As we near the end of the gardening season, it was time to pull my carrots. I grew a shorty variety this year and was delighted. These short carrots were perfect for Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Carrots.
In the past, I have never had much luck growing carrots. They were always clumped together, never uniform in size, and had these strange nubs growing willy-nilly. After reading an article about carrots, I realized the error in my ways.
From the Old Farmers Almanac
COMMON CARROT PROBLEMS AND ANSWERS
Some readers tell us they’ve stopped growing carrots because the plant didn’t grow straight. Don’t give up hope! It might just be your soil. Here’s what to try next season:
Do your carrots look round, short, fat, and/or more like a potato?
- Carrots need loose, light, airy soil. Most of us need to add sand. We use 100% sand mixed with ⅓ peat moss.
- Till deeper! Carrots usually give up if they grow down a foot and hit any soil clumps. While we’re generally not big fans of tilling, you must prepare a carrot bed. Till down 18 inches and make sure there are no rocks, weeds, or even soil clumps to impede your carrots’ growth.
Do your carrots look as if they have legs or do they split?
- Do not amend the soil with nitrogen-rich material. You have too much dense compost or manure and too many nutrients, and perhaps not enough sand.
- Seed directly in the ground. Don’t transplant. Try to distribute seed in an even fashion, so seeds don’t grow together or use a seed-sower or thin vigorously to the right space.
- Main soil moisture with frequent shallow waterings during germination. The soil can’t crust over.
Next year I will follow this advice. For this year, my shorty carrots did not have any problems. The biggest challenge was waiting for them to be ready to harvest.
Earlier this year I made Maple Dijon Dill Roasted Carrots from carrots I received from a Wellness Day at work. One of the workshops at the end of the day, let us take any of the displayed veggies. Those colored carrots spoke to me.
I have always loved carrots, cooked, raw, in salads, stir-fried….yum!
Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Carrots made a delicious side dish for the steak Tim, and I had last weekend. After making them and shooting the pictures, I realized that would make a great appetizer as well.
These carrots can easily be assembled ahead of time. They do take a while to cook so you would need to plan accordingly.
Leaving about an inch of stem on the carrots I wrapped them in applewood smoked bacon. Tip: when preparing the baking sheet, I placed a piece of parchment paper down and set my wrapped carrots on top. Cover your baking sheet with foil and then the parchment paper. It will save you a lot of clean up time. Between the bacon grease and the sticky, honey mixture, let’s just say I had a baking sheet to soak.
A simple mixture of honey and Sriracha sauce is brushed on the bacon-wrapped carrots about halfway through the cooking time, then sprinkled with brown sugar. All the honey, sriracha and brown sugar make a spicy, sticky, sweet coating for those beautiful carrots.
Whether for as a side dish or appetizer Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Carrots are the perfect way to use your fresh(or store-bought) carrots!
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Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Carrots
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 4 side dish servings 1x
- Category: Vegetable
- Method: Roast
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 pound carrots
6 slices applewood smoked bacon
5 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon(more if you like it really spicy) Sriracha sauce
Parsley for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a small bowl mix together the honey and Sriracha sauce and set-aside.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and top foil with parchment paper. Peel and trim carrots leaving an inch of the stems (see notes).
Wrap bacon slice around each carrot from top to bottom.
Place on the prepared baking sheet with the end of the bacon strip down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining carrots and bacon. Sprinkle with black pepper and place in the preheated oven.
Bake for 25 minutes carefully turn over with tongs. Baste with honey Sriracha sauce. Divide and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over carrots. Place back in the oven for another 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of carrots. Bacon should be crispy. Remove from oven and baste with any remaining sauce.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
I used fresh carrots ( from my garden) with the greens still attached, carrots without stems will work just as well.
My carrots were also small, so I cut the bacon strips in half.
Make sure carrots that are at least an inch thick. If carrots are too thin, they will overcook while trying to get the bacon crispy.
