Fresh Ideas for Carrot Recipes
Bright blue skies, cool mornings, no more mosquitoes… summer is coming to a close. It’s not quite fall yet; the leaves have just started to turn yellow, and I’m still waiting on the first frost to pick cranberries. This is the season of abundance from the garden. Here’s a selection of carrot recipes to give you some fresh ideas for using produce!
Of course there are plenty of earlier crops, and some will come later, but just now I am so thankful that my kitchen runneth over with a plenitude of tomatoes, peppers, green beans, beets, carrots, and the occasional squash from a friend’s garden.
The moose ate all of our broccoli this year, and most of the lettuce, but we still have quite a colorful harvest.
I love it when I don’t even have to think about buying vegetables at the grocery store–and the home grown ones always taste so much fresher! There’s not much better than just-picked produce that you grew yourself.
My toddler was helping me pick carrots this morning, and it was a job to convince him that we needed to wash the funny three-legged carrot before he could eat it! Our carrots aren’t huge, but most of them are 5-6 inches long and very tasty.
I won’t be surprised if we end up eating most of them fresh, but for those of you with larger carrot patches (or who don’t enjoy fresh carrots), here’s some inspiration for carrot recipes:
Carrot Recipes
Soup
Autumn is the perfect time to make a big pot of soup, as the days start to get a little chilly and there are lots of vegetables ripening.
Vegetable soup, with or without meat, is simple to prepare and also freezes very well. This makes it doubly beneficial for me: I’m preserving vegetables (without spending all day blanching or canning) and putting meals in the freezer at the same time!
Of course there’s also cream of carrot soup if you need to use up more carrots. I am very fond of carrot soup, but don’t try to freeze this one! Cream-based soups do not tolerate freezing.
Spiced Carrots
Carrots are one of those funny vegetables that tastes equally good with savory or sweet flavors. When we were growing up, Mom would often add butter, cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar to a pot of carrots as soon as they were crisp-tender and drained.
Another good combination is orange juice, orange peel, and ground ginger, along with a pat of butter. Use about 1/2 teaspoon of ground spices per 10 medium size carrots, and a tablespoon or two of butter and orange juice.
Minted Carrots
This is one of my favorite carrot recipes. I’m always looking for ways to use fresh mint, and it makes a nice accent to the carrots. I like to use apple mint, since the flavor is milder than spearmint or peppermint.
I combined orange juice, orange peel, and a pat of butter with cooked carrots, then stirred in about a tablespoon of chopped apple mint just before serving. This was only for 3 servings of carrots, so feel free to use more mint if you’re making a big pot!
Roasted Carrots
Roasting lends itself well to many root vegetables. The long cooking time bring out the flavors and the sugars in carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, onions, and more.
Try tossing large chunks of vegetables with olive oil, sea salt, and herbs. Rosemary, savory, and thyme are all good options. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until tender.
Another variation is to roast at a higher temperature for a shorter time. This results in a crisper texture and possibly charred edges. You do have to keep an eye on them!
Make sure the carrots and any other vegetables are in smallish pieces so they will actually cook through. Toss with olive oil and seasonings, and make sure you only have a single layer of vegetables in your pan.
Bake at 425 degrees for 30-45 minutes, but DO start checking on them after half an hour!
Carrot Chips
While these involve the same cooking technique as roasting, the end result is so different that I think they deserve their own category.
The basic concept is just like potato chips: you want to slice carrots as thinly as possible, coat them with oil, add salt and seasonings if you wish, then roast at a high temperature for a short time.
Ideally, you want to use large carrots for this recipe, and cut them on the diagonal for maximum surface area. It’s probably not worth the time to cut up small carrots (or even the narrow ends of large ones).
If you would like an actual recipe to follow, check out this one from Mother Would Know. She lists different oven temperatures and cooking times, so you don’t have to guess!
What are your favorite carrot recipes?
Well, there you have it: five different carrot recipes. From creamy soups to crispy chips, in a main dish or starring on their own, carrots are a great way to work some vitamin A into your meals. Do you have a favorite carrot recipe that doesn’t appear here? Let me know!
For more ways to use your garden-fresh produce, check out this post on how to dry tomatoes in the oven.
Leave a Reply