How To Prepare Carrots? Carrots Recipes

How to prepare carrots? You can prepare carrots in different ways. From cooking to the wok and from raw to oven. There are carrots in many colors, not only orange but also white and purple carrots. Read information about preparing carrots here.

How To Prepare Carrots?

You can prepare carrots in different ways. Carrots can be prepared in the wok but can also be stewed. In addition, you can also prepare carrots by simply boiling them. Grilling and steaming carrots is also an option. Enough options for preparing carrots. 

As you can see, there are many options and ways to prepare carrots. Below is a description of how all these methods work. But first, let’s start cleaning carrots. This is done prior to all preparations.

If you want tasty herbs for carrots, you can read our blog ‘ Which herbs for carrots? ‘ read. There are a lot of ideas in it for seasoning carrots.

To cook carrots, it is useful to clean and cut them first. You can clean carrots in different ways. You do this because there is always some sand and/or soil at the root and the outer layer is a bit harder than the root. It is better to delete or cut it off. 

With A Peeler

Cut off both ends of the carrot. About an inch and cut off unsightly spots. Carefully peel the outer layer of the carrot with a vegetable peeler. Large roots can take a beating, but smaller roots can break. It just peels a little harder, small pieces.

Scraping Carrots.

Also here you cut off both ends. About an inch. Then you hold the carrot well in your hand and put a sharp knife at right angles to the carrot. So like you’re going to cut. Then you don’t make a cutting movement through the carrot, but you put a sharp one at right angles to the carrot. Then you run the knife along the root from top to bottom while pressing the knife well against the root. This is how you get rid of the carrot from its coat.

Buy Cleaned Carrots

You can buy carrots in plastic that has already been scrapped. The shelf life is shorter than carrots that you buy fresh. These carrots are ready to use. 

Carrots Cutting

There are also different ways of cutting.

• Sliced
• grating
• cubes
• Pieces of carrot of 1 or 2 cm
• Julienne, those are thin strips

You cut carrots in different ways, because you use them for different purposes.

You can use planks for raw vegetables, just like grated carrots or stir-fry without cooking. You can use cubes in a Russian salad, for example, but cooked. Larger pieces of 1 to 2 centimeters or strips can be used for cooking, stir-frying, stewing and steaming. Uncut carrots can be used for an oven dish or to eat as is. 

Cooking carrots

To cook carrots, first clean them as described above or buy them ready-made. However, they can be cut into pieces for a shorter cooking time.

Preparation method:

1. Put a pan of water with a little salt and sugar on the heat source and let it boil.
2. Add the carrots to the boiling water and let them cook for about 10 minutes when they are pieces of carrots. For large pieces you can count 15 to 20 minutes.
3. After the cooking time, poke a carrot and feel if it goes easily. When in doubt, prick it from the pan, blow and taste to see if it is cooked.
4. Drain the carrots in a colander and allow to drain briefly.
5. Return the carrots to the pan and add a knob of vegetable butter (half a tablespoon for 2 people).
6. Shake the butter through the carrots so that it melts and the carrots become nice and creamy.

We also wrote a blog just about cooking carrots; ” How long carrots cook? ‘ tells you all about the different ways of cooking carrots.

Enjoy your meal! 

Baking carrots

To fry carrots, cut the carrots as described above or buy them ready-made. Whole carrots with the leaves on are also great for baking.

When you bake carrots, you have to pre-cook them first. This is called blanching. You cook the carrots in boiling water for 3 minutes and then remove them immediately. You let them drain in a colander and when the carrots are dry you can put them in the frying pan.

1. Place a frying pan on the heat source and add vegetable butter (about a tablespoon).
2. Add the carrots to the butter and fry them for a while until they are nicely browned.
3. Remove the carrots from the pan with a slotted spoon and serve the carrots.
4. After this you can also add a knob of butter to the carrots or add some herbs.

Delicious with baked potatoes, especially if they are well seasoned. Enjoy your meal!

Steam carrots

You cut carrots into the size you want. They can be bars or chunks, just what you find easy to do or like on your plate.

For example, you can steam carrots in a steamer or in a bamboo steamer that you place in a large pan. I find these easy to use, but there are several steamers on the market.

1. Fill a large pan with a small amount of water. When you put the steamer in it, the bottom of this bamboo pan should not be under water. The carrots will then start to boil and you don’t want that now.
2. Fill the bamboo steamer with carrots and sprinkle with some dried soft herbs such as chives or parsley over the carrots, and place them in the large pan.
3.  Place the lid on the steamer and turn on the heat source. Put the lid on the large pan and let the water boil. Then wait about 5 to 10 minutes. That depends on the size of the pieces of carrot. The hot steam that fills your pan will cook the carrots without losing their vitamins.
4. Taste to see if you think the carrots are cooked enough and remove them from the pan. Beware! The steam is hot when you open the pan.
5. You can now sprinkle a little salt over the carrots.

Steamed carrots still need to be seasoned with herbs or other seasonings such as sesame seeds.

Stir-fried carrots

Clean the carrots as described above and cut the carrots into thin slices of 2 mm or blanch the carrots first if you want to stir-fry pieces of carrots of, for example, one centimeter.

Blanching or cooking briefly, how does that work? Boil the carrots for 3 minutes and then immediately remove them from the water before you stir fry. This is blanching. Then immediately put the carrots, after draining, in the wok to stir fry. 

1. Place the wok on a heat source and melt a little oil or vegetable butter in it.
2. Add the carrot pieces to the butter and toss the carrots for about 3 to 5 minutes. Keep moving and/or ‘turning’ the carrots.
3. Add some salt. A little dried chives taste good too. Then give everything a good shake so that the herbs soften and give off taste.
4. Taste to see if the carrots are cooked and then scoop them out of the pan.
5. Time to serve!

Stir-fried carrots are always a party on the table, because everyone likes them.

Grilling carrots

When you want to grill carrots, all you have to do is peel or scrape them in preparation. Or you buy the carrots ready-made, of course, but that doesn’t look as nice on your plate as freshly grilled carrots.

You can leave a piece of the greenery on it for the presentation. 3cm approximately; This looks nice on your plate.

How does it work:

1. Place the scraped carrots in a baking dish and pour a little sunflower oil over them. Toss the carrots in the oil and add some salt.
2. Place the dish in the preheated oven at 180 degrees and let the carrots grill. After about 30 to 40 minutes, the carrots are done. It depends on the thickness of the carrots.
3. Shake the carrots halfway through so that they are cooked all over at the same time.
4. You can pour some balsamic vinegar over it or sprinkle some chopped parsley on top to finish it off. A little salt can also be nice.

Enjoy your meal with these delicious grilled carrots.

Carrots Stew

Clean the carrots as described under the heading ‘cleaning carrots’.

1. Cut the carrots into strips or pieces, just as you like.
2. Heat a frying pan with vegetable butter and let it melt.
3. Add the carrots and fry for a while.
4. Now you can add water and a spoonful of sugar or 200 ml of orange juice. Check if this is enough for the size of the pan. This is enough for 2 people.
5. Let this simmer on a low heat by putting the lid on the pan. Check regularly that the carrots do not boil dry. Then add liquid of your choice.
6. You can add herbs while stewing, SEE HERE, but after stewing you can also sprinkle some finely chopped parsley on top.

As you can see, you can prepare carrots in different ways. Have fun cooking!

If you still have fresh carrots or a carrot dish left over, take a look at our blog ‘ How to store carrots? ‘, you can keep carrots for a long time.