This is a combination of three simple things that come together into a devilishly delicious dish: maple roast carrots with a subtle hit of spice, crispy seasoned chickpeas and a cooling, creamy garlic yogurt sauce. Substantial, impressive side or meat-free meal!

Spicy maple roast carrots with crispy chickpeas and yogurt sauce

I love dishes like this. Take nice-but-nothing-spectacular things. In today’s case, spicy maple roasted carrots (3 ingredients), crispy chickpeas (crack a can) and a yogurt sauce.

Individually – fine.

Together – INCREDIBLE!

The thing here that makes this so special is the contrast of flavours and textures. Sweet and spicy from the carrots. Crunchy and savoury from the chickpeas. Creamy and cooling from the lemony garlic yogurt sauce.

It is so, so, SO very good!

I also think you’ll appreciate the convenience of the making process. Both the carrots and chickpeas cook in the oven at the same time, taking around 30 minutes for the carrots to become caramelised and tender, and the chickpeas crispy and clattering across the tray.

You do big swirly smears of the yogurt sauce on a platter, pile the glistening carrots on top and shower with the crunchy chickpeas, stand back and you immediately know you’ve just made something moreishly delicious!

How much do you wish that spoon was heading towards your mouth right now??

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make these loaded spicy maple roast carrots. Actually not that much! I’ve just broken it up into groups for ease of reading.

Carrot options

I like the visuals of dutch carrots but you can use ordinary carrots instead. Just cut them in quarters or half lengthwise so they are around the same width as dutch carrots.

Spicy maple sauce for roasting

Just sriracha (for spiciness and vinegar) and maple syrup. You can use honey instead, though I really love the flavour maple brings to this dish.

Crispy roasted chickpeas

Just a can of chickpeas and a simple seasoning adds great crunch and extra fun to this dish! It also adds starch which turns it into meal-territory.

lemon garlic yogurt sauce

Here’s what you need for the yogurt sauce. This is a simple, powerhouse sauce that’s incredibly versatile that I use frequently, from Chicken Shawarma wraps to draping over roasted pumpkin, koftas to lamb borek. Use a good Greek or Greek-style yogurt if you can, else any plain yogurt (not sweetened or flavoured).

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How to make it

Toss and roast. That’s really all it takes! The chickpeas and spicy maple roast carrots will both take around 30 minutes in the oven so we can do them both at the same time.

1. Dry roast plain chickpeas – Drain the chickpeas, spread them out on a tray then roast for 10 minutes. After many years of baking chickpeas, I can definitely say this makes oven baked chickpeas crispier than if you air dry or dry them with tea towels, not to mention faster and more convenient!
2. Season – Then toss the chickpeas with the oil, salt, pepper and seasonings. I just do this on the tray – if you’d got a rubber spatula, you can scrape-and-toss pretty effectively just straight on the tray.

3. Roast – Then roast the chickpeas for a further 20 to 25 minutes until they are crispy. You’ll know just by shaking the tray when they’re ready as they will clatter noisily around on the tray.
4. Toss the carrots in the sriracha, maple syrup, salt, pepper and oil.

5. Roast 30 minutes – Spread on the tray then bake for 30 minutes until the carrots are tender and they are a bit caramelised.
6. Yogurt sauce – Mix the ingredients until combined.

7. Extra sauce (optional) – I also like to mix up just a splash of plain maple and sriracha to pour over as extra sauce. Mainly for extra sauce, because the sauce used to roast the carrots is caramelised onto the carrots as we want, rather than remaining in a pool on the tray, and I like the fresh vinegary hit that the sriracha brings to the dish. But it’s optional!
8. Assemble – Then to assemble, spread the yogurt sauce on a plate. Pile on the carrots, including scraping out any juice left on the tray. Pour over the extra maple-sriracha sauce, then tumble over the chickpeas. Sprinkle with coriander (and pistachios as an optional extra, if using) then serve immediately!

How to serve these loaded spicy maple roast carrots

Think beyond the side dish!

1. As a meal – Hand on heart, what you see in the photos was my lunch then dinner (I was stuffing carrots in warmed pita breads)
2. Salad lunch spread* with friends – This clunky titled concept is something I like to especially do for lunch gatherings with friends. I put out a selection of what I call “substantial salads” (ie not just a bowl of leafy greens), crusty bread, and usually some crudités with hummus or feta dip. This dish is definitely going to make my next salad lunch spread!

   I like doing these salad spreads because it’s something different, people alway like a selection of dishes, I choose salads that can be prepared ahead and it’s usually an easy way to deal with the inevitable presence of someone gluten-free, vegetarian and/or “trying to be healthy”.

3. As a side dish. Yes, I had to list it! And definitely an occasion-worthy side dish.

There you go! I’d love to know what you think of this dish. I always get a touch nervous with recipes I just invent on a whim, usually when I get inspired when I see a particular ingredient on special (in this case, dutch carrots!)