This is how JB makes Glazed Carrots, the French way – carrot coins gently cooked in water, butter, salt and just a small amount of sugar until it reduces down into a glaze. Called Carottes Vichy or Carottes Glacées, it’s simple, elegant and far less sugary than the usual glazed carrots!
French Glazed Carrots – Carottes Vichy
Another day, another French cooking lesson from JB! Today it’s a simple glazed carrot dish called Carottes Vichy, named after the French spa town of Vichy which is famous for its mineral-rich water which was traditionally used to cook the carrots. JB tells me is one of the first things he learnt at Chef school because it’s such a French classic, served everywhere from bistros to fine dining restaurants and also made in homes.
It’s made by gently cooking sliced carrot rounds with water, butter, a small amount of sugar and salt until the carrots are tender and the liquid reduces to become a shiny buttery glaze. They are far less sweet than the usual glazed carrots which use considerably more sugar or honey, it’s more delicate and more elegant.
I especially like that the carrots aren’t boiled then drained so all that lovely carrot flavour stays in the pan, concentrated into the buttery glaze rather than tipped down the sink!
What you need to make French Glazed Carrots (Carottes Vichy)
Here’s what you need to make these carrots. Both JB and I agree that if there’s one vegetable worth buying organic, it’s carrots. They’re usually not that much more expensive, but the flavour is noticeably better – sweeter, more carroty and just so much nicer!
Carrots – 800 g / 1.75 lb of carrots which we will peel and slice into rounds.
Sugar – Just 4 teaspoons, a fraction of the amount usually used which is usually closer to 1/4 cup for the same amount of carrots!
Butter – This is a French recipe. You really didn’t expect to see olive oil here, did you?? (Though, you can if you want. 🙂 Shhh!! Don’t tell JB I told you that!)
Salt – We use cooking salt / kosher salt, so if you’re using table salt (which is much finer), use half the amount. If you’re using flakes (which are lighter – and more expensive!), increase the amount listed by 50%.
Water – To gently braise the carrots.
How to make French Glazed Carrots (Carottes Vichy)
I’m going to use the fancy-sounding word “cartouche” in these steps, but it’s just a piece of paper placed over the simmering carrots that helps them cook gently and evenly, and works better than a lid. But if, for whatever reason, you’re wildly opposed to spending the 27 seconds it takes to cut one, you can use a lid instead – but the carrots take about 10 minutes longer and don’t cook quite as evenly. (Yep, we tried. We had to know!) 🙂
Cut cartouche – This is just a round piece of paper cut to fit in the pan and sit directly on top of the carrots. It traps steam right against the carrots so they cook quickly and evenly, while allow just enough liquid to evaporate so the liquid reduces down into a glaze.
To make a cartouche (27 seconds!) – Tear off a sheet of baking paper slightly larger than the size of the pan. Fold it in half diagonally, then in half again, and keep folding to make a long pointy triangle. Hold the point over the centre of the pan, snip the paper where it reaches the edge, then unfold – voilà! A circle that fits neatly in the pan! (PS This is how I line cake pans too!). It doesn’t need to be a perfect circle, it just needs to cover the surface of the liquid and carrots.
Slice carrots – Peel then slice the carrots into 6mm / 0.2″ rounds. (Use the carrot peel for vegetable stock!)
Bring carrots to simmer – Place a large, 30cm / 12″ deep pan over medium high heat. Add water, butter, sugar, salt and bring it to a boil. Add the sliced carrots, stir well and turn the heat down to a simmer on medium heat.
Cartouche – Place the cartouche on top so it’s touching the liquid and carrots.
Simmer for 15 minutes or until all the water has evaporated and you’re left with a shiny glaze coating on the carrots. The carrots should be very soft (handle gently!) and they should not be browned.
Parsley – Remove the cartouche, add the parsley and gently stir until the carrots are coated in the butter glaze.
Serve – Gently pour into a serving bowl and serve!
