Honey Harissa Carrots with Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
Honey harissa carrots are sweet and spicy roasted carrots caramelised in honey, served with a fresh and fragrant carrot-top pistachio pesto, and layered over Greek yoghurt. Yum.
Honey Harissa Carrots with Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
Honey Harissa Carrots with Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
Honey Harissa Carrots with Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
Honey-roasted carrots are a classic way to cook carrots, but have you ever added spice to them? The flavors are so perfect together. The honey harissa carrots are bold, spicy, tender, and sweet, complemented by the carrot-top pistachio pesto, which is fresh, bright, and herbaceous—a match made in flavor heaven. It’s something you'll keep craving long after the dishes have been washed up.
Here, I’m showing you how to make these restaurant-level roasted carrots and an amazing carrot-top pesto in a few easy steps. I love creating easy and delicious side dish recipes that make good flavours easy to achieve. Read on for your helpful guide, ingredient substitutions, and tips for making them perfect every time.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- It goes with basically any protein. It shines as a side dish for Christmas or Thanksgiving. I love serving it alongside roast lamb, roast chicken, or pulled pork, or pairing it with grilled meat for an easy, flavour-packed meal.
- Easy and impressive. It’s simple to make, so you can add it to a weeknight or weekend meal, but it’s fancy enough for entertaining a crowd.
- It’s a great way to use up your carrot tops. Pesto is one of the best ways to use carrot tops. It has an earthy flavour that combines beautifully with other herbs, and the addition of pistachios not only complements the carrot-top flavour but also enhances the honey harissa carrots, as they’re slightly sweet and link perfectly with other Mediterranean flavours.
- No peeling! I’m always happy to skip a laborious prep task. Since we’re using Dutch (baby) carrots, the skin is thin and sweet, so there’s no need to remove it before cooking.
- You can scale the recipe easily. This recipe serves 4-5, averaging 2–3 carrots per person. To cater to a bigger crowd, multiply the ingredients by 2 for 8-10 people, by 3 for 12-15, and so on—you get it.
What are Dutch carrots?
Dutch, or baby, carrots are young carrots, so they’re smaller and thinner. They’re sweet, making them perfect for roasting, eating raw in salads, or even juicing. They come in a variety of colours and are generally sold with their tops intact.
Can you even eat carrot tops?
Oh yeah. Buying carrots with all their greenery isn’t just delightfully wholesome—the carrot tops have heaps of uses! They’re great in pesto, but you can also use them in salads, stocks, and stir-fries. My personal favourite, though, is pesto.
What can I do with leftover pesto?
You will have leftovers! The best ways to use it up are to serve it with some warm focaccia, stir it through pasta, add it to a creamy cooking sauce, or use it on pizza or grilled meats. Yum.
Tips for making this recipe
- Prepping your carrots: As mentioned above, no peeling is required! Just give them a thorough wash, as the stems of the carrot tops can still have some dirt on them. (If you get stubborn dirt that won’t wash off, give them a peel.) Trim off any small veiny bits hanging from the bottom and cut the tops to about an inch above the carrot. Pat them dry. Note - You will need to increase the cooking time if the carrots are quite a bit bigger than dutch carrots. If you can’t find any with tops, to make the pesto, just double the other herb quantities.
- Roasting the carrots: Making roasted Dutch carrots is easy. After prepping them, add your dry spices, seasoning, and olive oil first to start roasting and make them slightly tender. Partway through cooking, add the garlic, harissa and honey—this will ensure they don’t burn due to the sugars.
- Making your pesto: You can make the pesto in two ways: hand-chopped and pounded with a mortar and pestle, or for a creamier (and faster) version, in a food processor. The hand-chopped method results in a chunkier pesto, so it depends on your preference. I’ve included instructions for both methods in this recipe but used the hand-chopped version in my video and step-by-step images.
- Serve all together just before eating: You can make your pesto in advance and keep your carrots warm in the oven, but I recommend bringing everything together at the last minute. Since it’s served on Greek yoghurt, which is a cold element, it could warm up and not be as nice. You want a combination of hot and cool at the same time. If you’re making this dish to take to someone’s house, simply keep the elements separate and assemble them on a platter just before serving. Easy.
Storage
Pop any leftover roasted carrots in the fridge for up to 3-4 days, remove from the yoghurt, reheat in the oven or microwave, and serve over fresh cold yoghurt.
