Air Fryer Carrots
For a quick and easy side dish, make these air fryer carrots. They come out tender and lightly caramelized on the outside, in just 10 minutes.
I love making veggie side dishes in the air fryer and not having to heat up the oven. You can get perfectly cooked carrots that are lightly browned in 10 minutes, but if you like them even browner, you can put them in for a bit longer. Make your seasonings sweet or savory to suit your taste and pair with a variety of meals.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Video: Making Veggies In The Air Fryer
What Kind Of Carrots Should You Use?
As you can see in the photos, I used baby carrots for this. The ones you buy already peeled and in mini carrot shapes. It’s just because they are so convenient and it saves me a few minutes of prep time. I will say, make sure to dry them off before you get started because there tends to be a lot of moisture in the baby carrot bags and you don’t want to steam them.
Can you peel and cut up regular carrots? Absolutely, I just like the convenience and time saving that the baby carrots provide. Peel the carrots and cut into nice bite-sized pieces, you may want to cut the thicker end of large carrots in half so they cook evenly. Depending on the size and thickness of your carrots, you may need to adjust the cook time.
Seasonings
I kept things simple for this air fryer recipe with oil, salt, and pepper. If you want to add additional seasonings, go right ahead.
Carrots are great because you can play a lot with the flavor and make tons of variations of this easy recipe. Keep it savory with garlic powder and dried herbs or add a little spice with cumin, paprika, and cayenne. You can even enhance the sweetness like I do with our air fryer carrots with honey glaze or these brown sugar glazed carrots. (I do like using a lower heat around 360°F and cooking a little longer when going sweet so the sugars don’t burn.)
Tell me in the comments how you season this simple side dish.
Time And Temperature
I don’t find it super necessary to preheat the air fryer for this recipe, but set it to 400°F while you get the carrots ready. If it’s not completely heated in the short prep time, that’s fine. Add the seasoned carrots to the air fryer basket in as much of a single layer as you can for even cooking.
Air fry for 10 minutes. At that point, the carrots should be fully cooked and tender (use a fork to poke through one to make sure it’s soft all the way through). They’ll also be slightly browned, like in this picture:
If you want them browner, or softer, you can put them in for 5 more minutes. Then they should look like this:
Transfer the carrots from the basket of the air fryer to a serving plate. That’s it!
More Air Fryer Veggies
Browse all our air fryer recipes, or try one of these great vegetables next time.
Podcast Episode: Air Frying Carrots
Listen to our editor, Christine Pittman, explain briefly how to make these Air Fryer Carrots, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Air Fryer Carrots Recipe
- Prep Time: 1 Minute
- Cook Time: 10 Minutes
- Total Time: 11 minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
For a quick and easy side dish, make these air fryer carrots. They come out tender and lightly caramelized on the outside, in just 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. baby carrots
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
Instructions
- Start air fryer preheating to 400°F. Blot the carrots with paper towel so they’re not damp.
- Put the carrots into a medium-sized bowl. Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat.
- Put carrots into air fryer even if it isn’t fully preheated. Toss so they’re in a single layer in the basket.
- Cook for 10 minutes. At this point they will be softened all the way through and slightly browned. You can eat them now. Or put them in for another 5 minutes to get them even softer and browner.
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