How to serve French Glazed Carrots (Carottes Vichy)
Without a word of a lie, I had a giant bowl of these glazed carrots for lunch. They are so good. Not so sweet that you feel like you’re eating candy, but just sweet enough to feel special, and so delicately tender they almost melt in your mouth.
But if you’re a normal person looking for ideas on what to serve them with, they’re a natural side for roast chicken (try JB’s French Roast Chicken!), steak, pork chops or fish. They’re also a handy stovetop side dish when the main is hogging the oven – think Crackling Pork Roast, Prime Rib or Beef Tenderloin.
Really, anywhere you’d ordinarily serve carrots, these will do the job – just with a little more French flair. I’m thoroughly besotted with them! Thanks for another great recipe, JB. – Nagi x
Watch How To Make It
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French Glazed Carrots (Carottes Vichy)
Ingredients
- 800g / 1.75 lb carrots , peeled and sliced into 6mm / 0.2" rounds
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp / 30g unsalted butter
- 4 tsp white sugar
- 3/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt , (half for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- 2 tsp finely chopped parsley
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE
- Bring water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Add carrots, cover with cartouche, simmer 15 min or until water has evaporated. Stir through parsley and serve.
FULL RECIPE
- Cut a cartouche – Cut a round piece of baking paper (parchment paper) big enough to cover the surface of a large 30cm / 12″ pan. See Note 1 for a 30 second way to do this.
- Bring the liquid to a simmer – Place a large, 30cm / 12″ deep pan over medium high heat. Add water, butter, sugar, salt and bring it to a simmer. Simmer until the sugar is dissolved – about 30 seconds.
- Carrots – Add the sliced carrots, stir well and turn the heat down to a simmer on medium heat. They should sit semi-submerged in the liquid rather than fully covered..
- Cover and cook – Place the cartouche on top so it touches the carrots. Cook for 15 minutes without stirring or removing the cartouche, or until all the water has evaporated. By the end, the carrots should be very soft all the way through and with a bright orange colour and no browning, and the liquid should reduced down to a syrupy glaze, just enough for a thin shiny coating. If the carrots are a little firm, add a little more water, cover with cartouche again and keep cooking.
- Finish – Remove from the stove, remove the cartouche, add the parsley and stir very gently until the carrots are coated in the butter glaze. Go easy on the stirring, the carrots can break apart if handled roughly.
- Serve – Transfer into a bowl and serve warm!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life Of Jaffle
Jaffle is still in training for the coveted role of Chief Taste Tester, his inexperience apparent when he demolished entire raw kale leaves while Dozer looked down in horror from the Big Sky Kitchen.
Today was a test to see how far he’s come – raw carrots (left) vs French Glazed Carrots (right).
He devoured the glazed carrots, then look down at the raw carrots with disdain…… *Dozer gives a nod of approval from above*
……then promptly proceeded to devour the raw carrots too.
Showing promise, but not quite there. 🥰
Thankyou JB for another recipe of simple, pared back focus on the quality of the ingredient, rather than masking everything in too many additives .
An old phrase reverberates form my childhood:
“an elegant sufficiency”
Thank you Penelope! Yes that’s exactly what we did here 🙂
Love this recipe. I substituted 1/4 cup of orange juice for part of water. Yummy! 🇨🇦
Thank Jancy, glad you loved it!
I am trying the French Glazed carrots and Lemon delicious Pudding tonight. Fingers crossed!
So how did you go Deirdre!!??
Hi JB. Well the pudding was just FANTASTIC! So easy and so delicious.
I will be trying the carrots again, as I didn’t get the liquid to completely evaporate before they were cooked. But they were still delicious, just not fully glazed.
Loving your recipes!
Great to finally have a recipe for something I’ve been attempting for years 😊 I had time, so I didn’t use a cartouche. Replaced the sugar with honey. Turned out perfectly!
Amazing! Thanks Kathy!
These are such an easy, quick and delicious side dish! Minimal prep, clean up and you have amazing glazed Carrots done in 20 mins. Didn’t have any parsley but perfect without it!
So good to hear Meg! Thank you!
YUM!!
