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All you need to know about carrots! Nutrition info, storage, and recipes for the best ways to eat this nutritious orange vegetable.

Carrots
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Carrots are one of the most popular vegetables in the world (really!). And there are lots of reasons to eat this root vegetable! It’s full of nutrients, has a beautiful flavor and a bright, vibrant color. Carrots are great for eating raw or cooked: try them with dips, in soups and stews, and to add crunch to salads. Here at A Couple Cooks, we use carrots quite a bit in our recipes! Consider us big fans. Here are the essential things you need to know about this super nutritious vegetable.

Carrots: overview and types

Carrots are a root vegetable that comes in a variety of different colors: orange, purple, yellow, white, and even black. The carrot belongs to the same vegetable family as celery, parsley and dill. (It’s called Apiaceae, for the science nerds among us.) This vegetable is easy to grow at home, and of course they’re inexpensive and easy to find at the grocery store. Here are the types you can find at the store:

  • Large carrots: The workhorse! These come in bags at the grocery, and they range in size from small and thin to very large and thick.
  • Bunches: You can also find bunches of long, slender carrots sold at the grocery or your local farmer’s market. Because they’re so thin, you can cook them whole when roasting or grilling them.
  • Rainbow carrots: Beautiful hues of orange, purple and yellow! These are often sold in bunches as well.
  • Baby carrots: The stick shape with rounded edges is cut from a larger carrot! It’s a special variety that’s bred to be sweeter and crunchier. This type are for snacking, so avoid using them in recipes.

Carrots nutrition

Carrot are one of the best vegetables you can eat! This nutrient dense vegetable is packed with good stuff. Here are some of the top nutrition benefits (source):

  • Low in calories, high in fiber: One cup of chopped carrots has only 52 calories and 3.6 grams of fiber. (source)
  • Packed with Vitamin A (beta carotene): This root veggie has 428% of your daily vitamin A in 1 cup! It’s present as beta-carotene, an antioxidant that could help in cancer prevention. Your body converts beta carotene into Vitamin A.
  • High in Vitamins C, K and potassium: They’re also are high in these vitamins.
  • Potential benefits include lower blood cholesterol, weight loss, and eye health. Read more here.

Carrot recipes

Ready to get eating? There are so many delicious ways to eat this healthy vegetable. Here are some of the best carrot recipes to try:

How to store carrots

One great thing about this root vegetable: they last a long time! You may notice that they seem to stay good indefinitely in your produce drawer. Here’s the best way to store carrots:

  • Refrigerate: Store in the produce drawer in your refrigerator for 2 to 3 months.
  • Remove the greens: The greens remove moisture from the root. Remove the greens and store them separately: they’re best within a few days. (How to cook carrot greens? Try them in an omelette like this one, or substitute them for basil in pesto.)

More tasty vegetables

Love eating your vegetables? There are so many ways to eat lots of veggies. Here are more recipes and resources to peruse:

About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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