Carrots
Daucus carota subsp. sativa
Similar veggies:
Beetroots
A quick introduction
Carrots are a bright orange root vegetable that we grow from spring to fall. Carrots are classically cone shaped and elongated, but they can get quite knobby, branching, or twisted when growing in our heavy clay soil. We start the season with very small carrots harvested from the greenhouse (see the separate page for Parisian market carrots) and end the season with bigger storage carrots. The greens are edible and make for nice pestos and salsas. Raw carrots are crunchy, sweet, and refreshing, but they also are delicious when cooked.
Storage
Stores for quite a few days in the vegetable drawer of the fridge.
Season
Spring to winter
Suggestions for preparation
Carrots with thicker peels (winter carrots) are best peeled, smaller ones can be eaten just as is. If the carrot tops are still attached, do not throw them away. Instead, use them to make pestos and salsas.
Carrots can be chopped, diced, minced, grated, julienned or cut in any way you want, and can then be eaten raw (for example, served with humus) or added to stews and sauces. Carrots are used along with onions and celery as a base flavour for Italian sauces such as a ragout. They can also be roasted or grilled for a great veggie side dish, or grated and used in salads, dips, and cakes!
Recipes
Use carrots along with other veggies in this warming Minestrone soup. If you have some carrot tops on your hands, try this delicious carrot top pesto recipe or this chimichurri! Here is a nice recipe for a green sauce by our own Stadsgroenteboer Milo that’s somewhere between a chimichurri and a salsa verde.
A tip from one of our members: “I usually use carrots in a stew or tagine. For the tagine I use onion, ginger, garlic, red pepper as a base. Let it sauté and add a tablespoon of tomato puree (or harissa). After a few minutes, add vegetable or chicken stock and vegetables of your choice. Add Baharat, ras el hanout, cumin, coriander, paprika powder to taste (sauté these herbs for a minute or two when you add the harissa, before adding the stock). Let it simmer on low heat for at least 45 minutes. 10 minutes before the end you can add preserved lemon and or green olives.”
