CARROTS

Carrots come in many colors; besides orange, you’ll also find yellow, purple and light yellow, almost white.

Keep in mind

Most of the carrots you buy are properly scrubbed and washed. There’s no need to peel them. Just rinse them before cooking. That way they’ll keep more of their flavor.

How to cook carrots

Oven baked carrots – ideally in different colors or with other root vegetables – with a little salt and a good olive oil make a great-looking and great-tasting side dish.

Tip: Blacken the skin with a blow torch before baking in the oven. It looks more exciting and it tastes good caramelized.

Small carrots are perfect for blanching whole and serving as they are. Larger, chunkier carrots can be sliced lengthwise or cut into diagonal slices.

Make carrot purée: Cook pieces of carrot until completely soft and run through a food processor with olive oil, cider vinegar, salt and maybe a spoonful of harissa.

Use carrots as a salad: Peel the carrot and continue to peel until there’s nothing left. The strips make a good salad, especially with toasted seeds.

Make carrot tzatziki: Try replacing the cucumber in tzatziki with grated carrot. Think about other places where you could replace an ingredient with carrots.

Add color to the table: Mix diced carrot into lentil soup, peasant vegetable soup, smooth root vegetable soup and casseroles.

Bring out new textures by drying carrots in thin slices or making your own carrot crisps.

Pickle carrots: Bring sliced carrots to the boil in a 1-2-3 solution. Pour the liquid and the carrots into a well-cleaned jar (spice with roasted star anise and Szechuan pepper, for example) and store in a cool place. Bring out when you need something sweet, sour and crispy.

Preserve with salt! Grate carrots and add salt and spices. Press the vegetable down so the salt goes in. Pack into a glass jar (it’s important that there aren’t any air bubbles left) and store at room temperature for two weeks. After that store your pickled root vegetables in the fridge. They’ll be best after a month but last for up to a year.

Lift tired winter carrots: Oranges bring out the sweetness and add a bit of acidity to the carrots. Try boiling carrots quickly, pouring off the water, squeezing orange juice over the top and leaving to stand for a moment before adding olive oil and sea salt.

The classic

Carrots with a few drops of lemon juice and sea salt, served with a welcoming glass of red wine. Try it.