A quick question: What vegetable helps you see in the dark? The carrot? Correct! (And it's not actually a myth.) But aside from being a healthy snack, these colorful root vegetables tend to be so taken-for-granted (have you ever seen a produce aisle without carrots?) that we forget how interesting they are. Carrots are veteran team players; Italy's soffrito, and the mirepoix of France (carrots, celery, onion) are the foundations of countless sauces and stews, but these vegetables also excel as the featured ingredient in a dish. We get quite excited about the improvisations possible on the theme of carrot and would like to inspire you to pay attention to them—think of yourself as a hungry rabbit with serious cooking skills. Here, we've gathered our best carrot recipes to lead the way.
Raw carrot salads are crisply delicious, while cooked carrots soften accommodatingly, absorbing cream and cooking juices to become powerhouses of flavor for luscious dips and soups. Whole carrots roast to effortless perfection, caramelizing in slow heat. Naturally sweet, this distinctive carrot trait is part of their versatility. Carrots' sweetness is complemented, muted, or emphasized by strong flavors: citrus juices, the acid of vinegar, the umami of soy and fish sauces, the heat of chiles, hot sauces, or raw garlic, the tang of shallots, warm spices like allspice, cumin, and fennel, and the oils of herbs like rosemary and thyme (for slow cooking) or soft herbs like cilantro, parsley, mint and dill (for last-minute pops of flavor) offer endless opportunities for multi-seasonal meals.
In short, carrots are endlessly versatile and incredibly delicious. But don't take our word for it—whip up a few of the recipes in the slides ahead and you'll never forget to add a bunch of carrots to your shopping cart again.
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Glazed Carrots with Saffron and Lime
Cooking carrots to a tender crunch on the stove top with butter and a little sugar is a classic preparation. In this clever riff, crushed saffron adds a floral dimension, and lime juice—lively and more fragrant than lemon—wakes everything up.
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Carrot-Parmesan Quiche
Quite a looker, this fabulous four-cornered, puff pastry-crusted quiche is just the centerpiece you need for a spring brunch. It starts with store-bought puff pastry, which you can blind bake a day ahead. Then, all that's left to do is make the custard filling with carrot purée, garlic, and Parmesan day-of and make. A tangle of carrot ribbons and parsley is all the garnish it needs.
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Creamy Carrot, Tomato, and Ginger Soup
Consider this dreamy bowl a hybrid of carrot-ginger soup and tomato bisque. A sweet potato helps create the creamy texture, the soup is actually cream free; the only dairy is a little butter added at the end when the soup is blended.
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Carrot, Avocado, and Feta with Spring Greens
Roasted with honey, olive oil, and salt, carrots become soft and caramelized. You can enjoy them like that or, as we love to do, add them to this colorful and hearty spring salad made with watercress or mache and finished with sunflower seeds and a dusting of sumac.
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Baked Carrot-and-Leek Pilaf
A great way to feed a crowd, this rice recipe starts by cooking down the vegetables in the oven (cinnamon is included to boost their natural flavor and thyme for savory balance). Next, crank up the heat, add basmati rice and boiling water, return the baking dish to the oven, and let casserole kismet happen.
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Roasted-Carrot-and-Salsa-Verde Sandwiches
These sublime subs are super satisfying and just happen to be vegan. Carrots are roasted with the Moroccan spice mix ras-el-hanout and paired with a vibrant salsa verde made with garlic, capers, jalapeño, and plenty of mint and cilantro.
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Carrot-Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Glaze
An easy nut-free cake that's a combo of classic carrot cake and lemon-poppyseed loaf, this treat has all the warming spices you love in carrot cake plus the crunch of poppy seeds. A simple Meyer-lemon glaze is the finishing touch.
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Carrot Paloma
You can (and should!) drink your carrots. Fresh-squeezed grapefruit, carrot juice, ice, and tequila come together to make a bright and delicious drink that's perfect for a garden party or Easter brunch.
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Carrot Patties
Like latkes but lighter, these savory carrot patties are excellent vehicles for sour cream, salmon roe, or hummus.
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Carrot and Yogurt Dip
Raw carrots paired with pungent Indian lime pickles, cilantro, cumin, and the heat of raw garlic make a delectable and healthy topping for rich and probiotic Greek yogurt.
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Carrot and Parsnip Soufflé
This soufflé is an autumnal showstopper featuring carrot juice with puréed carrots and parsnips. It's warmed by a pinch of allspice. (It's a myth that soufflés are hard to make. All they require is attention and an immediate audience, seated before the soufflé's triumphant exit from the oven.)
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Carrot-Ginger Layer Cake
What sets this ginger-spiced and buttermilk-rich carrot cake apart is its spectacular wrapping of bright carrot ribbons.
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Roasted Carrots with Chimichurri
The sweetness of carrots plays very well with the assertive flavors of the iconic Argentine sauce for grilled meats: Chimichurri's powerful garlic, acid, and bright herbs transform a platter of roast carrots into a gorgeous vegan entrée.
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Carrot-Spinach Soup with Dill
If anything ails you, this bright, nourishing carrot soup's appearance alone will comfort you and banish the blues. The secret to seasoning it is in the salt (don't skimp). The hot soup is spooned right over the raw spinach and dill whose color and flavor remain vibrant. Whatever you do, forget the final squeeze of fresh lemon.
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Carrot Salad with Parsley and Spring Onions
Like a deconstructed salsa verde, the zing of scallions with leafy parsley are an underrated raw combination. Prepare this salad an hour ahead so that the flavors have time to mingle.
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Carrot Cake Thumbprint Cookies
The irrefutable appeal of thumbprint cookies is doubled when they are also carrot cakes in miniature. Pecans, golden raisins, and oats are combined with grated carrot to make these very snackable treats.
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Carrots Agrodolce
The ultimate in sweet and sour, agrodolce combines just-cooked carrot matchsticks with a little sugar and good red wine vinegar for a spoonable relish that doubles as a topping for creamy schmears atop toast or a bright foil for grilled meats.
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Stir Fried Carrots with Coconut
Hot with chile, crunchy with urad dhal (split, skinned lentils) and mustard seeds, and toasty with coconut, this carrot poriyal recipe is courtesy of Madhur Jaffrey. While it is traditionally served to a complement a meal, it also makes an excellent filling for a pita or a sandwich.
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Spicy Carrot Soup
Richly orange and shot through with the fragrance of harissa, this hot soup is destined to become a cold-weather staple.
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Carrot Ginger Iced Pops
Sugar-free ice pops are what it's all about. Fresh oranges, carrot juice, strawberries, and ginger take away all the guilt of dessert in these enticingly easy pops.
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Roasted Carrot Dip
Roasting carrots coaxes out their earthy sweetness, which is a natural partner for spice: a serious squeeze of Sriracha makes this an ultra-scoopable party appetizer (or just nestle down with your favorite Netflix series and eat it all yourself). Low-carb tip: Use endive leaves, beet slices, and fennel bulb wedges for scooping if you want to skip the pita.
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Carrot Limeade
Drink your carrots! Their intensely flavored juice is lifted by fresh lime juice in these vibrantly refreshing long drinks, made bubbly by chilled seltzer. Invite your favorite bunnies to sip with you.
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Carrot Vichyssoise
The sunset colors of carrot-inflected vichyssoise make this a compelling seasonal riff on the classic (and very classy) chilled soup.
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Shredded Carrot Salad
Fennel seed, cumin, shallot, and lime juice a create a tonic-like bold dressing for a mound of shredded carrots, a healthy and crisp compliment to grilled-anything, and a wonderful topping for bruschetta.
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