How long to cook carrots? Carrots are available in different colors, although orange carrots are the most famous in the Netherlands. Orange carrots have emerged in the 17th century due to the promotion of the orange color. The son of William of Orange and his wife wanted to set a trend. Carrots that were white or purple have been forgotten as a result. Fortunately, they are now on the rise again.
How Long To Cook Carrots?
# | Wise | Cooking time |
---|---|---|
1 | Carrots cooking al dente | 10 minutes |
2 | Cooking fresh carrots | 15 minutes |
3 | Carrots cooking herbs | 10 minutes |
4 | Cooking carrots with sugar | 10 minutes |
5 | Cooking carrots in the microwave | 6 minutes |
6 | cooking carrots baby | 10 minutes |
7 | Cooking colored carrots | 15 minutes |
8 | Stir fry carrots cook first | 5 minutes |
You can cook carrots in different ways. You can read this below. We start with ‘easy cooking carrots; the basic recipe.
How to Cook Carrots?
To cook them, it is good to first scrape them, so that the outside of the carrot is off (or you use a vegetable peeler). You can also buy ready-made scraped carrots in a plastic container. These have a shorter shelf life, but they are very easy!
The cleaned carrots can be cooked whole and you can cut the carrots into small pieces. This also shortens the cooking time. I always cut small pieces of carrot except on special occasions. It looks nice when you put a whole carrot on a plate with the leaves still on.
How to cook small cut carrots:
- Place the small pieces of carrot (about 1 cm in size) in a pan with cold water. The root is just underwater.
- Add a generous pinch of salt and put the lid halfway on the pan.
- Turn on the heat and let the carrots cook for about 10 minutes or on medium heat. If your carrots are larger, the cooking time can be 15 minutes. So always taste before you pour!
- Drain the carrots in a colander and shake the carrots briefly.
This is the basics of cooking carrots. If you want to know more, you can see other options below when it comes to cooking carrots.
If you have carrots leftover after cooking, cooked or fresh, you can read our blog ‘ How to store carrots? ‘ Read how best to store the carrots.
Cooking Fresh Carrots
If you want to cook fresh carrots in their entirety, it will take a little longer, but it looks surprisingly nice on a plate. I’ll leave the foliage on for a bit.
- Scrape the carrots or use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer layer of the carrot.
- After this, cut the foliage off to 3 or 4 centimeters from the root. So I leave 3 cm of green.
- The carrots go into the pan, with sugar and salt, and you let the carrots boil. About 15 minutes.
- Prick the carrot with a fork to check if the carrot is cooked.
- Carefully drain the carrots, as you want to leave them whole.
Cooking Carrots With Sugar
Carrots are sweet on their own, but some people want really sweet carrots. This can be done by adding sugar to the water. For 2 people you need:
- 1 level tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable butter
- carrots
Above you can read how to cook carrots. If you want to cook the carrots sweet, add sugar to the cooking water.
It depends on how sweet you want the carrots, but I add a level tablespoon of sugar to a pan of carrots for 4 people. A good pinch of salt also goes into the pan. This provides a spicy taste.
Add the vegetable butter to the carrots after they have been drained. Then throw the carrots back into the pan and add the butter to the carrots. Shake the carrots well so that the butter melts.
Enjoy your meal!
Carrots Cooking Herbs
There is a whole blog ready for you where you can find everything about carrots herbs. Check out our blog ‘ Which herbs for carrots? ‘
Examples of herbs for carrots are:
- 1 heaped teaspoon Parsley
- 1 level teaspoon thyme
This is for 2 people.
Cook the carrots as described above. We can now season the carrots in different ways.
You only season carrots after cooking. When you put herbs in the cooking water and let it boil, you won’t taste it anymore.
When you have drained the carrots, put the carrots back in the saucepan. Add a knob of vegetable butter (flora for example) and shake the carrots well.
Then add thyme or parsley from a jar. It depends on how many people you have cooked carrots for, so you can adjust the amount of herbs accordingly.
For 2 people, say you add a heaped teaspoon of parsley to the carrots and a level teaspoon of thyme. Thyme has a stronger flavor than parsley. Shake the carrots well so that the herbs spread well. Taste what you think and add seasoning when you think it’s necessary.
If you want to use fresh and washed parsley, cut an amount of parsley (2 sprigs without stem) and sprinkle it over the carrots after adding the butter.
Carrots In The Microwave
If you want to cook them in the microwave, you can also scrape the carrots in advance (can also use a peeler) or use scraped carrots from the store.
It is best to cook the carrots in a microwaveable dish. This often comes with a lid or you use microwave foil.
What do you need:
- Microwave dish with lid or microwave foil
- 30ml water
- carrots
Preparation is as follows:
- Make 1 cm pieces from the carrots.
- Put it in the bowl and add the water.
- Place the lid on the dish or put the foil over it.
- Set the microwave to full power. At 1000 Watt you can cook the carrots in 3.5 minutes. If the power of your microwave is lower, the cooking time will take longer.
- After the ‘ping’, remove the bowl from the microwave and carefully remove the lid. Pay attention! Steam which is very hot may escape.
- Taste the carrots. When they are cooked, you can serve them. If they are not cooked, you let them make another round in the microwave. Taste to see if they are cooked.
- Add a little salt to the carrots after cooking or season them.
Carrots Cooking Baby
Cooking carrots is the same as cooking fresh carrots. There are only some choices to make about learning to eat vegetables. Add your salt or sugar or both. It can also be a choice to omit this. Carrots are sweet on their own. To get the baby used to vegetables and not to sugar (which is really a lot in jars), I recommend cooking without sugar and salt. Once we’re used to sugar, we can hardly live without it, right?
- Clean the carrots by grating or peeling with the vegetable peeler.
- Cut small slices and cook the carrots for 10 minutes.
- Drain the carrots and put them in a tall bowl
- You can puree the carrots with a stick blender, but you can of course also use other kitchen appliances.
- You can add a vegetable knob of butter, but the carrot also tastes very good without it. Especially when the baby has to get used to flavors.
Cooking Colored Carrots
You can also cook colored carrots, when cut into small pieces, in 10 minutes. But if you want to cook the carrots in their entirety, that can take 15 to 20 minutes. Read under the heading ‘cooking fresh carrots’ how you can do this.
Stir fry carrots
If you want to stir-fry them, it’s better to boil them first. Clean the carrots as described under the heading ‘How to cook carrots? Then cut the carrots into the desired size. These can be slices of 1 or 2 centimeters.
Boil the carrots in a little water with a little salt for about 5 minutes. Then the carrots are pre-cooked and it doesn’t take that long before they are cooked.
After 5 minutes, drain the carrots and let them drain well. Then put the carrots in the wok and make your dish.
Enjoy your meal!