How to Cook Clementine Carrots: Jamie Oliver’s 10-Minute Holiday Side

This is the method from Jamie’s recipe, which serves 8:
Carrots: 1 kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of baby carrots, scrubbed and trimmed
Citrus: 1 clementine, or an orange
Oil: 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, plus a little to finish
Cooking: 5 minutes covered over medium heat, then 5 more
Time: about 10 minutes, hands-on and total

Put the carrots in the pan and cover them with boiling salted water. Squeeze in the clementine juice and drop the squeezed skins in too, for extra flavor. Add the olive oil, put the lid on and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, then leave them 5 minutes more. Move the carrots to a serving bowl or platter, season with sea salt and black pepper, and finish with a little more olive oil.

The recipe lists no sugar, honey or butter. The sweetness comes from the clementine and from the carrots themselves, and the citrus adds a bright, slightly sharp edge to a side dish that sits next to rich roasts. The squeezed clementine skins go into the pan as well, so some of the flavor comes from the peel. You can swap in an orange if you do not have a clementine.

Not in the sticky sense. The written steps cook the carrots in boiling salted water under a lid and finish them with sea salt, black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil, with no sugar and no step that reduces the liquid. If you want a sticky glaze of butter and sugar or honey, that is a different method from the one this recipe teaches. What you get here is tender, bright, lightly citrus carrots in about 10 minutes.

The recipe uses small baby carrots and gives 5 minutes plus 5 minutes, so treat that as a guide for carrots of that size. Larger or thicker carrots take longer, and carrots of mixed sizes cook unevenly, so cut them to match. Test one with the tip of a knife: it should slide in easily while the carrot still holds its shape. Cooking for a short time keeps their color and a little bite, which is the opposite of the soft, watery carrots people dread.

These carrots are built for a roast dinner, and the lesson sets them next to roast beef, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. They also sit well beside any roast with a rich sauce, since the citrus cuts through it. The same lesson has a steamed vegetable stack that starts with the carrots in the bottom pan: once they have cooked for 5 minutes, peas go in the second layer and trimmed broccoli on top. For more side dishes that suit a holiday table, see our roundup of holiday side dishes.

They cook in about 10 minutes, so there is little reason to make them far ahead. If you need the stove free on the day, cook them until just tender, cool them, and keep them covered in the refrigerator. To serve, reheat them gently in a pan with a splash of water or juice, then season again and add the last drizzle of olive oil. To see the recipe made from start to finish, Jamie Oliver teaches his Clementine Carrots in the Jamie’s Sunday Roast lesson.