Sauteed Carrots Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What cooking method is best for carrots? ›

Roasting draws out the natural sweetness and you get a nice caramelized flavor. They're so much better than boiled carrots! Roasting is also easy; it's hard to overcook a roasted vegetable: if it gets too done, it's clearly burned. However, it's so easy to overcook boiled vegetables, especially carrots.

Cooking instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the carrots and parsnips and toss to coat in the oil. Add the thyme, cinnamon, star anise and some seasoning. Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, turning the vegetables frequently, until golden brown and almost cooked through.

Blanching the carrots before stir frying ensures that they are perfectly cooked while retaining their vibrant color and crunchy texture. To blanch the carrots, bring a pot of water to boil and add a pinch of salt. Carefully place the carrots into the boiling water and cook them for 2-3 minutes.

#1 Roasted

Slice or keep them whole if baby sized and toss with salt and pepper as your most basic preparation, or optionally add garlic, dill or honey to change it up. Roast on a baking sheet at 400 degrees until tender. So, so, so sweet!

Another study showed both boiling and steaming increased levels of beta carotene. But try to cook carrots whole, as cutting can reduce nutrients by 25%. Wait and wash veggies just before cooking to preserve nutrients. In fact, cooking veggies whole is often the best choice to preserve nutrients.

It works best if you add the carrots along with the food you're frying. Otherwise, the carrots might shrivel up and burn before whatever you're frying is finished. You might have to switch out the carrots in between batches of food—again, to avoid burning the carrots and thus defeating the purpose of the tip.

And now, it turns out that there's a better fat for carrots ― at least, if you want to extract all their delicious flavour. Recently, cooking school Milk Street Kitchen shared a TikTok which revealed that butter does a more delicious job than oil alone for roasting carrots ― though there are some caveats.

Nope. You don't have to. The outside of the carrot is totally edible, though some people don't care for the slightly bitter taste or appearance of it. So whether or not you peel your carrots when making these sautéed carrots is a personal preference.

If your carrots do go limp or develop a white blush, trim off the ends and soak them in a bowl of iced water before using to rehydrate and crisp them up again. You can then roast them to include in a warm couscous or rice salad – try this roasted carrot and grain salad recipe – ideal as a nutritious, filling lunch.

How do you intensify carrot Flavour? ›

Seasoning carrots is a great way to help bring out their flavor. For a simple and versatile seasoning, stick with salt, pepper, and garlic. For an herbier taste, add rosemary, parsley, cumin, or coriander. Or, to bring out their fresh, woody flavor, add some anise.

Other ingredients that are said to pair well with carrots include cinnamon, coriander, dill, lime, spearmint, olive oil, parsnips, salt, tarragon, thyme, etc. The Flavor Bible also provides specific flavor affinities or suggested pairings for many ingredients, such as: carrots + cilantro + lime. carrots + cumin + ...

No matter which way you cook them, carrots are a healthy choice. Steaming is a slightly better pick since the carrots don't lose as many of their nutrients to the water. (Steaming is also more environmentally friendly since it uses less water.)

To pressure can them using the raw pack method:

Peel, trim, and thoroughly wash the carrots. The carrots can be sliced or left whole. Pack them into hot jars and fill with boiling water– leaving 1″ headspace. Process pints for 25 minutes and quarts for 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

Steaming veggies can preserve nutrients, color, shape, and texture, without having to add any unnecessary fats through ingredients like oils or butter. To steam, place food into a steam basket and cover over simmering water. Since food is not directly touching the water, vegetables retain more of their nutrients.

Cooking breaks down the vegetable's cell walls, making its nutrients more available. Of course, how you cook them matters—boiling vegetables can leach out nutrients, so it's better to steam, sauté, or roast. If you still prefer boiling your carrots, throw them in the water whole—you'll keep the most nutrients.