This Roasted Carrot & Honey Feta Salad is a surprisingly filling and delicious vegetarian salad that is a must try! Warm honey baked feta and rosemary carrots are paired with dried cranberries and pepitas for a perfectly healthy and satisfying dinner recipe or side dish.
Roasted Carrot Salad
Oven Roasted Carrots are one of my favorite vegetables as an adult. They are so incredibly versatile with the natural sweetness that comes out in roasting. The tender insides with the savory caramelized edges are perfection!
Roasted carrots are one of my go-to side veggies, but I recently tried them on this Roasted Carrot Salad and it made for a surprisingly filling and delicious green salad.
This salad with amazing fall flavors would be a great dinner salad or the perfect side dish for the holidays.
Feta Salad Recipe
Roasted carrots in a salad have almost a meaty texture that is a great alternative to other proteins. It is satisfying and delicious all at the same time. For this roasted carrot salad, we paired them with warm honey baked feta.
Baking this salty cheese with sweet honey is one of my favorite ways to enjoy feta. It’s another great way to add substance to a vegetarian salad, much like in this Baked Honey Feta & Brown Rice Squash Salad.
Baked Feta Salad
Most people are familiar with crumbling feta on salads like this Asparagus, Feta Quinoa Salad or in dips like this Cucumber Feta Greek Yogurt Dip. Recently there was a huge trend on social media, called the TikTok pasta, that opened people’s eyes to see how amazing feta is when baked into a soft tender cheese.
What other cheese can I use?
If you just aren’t a big fan of feta, or perhaps you are having a hard time finding a whole block of feta at your grocery store, you can use other soft cheeses in it’s place. Or if you want to use feta but don’t want to turn on your oven, by all means just sprinkle some fresh feta on the salad with some leftover roasted carrots.
For an alternative, my go-to soft cheese is always goat cheese, so that is my first recommendation. If you really want to kick up the flavors, you could even use Gorgonzola for a more pungent flavor.
Roasting Whole Carrots
I came got my hands on these adorable Minnie carrots that were absolutely perfect for roasting on a salad. They fit the salad bowl perfectly and more importantly, looked really cute! If you don’t have access to this smaller sized carrot, just go ahead and halve or quarter larger whole carrots and you are good to go.
What dressing to serve with roasted carrot salad
With the roasted carrots, pepitas and baked feta, you don’t need a heavy dressing. You can add some additional flavor to the salad with a nice vinaigrette, like this sumac dressing.
Plenty of vinaigrettes will work great on this salad, but just keep it light and fresh. Here are a few of my favorite homemade and store bought options,
- Light Honey Dijon Vinaigrette
- Citrus Poppy Seed Dressing
- Light Orange Ginger Vinaigrette
- Marzetti Simply Dressed Lemon Salad Dressing – found in the refrigerated section
More amazing roasted carrot recipes!
If you love a good roasted carrot recipe as much as I do, be sure to check out some more of these unique recipes for one of the best vegetables!
- Air Fryer Carrot Fries – Slice up your carrots into French fry shapes and they are the perfect easy veggie side for any lunch.
- Honey Roasted Beets & Carrots – This side dish is a colorful and delicious addition to any holiday or dinner table.
- Dukkah Spiced Chicken with Honey Roasted Carrots – A crusted Middle Eastern chicken with carrots makes for a healthy and flavorful dinner.
- Roasted Brown Butter Carrots – Nutty browned butter is a wonderful flavor addition to just about anything and roasted carrots are no exception!
Roasted Carrot & Honey Feta Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
Roasted Carrots
- 1 pound carrots peeled & halved
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch of black pepper
Baked Honey Feta
- 6 ounces feta
- 1 Tablespoon honey
Salad
- 6 cups mixed greens
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup roasted pepitas
- 1/2 cup citrus vinaigrette
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Add the peeled carrots to a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Roast carrots for 20 minutes.
- Carefully remove the pan from the oven and add the feta and drizzle with honey. Return to the oven and bake at 400°F for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.*
- Divide the mixed greens, cranberries and pepitas between two bowls. Toss with salad dressing.
- Top each salad with half of the honey feta and roasted carrots. Enjoy immediately!
Julie says
I was looking for a salad with a new flavor profile and this was just what I was looking for. Mouthwatering! A new fave.
Coleen says
The roasted carrots paired with honey and feta were so delicious. Can’t wait to make it again.
Alison says
The honey & feta is so yummy! Love this as a winter salad for the cold, dreary months.