Store carrot top pesto for up to a week in an airtight container or freeze for later use.
More tastiness
Want more pesto inspo? My homemade basil pesto is definitely one to try when basil is in season, and pestos work so nicely in creamy dishes like this.
I love cooked vegetables served over yoghurt, it’s such a tasty side dish that comes with its own sauce! My other faves are my braised fennel and roasted tomatoes and garlic. For a complete meal, my lamb cutlets with harissa roasted vegetables recipe is off the hook.
Freeze in an airtight container with a little olive oil drizzled over the top. Defrost in the fridge over 12-24 hours.
You can make the pesto in advance! The carrots are best made right before serving but you can make them a couple of hours before, and keep them covered in foil and warm in a low temp oven. Just be aware that overcooking them for a long time will turn them to mush!
Ingredients and substitutions
How to make it - step by step!
Trim your carrot tops, reserve the tops for the pesto. Remove any little veiny bits as well.
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 392 F, add carrots to a baking tray along with olive oil, cinnamon, smoked paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix to combine then bake for 20 minutes.
Mortar and pestle: Finely chop your carrot tops, measure out 1 cup of the chopped tops. Chop mint, parsley and pistachios, then place it all in a mortar and pestle with lemon zest and juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Grate in the garlic with a microplane. Pulverise to combine into a loose mixture. Food Processor: Add carrot tops, mint, parsley, pistachios, lemon, zest, juice, and garlic. Turn the processor on and slowly add the oil, keep blending until you have a pesto consistency.
Add 1 tbsp of harissa and honey, grate over a clove of garlic to the carrots mix and bake again for 15-20 minutes until the carrots are caramelised and tender. Remove from the oven to cool for a couple of minutes before plating up.
Trim your carrot tops, reserve the tops for the pesto. Remove any little veiny bits as well.
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 392 F, add carrots to a baking tray along with olive oil, cinnamon, smoked paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix to combine then bake for 20 minutes.
Mortar and pestle: Finely chop your carrot tops, measure out 1 cup of the chopped tops. Chop mint, parsley and pistachios, then place it all in a mortar and pestle with lemon zest and juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Grate in the garlic with a microplane. Pulverise to combine into a loose mixture. Food Processor: Add carrot tops, mint, parsley, pistachios, lemon, zest, juice, and garlic. Turn the processor on and slowly add the oil, keep blending until you have a pesto consistency.
Add 1 tbsp of harissa and honey, grate over a clove of garlic to the carrots mix and bake again for 15-20 minutes until the carrots are caramelised and tender. Remove from the oven to cool for a couple of minutes before plating up.
Watch the how to video
Watch the how to video
Honey Harissa Carrots with Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
Honey Harissa Carrots
- 500g Dutch carrots with tops
- 100g pistachios
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1.5 tbsp harissa
- 1.5 tbsp honey
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Carrot Top Pistachio Pesto
- 1 cup carrot tops
- ½ cup mint leaves plus extra for garnish?
- ½ cup parsley leaves
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon, juice & zest
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/1 tsp pepper
To Serve
- 3 dessert spoons Greek yoghurt
- Extra chopped pistachios and herbs
- Trim your carrot tops, reserve the tops for the pesto. Remove any little veiny bits as well.
- Preheat the oven to 200 C / 392 F, add carrots to a baking tray along with olive oil, cinnamon, smoked paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix to combine then bake for 20 minutes.
- Make the pesto:
- To make in a mortar and pestle: finely chop your carrot tops, measure out 1 cup of the chopped tops. Chop mint, parsley and pistachios, then place it all in a mortar and pestle with lemon zest and juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Grate in the garlic with a microplane. Pulverise to combine into a loose mixture.
- To make in a food processor: Add carrot tops, mint, parsley, pistachios, lemon, zest, juice, and garlic. Turn the processor on and slowly add the oil, keep blending until you have a pesto consistency.
- Add 1 tbsp of harissa and honey, grate over a clove of garlic to the carrots mix and bake again for 15-20 minutes until the carrots are caramelised and tender.. Remove from the oven to cool for a couple of minutes before plating up.
- To serve, add Greek yoghurt to a platter or individual plates, swirling to cover the area. Add roasted carrots and spoon over carrot top pesto and extra chopped pistachios and herbs.
