cups fresh basil
- ¼ cup tarragon
- ⅓ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- juice from 1 lemon
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F and spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray.
- Cut the ends off the carrots, then slice them in half vertically and place them in a bowl. Drizzle them with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Place the carrots on the baking sheet and roast for 35-40 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Meanwhile, make the pesto: Add all the ingredients to a food processor or small blender and blend until the pesto is to your desired consistency.
- Serve the roasted carrots with the pesto dolloped on top and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
I have both French and Russian Tarragon and have been looking for a Tarragon Pesto that doesn’t call for Asiago cheese as I feel that overwhelms the taste of the Tarragon.
Will give this a try!
I prefer the classic flavor of French Tarragon. Russian is milder and the plant needs to be kept tamed as it gets unruly and tries to take over.
How have I never tried tarragon before?! I LOVE carrots…in any form. And pesto. Basically this recipe is already my new favorite thing!! Definitely going to try this 🙂
Holy mackerel, this looks amazing! I’m always up for using my resources wisely and am a huge fan of making pesto with carrot tops. PLUS, that tarragon is sounding amazing. I could definitely put this dish on repeat!
These carrots look delicious!
I love having them roasted. and they look so pretty this way too!
Debs @ https://tiger-mint.com