These quick and easy air fryer baby carrots are sweet, flavorful, and packed with Moroccan spices, making them the star of your dinner! They’re a perfect healthy side dish for holiday ham, roasted turkey breast, or rosemary pork chops. No peeling or chopping is needed—just toss the carrots with seasoning and pop them in the air fryer for a delicious dish ready in minutes.
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Naturally Sweet!
Roasting carrots in the air fryer makes them extra tender and golden bronze. Their crisp caramelized edges make them addictive and enhances their natural sweetness without any added sugar.
This savory vegetable recipe combines zesty ginger, spicy paprika, earthy cumin, and sweet cinnamon, all balanced with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Enjoy a deliciously healthy side dish packed with flavor! Easy for weekday dinners but fancy enough for the holidays.
Vegetable Side Dish Ingredients
Baby Cut Carrots (mini carrots)– are convenient and easy. They usually come in small 1-pound (453 grams)- or 2-pound (907 gram) packages peeled, prewashed and ready to eat. You can also use regular carrots that you peel chop and slice to 2-inch French fry style matchstick size like we did with our roasted fennel and carrot recipe.
Top Tip
These ready to eat carrots are not true baby carrots that are harvested before they get a standard size. Instead, they are regular carrots that have been peeled and cut to a baby carrot size.
Olive Oil – makes the carrots extra toasty and golden.
Spices – Dried ground Moroccan spices like cumin, ginger, paprika, garlic powder, cinnamon and even a dash of red chili pepper flakes makes these air fryer baby carrots tasty and aromatic without adding any sugar or sweeteners.
Walnuts – heart healthy and adds a little holiday flare to this simple side dish. You could also substitute with pepitas, chopped almonds, pine nuts, roasted chestnuts, pecans or your favorite nuts or seeds.
Lemon Juice or Zest – adds a pop of freshness and accentuates the flavor of the spices.
Feta Cheese – Optional, but a tangy addition. To make this easy side dish vegan, just hold the feta or use a crumbly vegan feta cheese.
How to Roast Carrots in the Air Fryer
- Add carrots to a large bowl. Dry them well with a paper towel to remove any moisture.
- Preheat air fryer to 380°F (193°C).
- Toss carrots with olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and pepper to taste. If you enjoy a little heat, add dried red chili flakes.
- Place baby carrots in air fryer basket in a single layer.
- Air fry for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, toss the chopped walnuts in the same bowl you used to coat the carrots and give them a good stir.
- Give your carrots a good shake in the air fryer basket and add the coated walnuts.
- Air fry for another 2 to 5 minutes or until the carrots are fork tender and toasty.
- Transfer roasted carrots to a plate and drizzle with fresh lemon juice.
- Garnish with optional feta cheese and parsley. Enjoy!
Air Frying Recipe Tips
- Size Differences: Baby carrots can be different diameters around depending on the brand. Ours were a medium diameter size but some can be skinny, and some can be extra-large around. If some of your carrots are large and some are small, cut the large ones in half so they all cook evenly.
- Adjust Cooking Time: If your baby carrots are large in diameter, they will take longer to air fry. On the other hand, if your mini carrots are extra small, they will take less time to cook.
- Types of Air Fryers: Every brand cooks differently and has a different volume capacity. We used an Air Fryer Toaster Oven Combo, Fabuletta 10-in-1 Toaster Ovens Countertop model. The large surface area allowed us to cook the entire recipe in one go.
- Don’t Crowd the Air Fryer: If you have small capacity air fryer, you may need to roast the baby carrots in 2 batches.
- Ensure Even Cooking: Shake or turn the carrots midway through the cooking process.
- Don’t Wash the Mixing Bowl: You will need the little bit of oil and spices leftover from seasoning the mini carrots to season the walnuts.
- Toasting Nuts: Add the walnuts during the last few minutes of roasting to prevent burning.
- Carrots are cooked with they are fork tender and golden.
- If you have any leftover cooked carrots, be sure to add them to our cozy butternut and carrot ginger soup.
What to Serve with Roasted Moroccan Spiced Carrots?
- Creamy Deliciousness: Line a platter with a layer of red pepper hummus or baba ghanoush and spoon the air fried carrots on top.
- Side Dish for leg of lamb or Moroccan chicken.
- Crispy Red Potatoes and Carrots together in the air fryer is a delicious treat.
Getting your family to eat their vegetables can be a struggle but this easy air fryer baby carrot recipe seems to defy all odds. First, carrots are not green. That right there is half of the battle. Secondly, the earthy cumin spice and warming ginger transform these carrots from HO-HUM ...to "Are you going to eat that last carrot?" Lastly, these Moroccan carrots roasting in the air fryer make your house smell amazing.
