Carrot and Sweet Potato Bake is a comforting vegetable dish meant for chilly fall and biting winter evenings. The two vegetables mingle in a baking pan alongside some sweet additions, making a dish that eats like a dessert.

This bake comes with a long history, dating from the Middle Ages up to the present day. Made primarily by the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe, a tzimmes (sometimes written as tsimmes) was either a dish baked in an oven or stewed over a fire. The mixture of vegetables always varied, but it would almost always be cooked with schmaltz and a sweetener (honey or sugar) for Rosh Hashanah as a sweet dish used to symbolize good luck.

Here, this modern version with carrots and sweet potatoes is a great combination that encapsulates the warm colors and flavors of autumn and the holiday. All of the ingredients get mixed in the baking pan and get slowly roasted in the oven until tender. Butter then gets added and the vegetables roast uncovered until golden, as you toss the vegetables together, the softened prunes coat the carrots and sweet potatoes like a sauce. If you don’t want that sort of sauce, you can substitute the prunes for raisins.

Served warm, this recipe for Carrot and Sweet Potato Bake is a fantastic way to cheer in the chillier nights and start using your oven again!

The carrots and sweet potatoes are wonderfully tender and coated in a sweet sauce of prunes, cinnamon, and brown sugar. The orange juice adds sweetness, but also a bit of acidity to balance everything out.

This side is like the cousin of our holiday classic sweet potato casserole but requires no fussy mashing. All of the seasons represent those wonderfully warm and fragrant notes of the cooler time of the year. Carrot and Sweet Potato Bake is a great companion to roasted chicken or roast beef, as it contrasts the salty and savory elements of the meats. This might become your new favorite side dish to outshine your steady classics!