the right way to boil your CARROTS

[izzix]

Boiling carrots whole boosts health benefits, researchers find

Medical properties can be enhanced if vegetables are not diced before cooking, experiments show


* Martin Wainwright
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 June 2009 08.46 BST
* Article history

Pile of carrots, raw vegetables

Carrots: best cooked whole, research shows. Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian

The medical properties of carrots – including the boost they provide to night vision, which led to them being fed to RAF pilots during the second world war – can be enhanced by the way in which they are cooked, researchers say.

Food chemists at Newcastle University have found that boiling the vegetables whole rather than slicing them up increases the supply of healthy ingredients by a quarter.

Dicing carrots – still the commonest way of cooking them in Britain – resulted in the loss of 25% of their compound falcarinol, a series of experiments using laboratory rats revealed.

The naturally occurring sugars have anti-cancer properties and also give carrots their slightly sweet taste.

Dr Kirsten Brandt, of the university's school of agriculture, food and rural development, said pre-cut carrots presented a larger surface area, allowing more falcarinol to come out.

Helped by researcher Ahlam Rashed, Brandt found that more sugar and vitamin C was also lost through slicing because more carrot cells heated up and lost their ability to keep out the boiling water.

Presenting her findings to a conference in Lille yesterday, Brandt said: "By cooking carrots whole and chopping them up afterwards, you are locking in both taste and nutrients so the carrot is better for you all round."

A blind tasting carried out by just under 100 volunteers found that 80% considered carrots cooked whole to be tastier.

"We all want to try to improve our health and diet by getting the right nutrients and eating our five a day," Brandt said.

"The great thing about this is it's a simple way for people to increase their uptake of a compound we know is good for us. All you need is a bigger saucepan."

The online World Carrot Museum has yet to add the findings to its food and recipe section, but suggests adding whole carrots to fried onions in the carrot and lentil soup in its recipe section.

Brandt's team, working with colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark, discovered the health benefits of falcarinol in a series of experiments with rats four years ago.

[TJ]

If you first thnk about the right way to boil a potato which is to place it in cold water, bring the water to a boil and boil it for 8 or 10 minutes, carrots may need similar cooking. You do not put the potato, or like root vegetable, into boiling water because the outside would be overcooked and falling apart by the time the inside was properly cooked. Without slicing large carrots, the large woody end might not be tender when the smaller tapered end is properly cooked. You could cut the carrot in half and cook the large end for five minutes, after which add the smaller cuts. Or you could buy only young, slender carrots.

Seem to remember decades ago reading that peeling carrots removed much of the nutrients.

[ULICK MC GEE]

What a load of b----x that report is.The best way to cook any root veg is by steaming.
Roast spud's my way.
cover bottom of roasting dish with virgin olive oil put in preheated oven 150.
Steam spud's until soft to middle and put into roasting dish coat with O.Oil cover with foil temp 150,turn spuds and coat a few time's.
Golden brown outside and steamed inside.try it

[TJ]

Certainly agree that oven-roasted potatoes, especially with olive oil, are terrific. And that the challenge is to assure that the potato is properly cooked inthe middle when the outside looks ready to plate.

Many Americans like pan-fried potatoes for breakfast. Generally the potatoes are cut into about 3/4-inch cubes and fried in oil at medium heat. Again the problem is that when the outside of the potato cubes are fried to a lovely golden brown, the inside is under done. The solution is to heat the uncooked, cubed potatoes in a microwave oven (5 to 10 minutes depending on oven wattage) before frying them.

The glazed (pan-fried) carrot is a fine dish which needs to be cooked iAW a recipe.

I'm biased because I was raised on boiled, white potatoes. For me the plain boiled potato is a lovely dish and quite tasty, especially after adding butter, salt, and pepper. My only variation today is that I top the boiled potatoes with sprinkling of green parsley, which adds more to the looks than taste of the dish.

[beer monkey]

Boil potatoes (i always half them first)..then into a hot pan sprinkle with oil and a little flour for that extra crunchy effect, and to be on the safe side i might just eat the carrots in their uncooked unpeeled state...Errrrr Whats Up Doc, and i can understand what the report is saying but would not have given it a second thought before.

[ULICK MC GEE]

i cut in half to,also sprinkle raw potato with sea salt,this make's them sweat during cooking bringing out all the flavour of the potato,also if you like crispy light brown skin on you chicken,rub with sea salt just before roasting.

[aznyron]

let have a cooking class topic every one can contribute there ideas but stick to one food per week like this week it carrots next week it could be a pork roast yummy

[keith555]

Steamed carrots are the best,a very easy way to do that is put the chopped carrots in bowl ,then put a couple of Tbls of water in and cover the top,then put in the microwave for a few minutes,this will steam them.. =D>

[Aardvark]

let have a cooking class topic every one can contribute there ideas but stick to one food per week like this week it carrots next week it could be a pork roast yummy

Google Recipes on the main UM page Ron, there are a few good one's already from members

[ULICK MC GEE]

There is also a stainless steel steamer that open's out like a spiral to fit any size saucepan and can be used to steam fish,chicken or rice and all veg.not exspensive

[fremmel]

"World Carrot Museum" ??????? Surely they jest.

[beer monkey]

No jesting its a very informative site, ideal for all questions and query's regarding carrots.

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/


Some carrots.

[JimboPSM]

This topic is in exceptionally bad taste - cooked carrots remind me of the stomach churning garbage that was (fraudulently) passed off as part of school lunches

[fremmel]

No jesting its a very informative site, ideal for all questions and query's regarding carrots.

I'm sure it is but somehow world, carrot, and museum just don't seem like they should be sequential words.