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Cooking Tips:
Carrots
The carrot (Daucus carota)
is a root vegetable, usually orange or white in color with a
woody texture. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot. It is a
biennial plant which grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and
summer while building up the stout taproot, which stores large
amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year.
The flowering stem grows to about 1 m tall, with umbels of white
flowers.
Carrots can be eaten raw,
whole, chopped or grated into salads for color, and are also
often chopped and cooked in soups and stews. A well known dish
is Carrots Julienne. One can also make carrot cake and carrot
pudding. The greens are edible as a leaf vegetable, but are
rarely eaten. Together with onion and celery, carrots are one of
the primary vegetables used in a mirepoix to make various
broths.
Since the late 1980s, baby carrots or mini carrots, carrots that
have been peeled and cut into uniform cylinders, have been a
popular ready-to-eat snack food in many supermarkets.
β-carotene, a dimer of Vitamin A, is abundant in the carrot and
gives this vegetable its characteristic orange colour.
Furthermore, carrots are rich in dietary fiber, antioxidants,
and minerals. |
