Cooking carrots, methods including ginger and garlic recipe

Carrots are good for you, they are very reasonably priced compared to other vegetables, and out of all the vegetables, they are often the easier ones to get your kids to eat.

Following are the 3 ways I typically cook carrots. As the Christmas season is near the first recipe is how I like to serve them on Christmas day.

Pan roasted carrots in garlic and ginger
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1. Leave carrots whole and scrub clean.
2. Add to cast iron pan with 50-50 olive oil and butter with a pinch of salt.
3. Roast on medium heat – will take about 15 minutes depending on thickness of carrots and heat of pan.
4. Slice a few cloves of garlic in half and add them to the carrots about half way through cooking
5. When nearly cooked, use with the fine side of the grater, grate over a little bit of ginger (tip – freeze the ginger first and then keep the leftovers in the freezer).
Ginger and carrots are a great pairing!

Carrots roasted in their own steam
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This method of cooking carrots, in my opinion, keeps the flavor of the carrot more than any other.

1. Slice the carrots into one or two inch pieces, diagonal across the carrot – this is an attractive way to serve them.
2. In a non stick pan with a lid – add the carrots, a little bit of butter and a single table spoon of water.
3. Add a pinch of salt a grinding of pepper and close the lid.
4. Put it on a fairly low heat and leave it.
5. Every 5 minutes, hold the lid tight and give the pan a quick shake.
- Carrots, again, depending on size will take around 15 minutes to cook, you don’t want them to turn to mush but serve them quite firm.

Tin foil method
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Got the oven on? then don't boil your carrots and lose all their flavour, capitalize on the fact your oven is already hot.

1. Slice your carrots, put them in tin foil and add some butter, salt, pepper and any other seasonings you were considering (the garlic and ginger one above is great).
2, Seal up the carrots in the foil bag at the top so any juices can’t run out and pop them in the oven.
- Again – takes about 15 minutes to cook but will vary depending on oven temperature and carrot size. I like to put carrots and parsnips in together.
- Can pour any juices from the carrots into the gravy.