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
Baby carrots are fork tender and golden between 12 to 15 minutes at 380°F (193°C). If your carrots are larger in diameter, it can take a couple minutes longer. On the other hand, if your mini carrots are tiny, it can take as little as 10 minutes.
Absolutely! You can roast your baby carrots up to 3 days before and store in the refrigerator in covered container. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer safe container. Hold the additional feta cheese, parsley and lemon juice and add right before serving.
There are 4 methods for reheating the roasted carrots.
1) Air Fryer: Oil air fryer basked lightly and roast baby carrots in a single layer at 350°F (175°C) for 3-5 minutes, or until toasty warm.
2) Oven: Lightly grease or line a baking sheet and bake baby carrots at 400°F (204°C) for 10 minutes, or until toasty warm.
3) Stove Top: Add one tablespoon of oil to a frying pan. Then, add your pre-cooked carrots and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until warm throughout. Toss midway in the cooking process.
4) Microwave: This is our least favorite way as the carrots lose their crispy edges. Place carrots on a microwave safe plate and cover with a towel to prevent splattering. Microwave on high at 30 second intervals for 1 – 1.30 minutes or until toasty warm.
More Vegetable Side Dishes
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Moroccan Air Fryer Baby Carrots
Equipment
- air fryer
Ingredients
- 2 pounds baby carrots (washed and peeled mini carrots)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin
dried ground - ¾ teaspoon ginger
dried ground - 1 teaspoon paprika dried ground
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon dried ground
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder dried ground
- salt and pepper
to taste - ⅓ walnuts chopped
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice fresh is best or grated lemon zest
- crushed red pepper flakes Optional to add a little heat
- 1 tablespoon parsley Optional to garnish
- ⅓ cup feta cheese crumbled (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 380°F(193°C).
- Add baby carrots to a large bowl. Dry them well with a paper towel to remove any moisture.
- Toss carrots with olive oil, cumin, ginger, paprika, cinnamon, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. (Do not wash the bowl as you will be needing this again!)
- Transfer Moroccan spiced baby carrots to the air fryer basket making sure they are in a single layer. If you have a small air fryer, you will have to split the carrots into 2 batches so they cook evenly.
- Set the timer on air fryer to 10 minutes. Start air frying the carrots. In the meantime, add ⅓ cup chopped walnuts to the same bowl you seasoned the carrots in and toss well in the Moroccan oil spices.
- At the 10 minute mark, give your carrots a good shake in the air fryer basket. Then, add the seasoned chopped walnuts to the air fryer basket along with the carrots. Continue to air fry the seasoned carrots and walnuts for 2 to 5 minutes longer or until fork tender. (Total cook time is approximately 12-15 minutes.) *See Recipe Notes below.
- Transfer roasted carrots to a plate and drizzle with fresh lemon juice. Garnish with optional feta cheese, crushed red chili peppers if you like a little heat and parsley. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Size Differences: Baby carrots can be different diameters around depending on the brand. Ours were a medium diameter size but some can be skinny, and some can be extra-large around. If some of your carrots are large and some are small, cut the large ones in half so they all cook evenly.
- Adjust Cooking Time: If your baby carrots are large in diameter, they will take longer to air fry. On the other hand, if your mini carrots are extra small, they will take less time to cook.
- Types of Air Fryers: Every brand cooks differently and has a different volume capacity. We used an Air Fryer Toaster Oven Combo, Fabuletta 10-in-1 Toaster Ovens Countertop model. The large surface area allowed us to cook the entire recipe in one go.
- Don’t Crowd the Air Fryer: If you have small capacity air fryer, you may need to roast the baby carrots in 2 batches.
- Ensure Even Cooking: Shake or turn the carrots part way through the cooking process.
- Don’t Wash the Mixing Bowl: You will need the little bit of oil and spices leftover from seasoning the mini carrots to season the walnuts.
- Toasting Nuts: Add the walnuts during the last few minutes of roasting to prevent burning.
- Carrots are cooked with they are fork tender and golden.
Hannah says
Yum and yes please! I do love roasted carrots even more than raw. Their concentrated sweetness and buttery texture is really something else.
Eha says
Tho' I'll never make a vegetarian I do love vegetables: asparagus and artichokes and eggplant and salsify and zucchini and broccoli and bok choi and mushrooms and peapods and, and carrots are actually not at the top of the list 🙂 ! Oh they go into stews of every nation and soups and raw into many salads but, but 🙂 ! Well these look moreish and next time I have the oven on, guess what . . . do like the ginger and normally do use the cumin . . . nice . . .
HWC Magazine says
Hiya Eha! We love vegetables too. Cumin and ginger is a delightful combination for carrots as it really brings out the natural sweetness and earthy flavors. Hope you are staying high and dry!