Roasted Carrot Salad
on Jan 04, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This roasted carrot salad is a sheet pan recipe packed with vegetables and greens. Tossing in a can of chickpeas makes it filling enough to be a main dish salad. Besides baby arugula, carrots and chickpeas, it also has feta cheese, almonds, scallions and fresh herbs and is dressed in a honey shallot vinaigrette. Each bite of this salad has a fantastic mix of different textures and flavors.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
It follows a reliable salad formula: roasted vegetables + greens + vinaigrette. You can’t miss with this combination. There’s a reason why it works. You get good caramelized and roasted flavors plus the sharpness of the dressing and the freshness of the lettuce.
Carrots can be so much more than a side dish. These root vegetables often get overlooked in favor of another orange veggie: sweet potatoes. Carrots deserve more attention. They can be just as versatile in salads, main dishes and soups.
There are lots of great bites, textures and flavors in this salad. To go with the roasted carrots, I include chickpeas, almonds and feta. It all comes together with a honey shallot vinaigrette.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Carrots: Skip any carrots that are limp or soft. They should be firm and should snap if you try to bend one in half. You can use orange carrots or rainbow carrots if you like a lot of color.
- Chickpeas: The recipe calls for 1 can of chickpeas. After I rinse and and dry them, I like to pull off the loose skins. This is optional, but then the skins won’t end up tossed into the salad. You can substitute with a can of white beans.
- Baby arugula is a pleasantly peppery lettuce. You can substitute with baby spinach or a blend of mixed greens.
- Feta: I love the salty, briny flavor of feta cheese. For something more creamy and a slightly more mild, you can go with goat cheese.
- Almonds give the salad nutty crunch. You can use walnuts or even pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds instead.
- Scallions have crisp light green onion taste. You can substitute with finely chopped red onions. Keep in mind they will be stronger.
- Parsley: I like adding fresh herbs to salads to layer in more flavors.
- Cumin, kosher salt and black pepper season the carrots for roasting.
- Olive oil: I toss the carrots in oil along with the spices before roasting them.
- Honey shallot vinaigrette: It’s savory with a touch of sweetness to take the edge off the acidity of the dressing. Besides honey and finely chopped shallots, the dressing has minced garlic, whole grain mustard, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
How To Make This Roasted Carrot Salad Recipe
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
1. Prep the carrots. First peel them. Then cut them on the diagonal into 1-inch-wide slices.
2. Toss the carrots with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper. You can do this in a large bowl, so they are all coated in the mixture. Then spread the carrots across a baking sheet. They should be in a single layer and not overlapping.
3. Roast the carrots. This will take about 20-25 minutes. Flip them over halfway through roasting until the carrots are lightly browned and tender in the middle.
4. Make the vinaigrette. You can do this while the carrots roast. In a small bowl, whisk the shallots, garlic, mustard, honey, salt, black pepper, fresh lemon juice, vinegar and oil.
5. Assemble the salad. Put the roasted carrots, chickpeas, arugula, almonds, feta, scallions and fresh parsley in a large bowl.
6. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad, tossing to combine.
Serving
Because of this combination of roasted carrots and chickpeas, I serve this salad as a main dish for lunch or dinner. If you want to bulk it up even more, you can stir in cooked quinoa, farro or barley to turn this into a combination of a grains and greens salad.
Leftovers & Storage
Try to only dress the amount of salad you are planning to eat in one meal. It helps to plan ahead if you’re doing meal prep or if you think you’re going to end up with leftovers. Then you can save the salad up to 3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If the lettuce is dressed, it will wilt faster, but you can always toss fresh arugula into leftovers.
Store the extra vinaigrette in a separate mason jar or another container. Then let it sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes, so the oil can turn to liquid again if it hardens in the chill of the fridge.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t crowd the pan. Spread out the carrots from end to end. If they are on top of each other, they will steam instead of roasting.
- You don’t need to line the pan with parchment paper. I prefer my vegetables to make direct contact with the hot metal of the baking sheet, so they brown better.
- If you are vegan, you just need to make 2 changes to the recipe. Use a plant-based, dairy-free brand of feta. Then use maple syrup instead of honey in the vinaigrette.
More Salad Recipes
Roasted Acorn Squash Salad
Kale Apple Salad
Apple Cabbage Salad
Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
Kale Fingerling Potato Salad
Chopped Autumn Salad
Fall Harvest Salad
Butternut Squash Kale Salad
More Carrot Recipes
Moroccan Carrot Salad
Roasted Carrot Farro
Oven-Baked Carrot Fries
Cheesy Roasted Carrot Soup
Garlic Parmesan Roasted Carrots
Carrot Ginger Soup
Raw Carrot Salad with Tahini Vinaigrette
Roasted Carrot Salad
Ingredients
For carrots
- 2 pounds carrots
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For viniagrette
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
For salad
- 14.5 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 3 cups baby arugula
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Peel the carrots. Cut them diagonally into 1-inch-wide slices.
- In a large bowl, toss the carrots with the 2 tablespoons olive oil, cumin, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.
- Spread the carrots across a sheet pan into a single layer without overlapping.
- Roast the carrots for 20-25 minutes, flipping them over halfway through roasting, until the carrots are lightly browned on the edges and tender in the middle.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk the shallots, garlic, mustard, honey, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, lemon juice, white wine vinegar and 1/4 cup olive oil in a small bowl.
- For the salad, combine the roasted carrots, chickpeas, arugula, almonds, feta, scallions and parsley. Drizzle the dressing into the salad, tossing to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
