No Chinese five-spice powder on hand? Here is what I learned about this ingredient while searching for a substitute. Different five-spice blends use various spices. In his video, Chef John makes jokes about his jar listing seven ingredients. The term "FIVE SPICE" actually refers to the five flavors the blend yields: sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty. A workable substitute is 1/8 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, black pepper, and anise OR fennel seeds.
Simple and delicious. I was out of olive oil so I used grapeseed oil, but I did everything else as written until the very end. The last few minutes of cooking I turned the oven to broil. I like my roasted carrots to have some slight browning in places. Be careful not to over-do it and watch carefully if you decide to broil at the end. I've walked away for a minute before and came back to ruined vegetables! The whole family loved these carrots; even the young kids! I've seen some low rated reviews based off not liking Chinese Five-Spice. For those of you who have never tried five spice, it comes in many variants but the most common mixture contains Star anise, Cloves, Cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and Fennel. It has a warm, spicy-sweet flavor and is primarily used in Chinese cuisine but also used in other Asian and Arabic cookery. *Depending on brand, some ingredients may be different and can include ginger root, nutmeg, turmeric, Amomum villosum, cardamomum, licorice, Mandarin orange peel or galangal.
I completely agree with the part about "exotic, but familiar and not too exotic". I served these as part of Easter dinner (the bunny didn't eat all of the carrots), and people ate larger portions than they ordinarily would eat of carrots. Accordingly, I suggest planning on 1 1/2 - 2 carrots pp. A nice change from my typical roasted vegetables with just salt and pepper. Thank you.
Perfect. I used olive oil.
The Five-Spice is so unique it balances out the sweetness of the carrots and gives them some depth in flavor. I purcahsed the five-spice for a pumpkin pie receipe of Chef John's - so I knew what I was dealing with in terms of flavor. Ill make these again for sure because they are a little bit different or "Jazzy" as my mom would say... but very delicious.
Hands down the best carrots I've ever eaten. Made exactly as directed. Fantastic and super easy.
Couldn't ask for anything easier & with flavor. Will be making again but with a little less oil. If you want something that will be different & taste good this is it.
The ginger in the Chinese Five-Spice is a nice compliment to the sweet soft carrots. I usually use sea salt and pepper to season but this is a nice variation. Very very good!
Sorry I hit enter too fast. I used multi-color carrots and was so happy with this dish. Everyone loved it! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
I was not a fan of this side dish. Maybe I didn't cook them long enough who knows. This was my first time using 5-spice. Maybe I don't like that?
