Carrots are the most useful vegetable, loved by many since childhood. It is rich in vitamin A, which helps maintain sharp eyesight, improve immunity and improve blood composition. Regular consumption of carrots in food will help cleanse the body of toxins and cholesterol.
The availability and the price at which this vegetable is sold in the store all year round cannot but please.
Carrots have excellent taste, allowing to cook from it a huge number of different dishes.
Choosing the right carrot
The root contains a large amount of carotene, so it is characterized by a bright orange color. When choosing carrots, preference should be given to fruits of exactly that color - the brighter the vegetable is, the more useful it is.
Fruits of yellow and white do not take: these are fodder varieties grown with a large amount of nitrates. They are not only tasteless, but completely unhealthy.
Large vegetables are also set aside: most likely, they have a stiff middle, unfit for consumption. The most acceptable can be considered a fruit weighing up to 150 grams.
The surface of the fetus should be smooth and without traces of rot - growths will indicate that the vegetable is overnourished with nitrates and has already undergone a disease.
The longest carrot is considered to be short and slightly thickened at the end, and the spiky long fruit is usually less juicy and tasty.
Do not choose too dirty carrots in the store - why pay for sticking clods of earth?
How to cook carrots correctly
Carrots are certainly among the most useful vegetables. But, unfortunately, during the heat treatment most of the vitamins are destroyed. In order to minimize the loss of vitamins, carrots need to be cooked in a sealed container over moderate heat. A closed lid helps keep maximum flavor, aroma and nutrients. The process of cooking carrots is quite simple:
- The root crop is thoroughly washed under running water. Cutting the top layer is undesirable, as well as cutting the vegetable before cooking: most of the nutrients will go to the decoction.
- The carrots are placed in a saucepan and poured with cold water on two fingers above the root. You can pour boiling water and - then the cooking process will accelerate. The pot is covered with a lid, the water is brought to a boil, and the carrots are cooked over moderate heat without boiling for about 20 minutes. To prevent the vegetable from sticking to the bottom of the pan, it should be turned over during cooking.
- Willingness is checked with a fork or toothpick. Try to cook the carrots so that the middle remains slightly firm, because the boiled vegetable becomes unsuitable for making salad.
- After cooking, the water is drained and the carrot cools at room temperature.
Carrots can be cooked in another way - in a slow cooker, microwave, or double boiler.
The cooking process in a double boiler takes 30 minutes. This is the most gentle way to keep the maximum amount of nutrients.
In order to cook carrots in a multicooker, pour the vegetables in with water and set the “Baking” mode for 20 minutes.
For cooking in the microwave you need to take 3-4 medium carrots, put them in a glass dish, add a few spoons of water and cover with a lid. We set the power to 800 or 1000 W and cook for 10 minutes.
Good advice
- Clean the carrots not before, but after cooking - this will help to preserve more nutrients.
- Salting carrots is better after it is cooked - directly in the finished dish. Otherwise, the salt will kill the sweet carrot flavor.
- The greatest amount of vitamins is stored in whole cooked carrots.
- For a better digestion of vitamins from carrots, it is better to eat it with sour cream or sunflower oil.
- Carrots are actively used not only in cooking, but also in cosmetology - from it you can make a lot of nourishing masks for the skin.
- We add sliced carrots in the first dish 10 minutes before the end of cooking - so the vegetable will have time to boil and retain all its beneficial properties. If the carrots for the soup were pre-fried, in order for it to give the broth its full flavor and aroma, it will suffice to add it two minutes before the end of cooking. If carrots are put whole as spice for broth, then it should be boiled as much as meat. At the end of the boil, the carrot is removed, as she has already given all her nutritional qualities to the broth.
- If it is required to cook carrots quickly, the process can be completed with cold water - a sharp temperature difference will bring the vegetable to readiness.
- Raw shredded carrots can be stored in the freezer throughout the winter - so you will always have carrots for frying at hand. Its taste is practically no different from the properties of fresh.
