Carrots are a great vegetable that has a lot of benefits to a person. People think that carrots being good for a person’s eyes is a myth. However, it is in fact true! Apart from that, carrots are anti-inflammatory and may help battle inflammation in your body.
Moreover, eating carrots can also reduce the risk of cancers in a big way.
Since carrots are a vegetable that can be used throughout winter, it is a perfect vegetable for soups and stews.
In this article, we’ll talk about several tips that may help you when making carrot soups.
To Heat or Not to Heat
The beauty of carrots is they can be eaten raw or cooked. Either way, they are a delicious addition to any meal.
The prevailing theory was that carrots should not be heated too much since the nutrients inside it would wither away and be lost. However, recent findings say that it may not be true.
One of the beneficial nutrients of carrots – beta-carotene – is not heat-sensitive. Thus, if the carrots are cooked, it still stays in the carrot.
Beta-carotenes and carotenoids are responsible for the anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and the fact that it can help reduce the ageing process.
Fresh and uncooked carrots can be used for fresh salads. Just throw together some lettuce, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, and the fresh carrot slices. You can drizzle some olive oil, dressing, or fresh fruit for some extra flavor.
While this may be the case for beta-carotenes, cooking carrots in heat may take away any and all vitamin C within the fruit.
Seasoning Carrots
One other thing that you can consider when you want to retain the beta-carotenes of a carrot is to season it correctly.
We aren’t suggesting that you merely season it normally like with salt and pepper. Instead, season the carrots with things like oil and butter.
The reason behind this is that fats such as butter and oil make the healthy stuff like the beta-carotene, more available for consumption. In addition, it also helps our bodies to take in and absorb these things.
One simple recipe you can have here is balsamic roasted carrots. Prepare your oven at 425 degrees. Have a baking pan with aluminum foil in there.
Then grab a bag and put olive oil, salt, peppers, and carrots. Mix and when ready, place it in the baking pan for just about 30 minutes.
How To Cook and How Long?
While raw carrots are indeed pretty healthy, not a lot of people are agreeable with eating raw vegetables. Thankfully, researchers have found the right duration for cooking carrots.
Apparently, the best way to cook carrots is to steam it. Through a study done which looked at the best way to maintain the same minerals in carrots after cooking, they saw that steaming carrots for as little as just five minutes had positive.
They found that when they cooked the carrots this way, only a fourth of the minerals potassium, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and many others were only taken away.
A simple snack you can prepare with this is to buttered carrots. Slice carrots into halves or fourths after peeling them. Place them in a pan with water, salt, and sugar. Heat it until it boils.
When the carrots are smooth, just add a couple of tablespoons of butter. And voila! A healthy snack for you and your family. We hope these tips have helped you out. Whenever you are cooking carrots, be sure to be mindful of how long you leave the cooked carrots out there in room temperature.