😊😊😊
Thank you! I just got back from Nice, where we landed at 9pm due to flight delays (of course), STARVING. Dropped the bags, found a local rotisserie joint, ordered half a bird with ratatouille and this as sides! I wasn’t expecting sweet, tender, cold carrots, but it was a delight as we ate under the moonlight.
Came home, thought of it, googled for a recipe, and voila, of course, it’s from Recipetineats.
I thought I detected a hint of green cardamom in the carrots, but it could just be the wonderful earthy sweetness from french produce. Will give this recipe a go!
What a lovely story Mich! A simple rotisserie chicken with ratatouille and carrots, it sounds so good! Thank you!
Thank you for this great recipe. I love how the butter mixed with the water gives every carrot coin that great flavor without it being greasy. Our new go to for carrots.
Thank you for your kind comment Jacquie!
Thanks for this great, simple recipe. We had this last night with a nice charred steak, roast potatoes and pumpkin and they just rounded everything out nicely. Not too sweet, but fresh and tasty! Of course now I can’t stop saying cartouche… I’m all cartouche this, cartouche that!
Haha, that’s a great new word to learn! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Drew!
Can’t wait to try this they look absolutely delicious. Thank you JB for sharing this dish and technique with us.
You are most welcome! Thanks Sharon 😊
My mum used to use honey on her carrots. Could you swap out the sugar for honey?
Hi Leah, yes you totally can.
Beautiful 🥕
Je vais l’essayer
Merci Chef JB
Funny Jaffle 🐾😊
Thanks Lesley!!
I loved the carrot post you did with Jaffle. Dozer is most definitely “looking down” with his approval !
We know he is! ♥️
Thank you for this JB – such a lovely simple recipe – the carrots are cooking on the stovetop as i write!
Perfect Claire! How was it??
Hi JB, I cooked your super tasty carrots tonight. I thought I was making enough for left-overs… but that of course didn’t happen with two hungry men in the house and I had heaps too! I have a suggestion and wonder what the massive crowd of followers of you and of Nagi would think of a suggestion box on your site? You both have brilliant skills in the kitchen and since becoming a devout follower I’ve learned such a lot and tried flavours I’ve never found before. So you’ve widened my repertoire hugely. But I can’t ever manage to cook a 15 minute meal in 15 minutes no matter how fast I belt around the kitchen. The carrots tonight took 35 minutes. In the end I took off the cartouche and turned the heat up quite a lot. Maybe loads of people can’t get things done as quickly as you both do. I bet you have so many tricks up your sleeves. Maybe using different products we haven’t thought of. So I’d put in the suggestion box… Please share your tricks to speed us up? There would be loads of suggestion coming from all over the world which could lead to a heap of fun for all of us. Thanks for GREAT carrots, Dianne.
We are the same with timing. I put it down to usually cooking greater quantities (noone ever tells you how long it takes when you increase the volume – I’m usually doubling, and they don’t always work out the same as the core recipe). PS. There’s a Facebook page called Recipe Tin Eats Appreciation. It’s a great community of would be chefs. Even Nagi is on it.
Hi Dianne! Sounds like you’ll need to double the recipe next time! Thanks for your lovely suggestion. Sharing more kitchen tips is a great idea! Cooking times can vary, and removing the cartouche and increasing the heat was a good move. So glad you enjoyed the carrots!
It’s so lovely to have a brand new baby in the house. Jaffle will have the best life and be loved by everyone who meets him. Have fun, Dianne
Ohhhh I’m definitely having this with that chicken schnitzel from the other day!!
Thank you team, these sound soooo good!
I hope you liked it! Thanks Lizzie!
Your website is usually one of the top 3 I turn to for recipes. Clear, concise, easy to follow your directions. Nice photos. Thank you for your hard work. These websites don’t happen by wishing them to appear.
Thank you for your kind words Franklin, we really appreciate them 🙂
Delicious, made them for dinner tonight with pork spare ribs – I’ll will forever think differently of carrots now!
Perfect! Thank you Lyn!
Delicious and easy once you have cut all the carrots
Thanks Patrice 🙂