Cooking With Carrots Recipe: Seven Delicious Meals!
If you enjoy a great meal, you will love cooking with carrots recipe. Each of these recipes provide seven tasty meals that you can enjoy using the carrots you have grown in your garden.
But first, we need to collect our carrots, so here are eight ways to harvest carrots.
How to store carrots in the fridge
In the fridge, carrots keep for several months.
Just wash, pat them dry and store them in containers or bags with some holes added.
For long-term storage, hand-pull the carrots from the soil, but don't wash them. Twist or cut off the green tops and compost them.
Layer undamaged roots with sand, dry soil, or a 50:50 combination of sand and (low sap) wood shavings -- like the kind used in hamster cages.
Make sure the carrots aren't touching each other and keep them in a cool, dark place.
Dried and frozen carrots
Dried carrots store well and reconstitute nicely for use in breads, salads, and soups. To dry raw carrots: Slice washed, tender carrots 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick or coarsely shred or grate them. Toss with some lemon juice. Arrange on dryer racks and dry until crisp.
To dry cooked carrots (which keep their color better): Select crisp, tender carrots. Trim the green tops, leaving a 1/2-inch tip. Steam until cooked through, but not mushy -- about 20 minutes, depending on size. Trim off the tails, the crowns, and the green tops. Slice 1/8-inch thick or shred. Dry until crisp. Cool and store.
Frozen carrots are one of my favorite ways to store them. Slice fresh and washed carrots into 1/4 to 1/2-inch slices. Steam them until they are still a little solid when poked with a fork. Not quite tender. Then plunge them into cold water. Store them in quart-size, zip-lock, freezer bags, squeezing out as much air as possible. Or vacuum seal them.
Bring out a bag of carrots on a cold, blustery day and steam them up. Serve as a side dish, in rice or mash and add them to a cake recipe, muffins, pancakes, etc. Their sweet flavor and bright color will cheer up your world.
You can juice your carrots to create a tasty treat
The foundation for juiced recipes, carrot juice mixes well with many fruits and can be added to soups, salad dressings, and muffins.
Follow these three steps to juice carrots in a blender:
- Add all the ingredients you've chosen to a blender. Use ½ cup water to get things to blend, but not so much to water down the juice.
- Blend on high until pureed and smooth. It will look like a thick smoothie at this point.
- Strain the contents of your blender! Don't forget to strain the juice through a fine mesh sieve. You can also use a cheesecloth and squeeze it to strain out the juice. Discard the pulp, or see below for some uses.
How to make jewelery with carrots
Create a designer necklace from carrot beads. It's fun!
Saks Fifth Avenue may never carry these 14-karat beauties, but here's your chance to make a vegetable fashion statement. Wash a few carrots and cut them into 1/4-inch round slices.
Thread a heavy duty needle with dental floss and slip the slices onto the floss by pushing the needle through the core. Once you've strung enough carrots, tie the ends together to form a necklace.
Lay it on paper in a dark, well-ventilated place, making sure the slices don't touch each other. As they dry, they turn into wrinkled beads. Drying takes a couple weeks.
• • • Cooking with Carrots Recipe - Seven Top Tasting Treats • • •
Go beyond carrot cake with these cooking with carrots recipes
Will Rogers once said, "Some guy invented Vitamin A out of a carrot. I'll bet he can't invent a good meal out of one." If Will had only sampled some of the following recipes!
Since carrots pack such a healthy dose of goodness and fuse with so many different recipes, their highest calling might be as nutritional undercover agents.
It's a great -- and sneaky -- way to get more healthy food into your diet.
RECIPE ONE - Carrot Marmalade
6 medium-sized carrots
2 lemons
2 large oranges (preferably Valencias or another tasty variety)
3 quarts water
8 cups sugar
Wash lemons and oranges and cut into quarters. Remove any seeds. Soak the fruit chunks in the 3 quarts of water for 24 hours. Remove the fruit (sae the water) and run through a food processor or cut into very small shreds.
Wash, peel, and grate the carrots. Add fruit and shredded carrots to the water in which the lemons and oranges were soaked. Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Add the sugar and boil the marmalade until the juice reaches the jelly stage (8 degrees above the boiling point of water).
Pour into hot, sterile jelly glasses (jars). Fill to within 1/8-inch of the rim. Screw on the tops, tighten, and then invert the jars to complete the seal. After about 30 seconds, right them up again.
