Honey Mustard Roast Carrots and Parsnips
TRCC - Australian Honey Mustard Dressing 100mL
$7.95
Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.
By Jodie Smith, Product & Hamper Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.
Honey mustard roasted carrots and parsnips come off a single tray. The carrots go in 15 minutes before the parsnips, because a parsnip dries out and catches first, and the honey mustard goes on for the last 10 minutes only. Serves 6 as a side. Prep 15 minutes, cook 45 minutes.
Carrots first, parsnips 15 minutes later
Cut a carrot and a parsnip to the same thickness, put them on the same tray at the same time, and one of them will be wrong. The parsnip holds less water and more starch, so it gives up its moisture early, softens through the middle sooner and browns while the carrot beside it is still steaming. Its tapering ends are the giveaway. They go from gold to bitter and black in about the time it takes to set the table.
Staggering the tray fixes it without any extra washing up. Carrots get 15 minutes on hot metal on their own, which is roughly the head start they need. The parsnips go in on top and both roast together for another 20, by which time the parsnip edges are gold and a knife meets a little resistance in the thickest carrot. Then the glaze, then 10 minutes more.
If you would rather load one tray once and walk away, there is a second way to solve the same problem: cut the parsnips half again as thick as the carrots and put everything in together. Thickness buys the parsnip the time the stagger would have given it. Either method works. Neither survives a crowded tray, so use two trays before you use one deep pile.
This bottle is a dressing, not a mustard
The TRCC Australian Honey Mustard Dressing is 100ml for $7.95, and it belongs to the small bottle line rather than the mustard jars. Six bottles in that line, all at the same price: this one, a caramelised classic balsamic, a fig and honey caramelised balsamic, a spicy mango and kaffir lime, a chipotle steak sauce and a chunky barbeque sauce. Look at the company it keeps and you can see what it is. It has already been thinned, sweetened and acidified in the bottle, which is exactly what a glaze is.
That saves you a bowl and a whisk. There is no honey to add, no oil to emulsify and nothing to hold together, because the emulsion arrived done. You tip it over hot vegetables and turn them through it with tongs. Anyone who has stood over a tray trying to get a stiff spoonful of mustard to spread across 1.4kg of roasted vegetables will know the difference.
Here is the trap. The same company also makes Hurricane Honey Mustard in a 110g jar, and that one sits with the Spitfire hot English, the Lancaster seeded and the Mustang Dijon. Same two words on the front, different job entirely: it is a spreading mustard, thick enough to sit on a carrot in blobs rather than coat it. If the jar is what is in your fridge, loosen 2 tablespoons of it with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of honey before it goes near the oven. Our guide to which mustard does which job sorts the four jars out, and the rest of the range sits with our mustards and dressings.
Method
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C, or 180°C fan-forced, with a large heavy roasting tray on the middle shelf.
- Scrub the carrots and halve them lengthways, quartering anything thicker than a thumb, so every piece has a flat face.
- Toss the carrots in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, half the salt and plenty of pepper.
- Tip the carrots onto the hot tray in a single layer, cut face down, and roast for 15 minutes.
- Peel the parsnips while the carrots start, quarter them lengthways and cut out the woody core of any thicker than 5cm.
- Toss the parsnips with the remaining oil and salt.
- Add the parsnips at the 15 minute mark, turning the carrots over as you go, and spread everything back into one layer.
- Roast for another 20 minutes, until the parsnip edges are gold and a knife goes into the thickest carrot with a little resistance left.
- Pour the honey mustard dressing over the tray and turn everything with tongs until each piece is glossy. Scatter over the thyme now if you are using it.
- Return the tray for 8 to 10 minutes, until the glaze tightens onto the vegetables and the tips darken. If it smells like burnt honey, take it out.
- Rest the tray on the bench for 3 minutes, then scrape the sticky glaze from the base up over the vegetables.
- Tip everything onto a warm platter, scatter over the chopped almonds and parsley, and serve with lemon wedges.
Make ahead, and the day after
Roast the tray through step 8 up to a day ahead. Cool it, leave it uncovered in the fridge, then glaze and finish it from cold in a 220°C oven for 12 to 14 minutes. That is the December version, when the oven is being fought over. Our guide to Christmas side dishes covers which trays split like this and which do not.
Do not glaze it early. Sugar and salt pull water out of cooked vegetables as they sit, so a tray glazed the night before comes out of the fridge slack and wet and never crisps again. Glaze goes on hot vegetables, once, at the end.
Leftovers keep three days in the fridge and are better cold than reheated: chopped small through lentils or couscous with a squeeze of lemon, they become lunch. What is left in the bottle goes onto chicken thighs in the last five minutes on the barbecue, through a warm potato salad, or shaken with olive oil over shaved cabbage.
Common questions
How long do you roast carrots and parsnips?
At 200°C, carrots halved lengthways need about 45 minutes and parsnips quartered need about 30. That gap is the reason for staggering the tray. Both in for 45 and the parsnips burn at the tips, both in for 30 and the carrots are firm in the middle. Give the carrots a 15 minute head start and they finish together.
Can you make honey mustard vegetables ahead?
Yes, in two parts. Roast the vegetables plain up to a day early, cool them and keep them uncovered in the fridge, then glaze and finish them from cold in a hot oven for 12 to 14 minutes. Glazing ahead does not work: honey and salt draw moisture out overnight, and what you reheat is soft and syrupy rather than caramelised.
What goes with roast carrots at Christmas?
They sit beside cold roast meats, a whole baked salmon, a nut roast or a barbecued butterflied leg of lamb, which is what most Australian Christmas tables actually look like. Put something green and something sharp near them: a leafy salad with a lemon dressing, or roast potatoes and a bowl of pickles. The rest of the table is in our festive entertaining essentials.
Do you peel carrots and parsnips before roasting?
Carrots no, parsnips yes. A scrubbed carrot skin roasts to something worth eating and holds the piece together. Parsnip skin is papery, turns bitter as the root ages and separates from the flesh in the heat, so it ends up as loose brown tissue on the tray. Peel them, and cut the woody core out of the thick ones while you are there, because that core stays fibrous however long it roasts.
The honey mustard bottle and the rest of the small bottles are in our gourmet condiments range, with free shipping Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post. If you would rather send the bottles than cook with them, they turn up inside our Christmas hampers.
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