Kitchen Garden Forum

For two of my three year kitchen gardening I have been itching to share this though I assumed everyone knows about it but myself.

Carrots taste much better and noticeably sweeter if you boil them whole then slice or dice or whatever, even store-bought carrots came-up tasting good. Slice or shred or dice them after boiling and they retain that taste.

Erm, is it it just me that didn't know ?

Ricard with an H

New to me.

I'd never thought about it, but makes sense. Look at the water after you've boiled sliced carrots, if the orange colour can leach our, I bet the flavour can too

Good Tip Richard!

When you think about it makes sense to have fewer cut surfaces. Bet they retain a lot more nutrients. Wonder if we should do the same for other veg routinely?

Westi

I will have to buy a bigger pan to get my carrots in

The less water you cook them in the better the flavour too. I like them done in the steaming basket in the pressure cooker, they only take 4 minutes, and another nice way is to cut them into batons and do them in a pan with just enough water so they don't boil dry and to add a bit of orange juice for the last 5 minutes.

I much prefer them as batons in a pan, no water, just a knob of butter and a little olive oil (to ensure the butter doesn't burn). Give them a shake every now and then.

Well just try it once and you'll never go back, you cut them into slices, batons or whatever after they are cooked and cooled a little.

we roast fair sized chunks with sunday lunch. rest of week its steamed slices....as with most hard veg its a case of thinner bits cook quicker cos the heat penetrates to the middle easier. perhaps a whole carrot with a metal skewer up the middle to conduct heat in is the ideal.

Richard hello. You just reminded me how I arrived at my conclusion. It was that roasted carrots always tasted extra nice so I put two-and-two together.

We do this very lovely 'Cranks' recipe with carrot, potato and sweed. It all has to be cut into tiny cubes and cooked inside the pasty or pie. Shame that I cant see me chopping cooked carrot, potato and sweed to achieve the same effect.

Everyone is eating carrot tonight so lets hear it.

If you boil any chopped veg in plenty of water for 20 minutes - whatever the veg - then drain them, you are probably better off drinking the water than eating what's left of the veg. You can of course further increase the loss of sugars, vitamins, minerals etc by the way you chop them up. Slicing carrots crosswise instead of lengthwise for example (the vessels in the carrot mostly run lengthwise). The way my parents always cooked vegetables was probably the best possible way of leaving only tasteless cellulose left on the plate. Such a shame so much homegrown veg was given that treatment !

In a Greek cookbook I have, the author describes having being encoraged to drink the water any veg were boiled in as a health tonic and preventative to teenage acne. Better still is to not have water to throw away; I like to simmer leeks in a minimum of water with a knob of butter so that the water is evaporated by the time the leeks are done. Same should be good for carrots. Or cook one pot dishes and save on faff and washing up !

Tony Hague.
Re drinking the vegetable water. Brought back memories of the 1940's. My old dad always drank the cabbage water.

I regularly drink the water vegetables have been boiled in.
it's called SOUP

How long do you cook the whole carrots for Richard? Silly question, I suppose it depends how big they are.

Ahh-good question.

So far I boiled them to chewy rather than soft because I needed too prove that when you cut them into the shapes you want they don't loose that lovely surprising flavour. So, I either leave them whole or cut them into small pieces after the initial cooking period then add them to the final (whatever I'm doing) without too much further cooking.

I'm still excited, not good for a man of my years.

Go for it PP, give it a test.