Farmers Market Roasted Carrots Cornbread

Pro Tip: Don’t just jump to the recipe. There is lots to discover before you get there… just keep on reading! 😊 You know me, I am alway looking for new ways to present the local harvest I find each weekend at area farmers markets. This week, my thoughts turned to carrots. While I love carrots raw in salads, juiced or just for snacking, I particularly love roasted carrots.

Baked in a hot oven, even for a short time, a fresh picked locally harvested carrot takes on a whole new character. The heat pulls the natural sugars, the outside of the carrot caramelizes, the inside is still slightly crunchy and you have a whole new side dish for dinner. But, what happens when you take those sweet roasted carrots and bake them into a cast iron skillet cornbread? The recipe is as simple as any batter bread and you are going to love the show stopping results.

Shop Local Farmers Markets and Get Inspired

I was originally inspired by an instagram reel for a hot honey cornbread with roasted carrots; but then, I made it my own using lots of local ingredients from Charlotte area farmers’ markets. The result is a layered, sweet soft sort of cornbread, baked to perfection in my favorite cast iron skillet. It bakes with the carrots on the bottom and then you flip it over and out of the pan to serve.

I actually double the recipe for the cornbread batter you’ll find below to make enough to bake in my 15 inch Carolina Cooker cast iron double handled skillet . Its one of my favorite pans in my collection. But you can use the recipe as is and bake it in a standard sized 12-13 inch cast iron skillet if you would like.

I changed up the recipe a bit to make the texture softer by using Maseca Corn Flour ( the one with the green label) instead of the standard corn meal; and I incorporated a bunch of local spinach. Spinach is my go-to leafy green this time of year.

In fact, if you follow me on instagram, you might have seen this instagram video on my insta feed of my spinach shopping experience a couple of weeks ago. I just love that another random farmers market shopper, popped his head in while I was bagging my spinach at the Bluebird Farms booth at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market.

But, I digress. Let’s get back to the carrots. Before you can make the cornbread, you’ll need to roast the carrots. I suppose you could do them in the pan you’ll make the cornbread in; but I roasted mine first, on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and then sliced them in half for the cornbread.

The Super Simple Recipe To Make Roasted Carrots

Truly, it couldn’t be easier. Cut the tops from each of the carrots, leaving about a half inch of green at the top of each carrot. This way you won’t waste any of the carrot itself. If I have bought carrots at the farmers market, I almost never peel them, I simply wash them well under cold water.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Your carrots won’t stick to the pan and the parchment makes for easier clean up. Simple place the cleaned whole carrots on the baking sheet – no need to parboil them first and no need to drizzle them with any kind of oil. Just season to taste ( this means add what you like) or don’t season them at all. Your call.

Season To Taste ( this means add what YOU like and how much you like)

I always use a local sea salt ( I am loving all the flavors at Sea Love Sea Salt) and my hot pepper blend – both just sprinkled generously over the top of the carrots. Sprinkled generously means, use a little bit more than you think.

“Heidi’s Hot Pepper Blend” is a flavorful mix of Black Lampong Peppercorns, Black Malabar Peppercorns, Pink Reunion Peppercorns and coriander seed. Grind everything together in a coffee grinder. For best results grind in small batches as needed. Clean your coffee grinder by grinding 2-3 tablespoons of coffee beans in the grinder once you have finished with the pepper. Toss those ground beans away. They will act has a filter and clean the pepper taste from the grinder. 

Food & Travel Writer, Heidi Billotto

In this particular recipe I also added a dusting of a great little product I found at the Uptown Farmers’ Market in Charlotte. It’s a mushroom ginger powder and it packs a delicious punch. You can find it made with Lions’ Mane mushrooms or Turkey Tail Mushrooms and it’s produced by a North Carolina company called OMG Alchemy. .

Once the carrots are seasoned to your liking. Place them on the center rack in a preheated 400 degree oven. Bake or roast – it’s the same thing – for about 20-25 minutes. Turn the carrots over about halfway through the total cooking time.

When they are done, enjoy them hot or cold or slice them in half lengthwise to use as a topper for this cast iron cornbread recipe.

What To Do with the Fresh Carrot Tops? Make Carrot Top Pesto

You can compost the leafy green tops if the carrots have been in your fridge for a day or two; but if the greens still look fresh and hardy, don’t toss them, instead use them to make carrot pesto.

Here is a link to my go-to Summer Pesto recipe. You are going to want to keep it on speed dial as soon as fresh local tomatoes come to market. Use it as a blueprint to make all sorts of pesto all year long. Swap out the basil for any other herb or the carrot tops and swap out the pine nuts for pistachios, walnuts, almonds or cashews.