Air Fryer Carrot Fries

Air Fryer Carrot Fries are the perfect healthy alternative to potato french fries! They're crispy, tender, and made perfectly golden brown in minutes in the air fryer. Enjoy them as a quick side dish with Chicken Patties or BBQ Pulled Chicken or serve alone as a kid-friendly, healthy snack.

Jump to:

• 📋 About the Recipe
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 🥕 How to Cut Carrots Into Fries
• 📓 Instructions
• ⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
• ❄️ How to Store
• 🔍 FAQs
• 💭 One More Tip
• 🍴 Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

📋 About the Recipe

• Healthy: Carrot fries are an amazing substitute for potato french fries. Plus, making them in the air fryer requires a fraction of the amount of oil in comparison to traditional deep fried french fries.
• Quick: All you need for homemade carrot fries is 25 minutes start to finish. They're quick enough to throw together as a side dish on weeknights, just like this sautéed butternut squash.
• Kid-friendly: If your kids already love sweet potato fries or my Air Fryer Green Bean Fries, they will love these carrot fries! A great way to add an extra serving of vegetables into their diet.
• Customizable: Change up the spice combination and make these carrot fries your own.

🛒 Ingredients

A few notes about the ingredients:

1. carrots - Using large carrots is best here, as they are easiest to cut into uniform thickness. Their natural sweetness is very similar to sweet potato, but they're much lower in calories and carbohydrates, making them a great, light side dish.
2. parmesan - Parmesan not only boosts the flavor of these carrot fries, but when it melts in during cooking, it helps the seasonings stick to the fries.
3. olive oil - Although using an air fryer allows us to generously cut down on the amount of oil used in "frying" these carrot fries, it is still necessary to use a small amount. Oil not only helps the spices stick, but it also helps the carrots evenly brown and crisp.
4. spices - I like the simple combination of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper, but feel free to use what you have on hand.

🥕 How to Cut Carrots Into Fries

1. Use large carrots! The easiest way to cut carrots into fries is to first and foremost, use large, thick carrots. Using small carrots or carrots that significantly taper at the end are going to be difficult to cut uniformly.
2. Cut the carrots in half width-wise, separating the top of the carrot from the bottom. This is going to create two shorter pieces to work with, which will be easier to cut.
3. Cut each half in half lengthwise, ending with 4 total pieces.
4. Then cut each carrot fourth in half again length-wise, resulting in 8 pieces. Make sure to place the cut side of the carrot down on the cutting board for stability.

5. From here, cut the carrot pieces into uniform "fries." Depending on the size of your carrots, you may be able stop here. However, if your carrots are thicker, you may want to cut them down again. You're looking for a steak-cut thickness, so they don't become too soft in the air fryer.
6. Try to cut all carrots as similarly as possible. If some carrots are significantly thicker than others, it is going to take them much longer to cook through, resulting in an uneven bake.

📓 Instructions

1. Add the freshly cut carrots to a large mixing bowl and season with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, pepper, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Drizzle with oil, then toss to coat.
2. Transfer the carrots to the air fryer basket. Be sure to leave space between carrots - overcrowding them will prevent them from crisping properly. Depending on the size of your appliance, you may need to "fry" your carrot fries in multiple batches.

3. Air fry the carrots at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, or until golden and crispy.
4. Repeat with remaining carrots until all carrots are air fried.

5. Serve carrot fries immediately while warm with a side of pesto aioli and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese over top.

⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations

• Switch up the spices: I use a very neutral flavored spice mix to season these carrot fries. If you would like more bold flavors, try using chili powder, Old Bay's seasoning, or smoked paprika. You can also keep it extremely simple and just use salt and pepper.
• Use any neutral oil: I like to use olive oil, but any neutral oil like avocado oil will do.

Not a fan of pesto? Try these dipping sauces instead!

• Pomegranate BBQ Sauce
• Marinara Dipping Sauce
• Homemade Ranch

❄️ How to Store

To store: For optimal flavor and crispness, eating these carrot fries while fresh is highly recommended. As with any french fry, storing them will make them wilted and soggy. With this in mind, you can store them in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

To reheat: Reheat any leftovers until warm in the air fryer. Note that again, this is not optimal and they will not get as crispy as the first time around. I prefer to eat any leftovers at room temperature.

To freeze: Freezing these carrot fries is not recommended.

🔍 FAQs

💭 One More Tip

• Cut the carrots thicker than your typical french fry to prevent them from burning or becoming too soft. A thicker-cut fry will allow the carrot to hold its shape after cooking, think steak-cut fries rather than shoestring.

🍴 Related Recipes

Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!

📖 Recipe

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