All vegetables that grow above the ground, such as corn, peas, collards or other greens should be placed in BOILING water. All vegetables that grow below the ground, such as beets, carrots, turnips, and potatoes, should be placed in cold water.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Make sure the water level is high enough so the carrots are completely submerged. Add sliced carrots to the pot of water and bring the water back to a boil over high heat. Boil sliced carrots for 4-5 minutes, baby carrots for 6-7 minutes, and whole carrots for 10-15 minutes.
Once the water is boiling, add the carrots and boil for 4 to 5 minutes until just crisp tender (longer if you prefer them to be more tender). Drain. Toss the carrots with the chives, butter and salt. Taste and add additional salt if desired.
Cook 1 pound carrots, covered, in a small amount of boiling salted water until crisp-tender. Here's how long to cook carrots on the stove top depending on how they're cut: 7 to 9 minutes for ¼-inch slices. 4 to 6 minutes for strips.
At this point, you can either run cold water on them for about five minutes, or you can add them to a large bowl of ice water. Stir or rotate the carrots to ensure the cold water is reaching each piece. Once the cooling process is complete, dry carrots and prepare as you please.
To evenly cook potatoes and other starchy roots, such as parsnips and carrots, place in cold water and boil them gently to allow the heat to diffuse through the vegetables.
Carrots provide more antioxidants when boiled or steamed than when eaten raw, according to a January 2008 report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. In fact, researchers found that boiling carrots until tender increased the concentration of carotenoids by 14 percent.
Researchers found steaming kept the highest level of nutrients. “Boiling vegetables causes water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, B1 and folate to leach into the water,” Magee said.
Sautéing is one of the healthiest ways to cook carrots. You need only a small amount of butter or coconut oil, simple seasonings, and water to help them soften.
If you don't plan to eat the carrots within a few days, you will need to periodically change out the water to inhibit bacterial growth. Rinse the carrots and replace the water every 4–5 days.
Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
Carrots grow best when temperatures do not exceed 75°F. Temperatures down to 32°F do not seriously damage plants. High summer temperatures reduce growth, decrease quality, and cause bitter or off-flavors to develop.
Broccoli cooks faster than carrots do, resulting in tender charred broccoli and tender-crisp carrots. It is a nice contrasting texture. However, if you like your carrots to be more tender feel free to give them up to a 10-minute headstart prior to adding the broccoli.
Carrots can be cooked using several methods. Some common methods are steaming, boiling, braising, roasting, sautéing, stir frying, and microwaving. Carrots should be cooked only until they are tender-crisp to ensure maximum flavor. Overcooking may also destroy some of the nutrients contained in carrots.
These hemicelluloses dissolve in the heat and steam of cooking, weakening the cell walls and causing the vegetables to soften. But here's the deal – hemicelluloses aren't soluble in acid and therefore won't dissolve if the cooking environment is too acidic.
Well, carrots contain beta-carotene, also called carotenoids which are better absorbed by the body in the form of cooked carrots. Also, a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry proves this fact. It shows that boiling and steaming tends to preserve the antioxidant carotenoid found in carrots.
Boiling and cooking vegetables in high temperatures or in water decreases their nutrient level. Water soluble vitamins like Vit C and B vitamins are often lost during these cooking methods. Minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium , magnesium, iron and zinc may be reduced by up to 60-70 percent.
Bottom Line. Whether you decide to peel a carrot or not is up to you. From our tests, there is perhaps only one time when it makes sense to always peel; that is, when you're steaming. The peel of steamed carrots can be tough, dry, and extra chewy.
❖ Cook vegetables as quickly as possible to and retain nutrients, color, and flavor. ❖ Steaming is the most preferred method for cooking because steam cooks food rapidly, lessens the loss of nutrients and flavor, and does not break up delicate vegetables.
Put above-ground vegetables into boiling water, below-ground into cold. When you boil any vegetable, follow this rule: If it grows above ground, put it into water that's already boiling. If it grows underground, put it in cold water and bring everything to a boil together.
Cold water boils faster than hot water.
It's a wonder it persists. There is, however, a good reason to use cold water instead of hot for cooking: hot water will contain more dissolved minerals from your pipes, which can give your food an off-flavor, particularly if you reduce the water a lot.
What is shocking? Shocking, a step that typically follows blanching, involves plunging just-blanched vegetables into ice water to immediately stop the cooking process. Doing so keeps the vegetables' color bright and their texture crisp-tender.