Perfect Sauteed Carrots

Here are the best sauteed carrots you’ll ever have! The perfect easy side dish, they’re made with just 3 ingredients and done in 10 minutes.

Perhaps sauteed carrots doesn’t sound like it could be mind blowing. But these really are the perfect sauteed carrots! Alex made these for me the other day, and I could not believe the flavor. “What is IN these?” I kept asking. Well, turns out they’re very simple. These are the most tender, buttery, savory, coins, with a hint of herbaceous fresh thyme and chives. They taste like the best carrots you’ve ever had: but they only have 3 ingredients and take 10 minutes.

What you need to make perfect sauteed carrots

All you need is a handful of ingredients and you’ll have the best sauteed carrots you’ve tasted! We might give up on our Roasted Carrots altogether, because these carrots are so fast and taste just as good (or better). Here’s what you need: the only special ingredients are the fresh herbs.

• Carrots: we used medium sized carrots from a large bag, but of course you can use fancy rainbow carrots too! (More about carrots here.)
• Olive oil: Yep, all you need is olive oil for great carrots: but they come out tasting buttery!
• Fresh herbs: Fresh thyme is perfect with carrots. We recommend finding fresh herbs for the flavor and beautiful green color against the orange! More on this below.
• Salt: OK, like every recipe, you’ll also need kosher salt. So it’s 3 ingredients without the salt!

How to make sauteed carrots…perfectly

There’s really only one trick to sauteed carrots! Here’s what to do after you heat the olive oil in a skillet:

• Cover and cook for 4 minutes: no stirring! This is the step that’s different from all our sauteed vegetables. For carrots, you’ll cover and cook first. This helps to keep moisture inside the pan and has an effect of steaming while you’re sauteing.
• Uncover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring. Now you can actually saute! Saute comes from the French word “to jump,” so you keep the food moving as much as possible. Add the salt and herbs, and you’re done!

Fresh herbs are essential!

This sauteed carrots recipe is made perfect because it uses fresh herbs. Why use fresh? A few reasons:

• The flavor of fresh herbs is much more vibrant vs when they’re dried. You can truly taste a difference.
• For looks! The pop of the green herbs against the bright orange looks stunning. You eat with your eyes too, so it’s much more pleasing to use fresh.

Herbs that pair well with carrots

Any time of year, you can usually find fresh herbs in the refrigerated section in your grocery. In the summer, they’re easy to grow! (See How to Grow Fresh Herbs.) You can use various fresh herbs in this recipe: here’s what we’d recommend:

• Thyme: Thyme pairs well with carrots (it’s a thing!), so this is our top choice for herbs.
• Chives: These are also fantastic. We happened to have some in our garden, so we used a combo of fresh thyme and chives for this recipe.
• Basil: Peppery basil would also work.
• Oregano: Oregano is similar to thyme, and also pairs well with carrots.
• Dill: Dill has a more distinctive flavor, but it’s often paired with carrots (since they’re part of the same plant family).

Or, a few variations on sauteed carrots

The flavors of these sauteed carrots are distinctly Mediterranean. If you’d like to change them up to fit well with another cuisine, you can try:

• Cumin & lime. Add ¼ teaspoon cumin and spritz with lime juice, and they work with Mexican style meals.
• Soy & sesame. Swap the salt for a few shakes of soy sauce, and top with toasted sesame seeds and these carrots work with Asian style meals.
• Greek seasoning. Add a few shakes of Greek seasoning instead of the herbs.

Ways to serve sauteed carrots

These sauteed carrots work well as a healthy side dish for lots of different mains! What’s nice is that they’re made on the stovetop, so you can keep the oven free for baking or roasting. Here’s what we’d pair with this tasty vegetable recipe:

• Salmon. These would be great with Easy Oven Baked Salmon or Lemon Dill Salmon, especially since they leave the oven free.
• Shrimp. Try with Easy Baked Shrimp, Broiled Shrimp, or Garlic Butter Shrimp.
• Pasta. Add alongside Roasted Cauliflower Pasta or Vegan Pasta Primavera.

This sauteed carrots recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Print

More healthy side dish recipes

This sauteed carrots recipe is one in our collection of easy side dish recipes and vegan side dishes! Here are a few more you might enjoy:

• Crispy Brussels Sprouts Wow, are these tasty! They’re roasted until blackened and caramelized, then tossed with a tangy sweet balsamic sauce.
• Sauteed Rainbow Chard or Best Ever Sauteed Kale cook up in just a few minutes!
• Peas with Lemon Cooking frozen peas with garlic and lemon makes them taste incredible. It’s an easy side dish everyone will love!
• Roasted Okra The best roasted okra around! Baking it might be the best way to cook this vegetable.
• Best Ever Sauteed Mushrooms or Roasted Mushrooms Yes, these really are the best mushrooms EVER, full of flavor using fresh herbs (much like these carrots).
• Roasted Frozen Broccoli Did you know you can roast broccoli right from frozen? This trick makes for easy freezer meals.
• Homemade Sauerkraut A surprisingly tasty side filled with probiotics!