Carrot Fries (Ranch Seasoned!)

These carrot fries are full of big flavor, sprinkled with ranch seasoning and baked until lightly crispy! Everyone will ask for the recipe.

Good news, fry lovers: there’s a new fry in town. Carrot fries! This healthy fry recipe is full of all the nutrients of this popular vegetable: but tastes like your favorite greasy comfort food. Even better: they’re coated in ranch seasoning! This play on the standard pairing of carrots and ranch gives a savory zing to each bite. Of course, you can dip them in ranch too for double the fun. They’re baked, and there’s a little trick to give them a lightly crispy exterior. Everyone will love them! We couldn’t stop sneaking bites off the baking sheet.

Ingredients for the best carrot fries

You’ll need just a handful of ingredients for carrot fries: and most of them are the spices you’ll need of the ranch seasoning. Here’s what you’ll need to have on hand:

Carrots: medium to large carrots work best, since they’re easiest for cutting fries
Olive oil
Spices: garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill, dried parsley
Cornstarch
Salt

How to cut carrots into fries

The hardest part of this recipe is actually cutting the carrots into fries! How to get those perfect rectangle fry shapes? Well, it’s similar to the steps for cutting fries out of a potato. Here’s what to do:

Slice off the ends of the carrot.
Square off each of the sides of the carrot to make a rectangular box shape.
Cut into 3/8-inch wide slices, then cut each slice into strips.

The tricks to crispy baked carrot fries

Here’s the thing. When you bake carrots, they turn out beautifully tender: like with these Roasted Carrots. But that’s not what you want with fries! We don’t have a deep fryer and typically don’t like frying at home (it’s messy and not worth the effort). So we’ve found a few tricks to making lightly crispy baked carrot fries! They don’t come out crunchy like they would in a deep fryer, but they’re lightly crisp and totally satisfying. Here’s what to know:

Coat in cornstarch. Cornstarch helps to form a crispy coating for the carrots, which can turn soggy and tender in the oven.
Place on parchment paper. Don’t use a Silpat or silicon baking sheet, which can make for soggy fries! Paper is the way to go.
Spread apart on the baking sheet. Spread the fries as far apart on the baking sheet as possible: this allows for maximum airflow and enhances crispiness. Bake a maximum of 2 pounds of carrots in the oven at once.

Are these healthy fries?

We think so! These healthy carrot fries are part of a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet. Here’s why these fries pale in comparison to those from your favorite fast food chain:

The ingredients are just carrots, minimal olive oil and a bit of salt. These are all healthy, whole food ingredients. They’re basically baked carrots!
They have all the nutrients of carrots. Scroll down for more on that.
The serving size is moderate. The serving size is much less than a restaurant would serve, so that helps to keep the calories down.

Carrots nutrition

Carrot are one of the best vegetables you can eat! They’re not just good for your eyesight. Here are some of the top nutritional benefits of this tasty orange veggie (source):

Low in calories, high in fiber: One cup of chopped carrots has only 52 calories and 3.6 grams of fiber. (source)
Packed with Vitamin A (beta carotene): This root veggie has 428% of your daily vitamin A in 1 cup! It’s present as beta-carotene, an antioxidant that could help in cancer prevention. Your body converts beta carotene into Vitamin A.
High in Vitamins C, K and potassium: Carrot are also are high in these vitamins.

Yes, all these good things are present in a recipe of carrot fries! So why not give them a taste?

Dipping sauces for carrot fries

These carrot fries are delicious on their own, as an easy healthy side dish for dinner. But of course you can spice them up with a dipping sauce! Here are a few we’d recommend:

Homemade Ranch Dressing This creamy ranch dressing is lower calorie than most and full of big flavor. A fan favorite!
Cilantro Lime Ranch Or try this cilantro spin on ranch! Cilantro and carrots are in the same plant family, so they go well together.
Creamy Cilantro Dressing or Creamy Cilantro Sauce (vegan) These creamy green sauces pair beautifully with these fries.

Serving these fries

These carrot fries are a fantastic healthy side dish to complete a meal. They’d be perfect with all sorts of dinner ideas — here are a few of our top choices:

Falafel Burger or Ultimate Falafel Sandwich Insanely good and bursting with Mediterranean flavor! An epic vegetarian or vegan dinner.
Best Chickpea Burgers A hugely satisfying plant-based dinner! Painted with BBQ and served topped with vegan bacon and spicy mayo.
Egg Salad Sandwich or Tuna Salad Sandwich Make these classic deli recipes shine with a unique fry.
Jackfruit BBQ Sandwich This jackfruit BBQ sandwich tastes just like pulled pork, nestled on a bun with tangy coleslaw.

This carrot fries recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.