Carrots
Flavour Profile
Earthy, sweet and woody. Carrots have a high natural sugar content that intensifies when heat is applied.
They provide a reliable sweetness that balances salty and acidic ingredients.
Health Benefits
Vitamin A for good eyesight and a robust immune system. And plenty of fibre, which is always a good thing for your gut.
They're best cooked lightly to keep the crunch and the nutrients. Overcook them and you just get mush, which is no fun for anyone.
Buying Tips
Look for firm, heavy carrots with high colour saturation. If the greens are still attached, they should be bright and snappy.
Avoid any that feel bendy or have large cracks. If they look hairy, they are likely old and trying to grow.
Storage
Keep them in the fridge. If you bought them with the leafy greens attached, cut those off immediately.
The greens act like a straw, sucking the moisture out of the root and making your carrots go floppy within days. Store the roots in a container or bag to keep them crisp.
Cooking Uses
The foundation of everything. Sauté them as part of a mirepoix, roast them whole with honey, or pickle them for crunch.
They are one of the few vegetables that work just as well in a cake as they do in a stew.
Forkin Food Theory
Raw carrots are great, but cooked carrots are actually better for you.
Heat breaks down the carrot's tough cellular walls, making the nutrients much more accessible to your body.
Pairing them with a fat like butter or oil helps even more. It’s a rare win for the butter-lovers: cooking them in fat helps you absorb up to six times more beta-carotene than eating them raw.
Wild & Wonderful
Supermarket carrots are bred for shelf life and uniform size, not flavour. A carrot from a farmer's market or a vegetable box scheme often tastes like a different vegetable — sweeter, more aromatic, less watery.
Purple, yellow, and white carrots existed long before orange. The orange ones are a Dutch breeding project from the 1600s. The coloured ones taste subtly different — purples are earthier, yellows milder.
The tops are edible and taste like a cross between carrot and parsley. Use them in pesto or stocks.
A limp carrot isn't ruined. Stick it in cold water for an hour and it'll crisp back up.