Valuable ingredients are usually lost when carrots are heated. To prevent this from happening to you while cooking, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
There are many different ways to cook carrots. However, it is best if you eat the he althy carrots raw. Vegetables in general are the he althiest when they are raw anyway, because any heating causes important and, above all, valuable ingredients to be lost. So if you want to cook carrots using heat, do it as gently as possible.
Very gentle methods include glazing or steaming. If you prefer to cook, there are a few things you should keep in mind so that the he althy ingredients are largely preserved.
Tips for gently cooking the carrots
✓ Tip 1:
The gentle preparation begins as soon as you clean the carrots. You should clean them under running water, but don't prolong this process for too long. Water is the enemy of vitamins, so important ingredients can be flushed out during cleaning.
✓ Tip 2:
Even when cooking directly, the carrots should not be completely submerged, otherwise the valuable vitamins will disappear quickly.
✓ Tip 3:
So it is better to use only a little water for cooking. It is much better if you use a sieve insert for the saucepan. The saucepan also has a lid that closes really tight. The carrots lie in the sieve in such a way that they do not come into contact with the water. You use the steam to cook, so the lid must remain closed during preparation.
✓ Tip 4:
As soon as you hear a slight buzzing on the stove, you can turn the temperature down. If possible, you should not use s alt at all when cooking the carrots, because the s alt not only draws water out of the vegetables, but also the ingredients.
✓ Tip 5:
How soft you want your carrots to be is a matter of taste. The firmer the carrots are after cooking, the he althier they are.
Cook the carrots in the pressure cooker
Cooking the carrots is of course even gentler and easier in a special pressure cooker. With many models it is possiblealready set how gently the vegetables are prepared. Here you can choose the lowest level for the carrots. The great advantage of the pressure cooker is that the lid remains tightly closed the whole time, so that almost no steam can escape.
You should also use as little water as possible with this type of preparation. After cooking, be sure to add some oil or butter to the carrots, because this is the only way the body can absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A and E.
» My tip: The steam cooker from Philips (here at Amazon) can also be used perfectly for the gentle preparation of vegetables, fish and meat. I've been using it myself for quite a while and I have no hesitation in recommending it.