RECIPE TWO - Orange Carrot Hummus
Hummus is the Swiss Army Knife of spreads and dips. Smear it on toast and bagels in place of butter, put a dollop on steamed vegetables or potatoes, or spread it on broiled salmon. To jazz up salads, add a couple tablespoons to your favorite oil and vinegar-based dressing.
- 5 large carrots
- 2 cans (15 oz each) garbanzo beans, drained
- 2/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
- 3 cloves garlic, squashed
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 2 TBL cider vinegar
- 1 TBL soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 3 green onions (white and green tops)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp grated orange rind (optional)
Chop carrots into cubes and steam or microwave them until until they mash easily. Drain and add to a food processor with the remaining ingredients. Whirl until smooth. Store in the fridge or put in smaller containers and freeze.
RECIPE THREE - Carrot Pancakes
These pancakes are smaller versions of a carrot cake dessert, only you get to eat them for breakfast! To two cups of your favorite pancake batter, fold in the following ingredients:
3/4 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (good, but optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
1/2 tsp ground ginger or 1 TBL grated fresh ginger
Cook batter on a hot skillet and serve with yogurt, maple syrup or your favorite fresh fruit, jam or jelly.
RECIPE FOUR - Carrot Milkshake
Believe it or not, this one tasty treat!
3 to 4 carrots
1/4 cup brown sugar or 1/8 cup honey
Assorted spices, as for pumpkin pie
Pinch of salt
1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt
1 cup milk or soy milk
Wash unpeeled carrots thoroughly. Cut into 1-inch chunks, place in a saucepan and steam until soft. Mash with a potato masher or puree in a blender or food processor. Add all ingredients to a blender or process0r and blend well. Chill before serving.
RECIPE FIVE - Lime and Carrot Salad
In India, carrots are a national vegetable and are the centerpiece in many recipes. This simple lightly spiced salad is the perfect side dish or wrap filler.
5 carrots
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 TBL olive oil
1 TBL mustard seeds
1 TBL lime or lemon juice
Wash the carrots and grate them in a bowl. Toss with salt and lemon juice. Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and as soon as they begin to pop, pour the contents of the pan, oil, and seeds, over the carrots. Toss and serve at room temperature or chilled.
RECIPE SIX - Carrot and Red Onion Salad
The perfect salad for fall and winter...
3 carrots
1 medium red onion
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper
4 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
Peel carrots and cut them into 1/8-inch slices, and then cut across the slices to make “matchsticks.” Halve the onion lengthwise and then cut it into 1/8-inch slices. Bring 2 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Throw in the carrots. Return to a boil. Count to three and drain carrots immediately and rinse them under cold, running water. Drain again. In a bowl, combine carrots, onions, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and ginger. Toss to mix. Salad can be served immediately or chilled for 3 hours.
RECIPE SEVEN- Pickled Carrots
Serve these pickled carrots as an appetizer, salad garnish, with rice or as a side dish with soups, stews, or hearty sandwiches.
2 pounds of carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
3/4 cup white or cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 to 2 tsp mixed whole pickling spices
Bring vinegar, water, sugar, and spices to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. In a separate pan, cook carrots in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain the carrots and pack them in hot, sterilized pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch of headroom.
Cover with the hot pickling liquid, seal, and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. For refrigerator pickles, pour in the hot pickling liquid and let the jars cool to room temperature. Store them in the refrigerator. Makes 4 pints.
Now, whenever you grow too many carrots, or get the urge to buy 30 pounds of them when they go on sale, you'll know just what to do with your bounty!
"Cooking with Carrots recipe" - by Marion Owen
Who is Marion Owen?
Learn the fine art of nurturing your dream garden using organic methods that have been fine-tuned over 35 years by Marion Owen, New York Times bestselling author.
Gardening techniques that have been proven to work by Marion's students longing for their own dream garden in landscapes as diverse as North America, India, Europe, UK and Australia.
Finally, you can throw away all those harsh chemicals, as Marion only teaches methods that are in tune with Mother Nature!
Marion Owen's approach to fulfilling your dream garden will save you hundreds of dollar. At the same time bring natural vitality to you, your family and the planet.
Start to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables using a methodology in harmony with the natural environment.
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