Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Carrot Tops


mrbigjas

Recommended Posts

So I had some carrots the other day, and I was thinking, why is it that people don't eat carrot greens very often? Other root vegetables: beet greens, turnip greens... hell, celery even, is the greens of a root vegetable (so to speak, I'm painting with a broad brush here; I know about the different kinds of celeries and all). So I ate some raw. They were nice. Bitter, but fresh tasting, not carroty in the same way beet greens taste beety. Didn't make me sick or anything. I'm going to make them more often.

A quick search on the web turned upmostly raw food, vegan, vegetarian, and other special-diet sites, but no "normal" ones. Therefore I would like to claim that if carrot greens become the next hip fad vegetable, you heard it here first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tried sauteeing some up at a Secret Society of Greens Eaters gathering, but found they were very tough when cooked. In our experience though, the raw greens tasting remarkably like carrot. After we cooked them they mostly tasted like the butter, cumin and salt we sauteed them in, though.

Tammy's Tastings

Creating unique food and drink experiences

eGullet Foodblogs #1 and #2
Dinner for 40

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having done a Google search, apparently, there are a lot of people who use carrot greens when mixing food for their horses. Who knew?

One website says they can be added to salads or stir-frys or they can be dried and used like an herb (e.g. Parsley).

Another website says you can add them to soup stock.

Some other sites advised separating the greens from the carrots when storing them so the greens don't leech any moisture out of the carrots.

I did find two recipes using carrot greens:

Ris de Veau à L'Huile de Truffe (Crispy Veal Sweetbreads With Truffle Oil from Le Rêve, San Antonio) - the greens are used as part of a bouquet garni

Zweibrücker Linsensuppe (Two Bridges Lentil Soup)

Other than that, you're right, there's not much out there.

You are a trendsetter!

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most popular spring couscous in central Tunisia is called Kuski Ffawwar. Celery leaves, wild fennel fronds, leeks, parsley and carrot tops are steamed for 30 minutes. The melange has a nice earthy flavor.

“C’est dans les vieux pots, qu’on fait la bonne soupe!”, or ‘it is in old pots that good soup is made’.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the loveliest salads I've made came straight from a friends vegetable garden and contained carrot tops, baby beetroot leaves, snow pea tendrils and

nasturtiums.

Who throws away their broccoli stalks? the shame...

How sad; a house full of condiments and no food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

I have some carrots with lovely green tops. What can I do with these?

One friend suggested that I cook them down with bacon fat and onions. An ingredient in green gumbo was another suggested use.

Any ideas? They just look too good to throw away.

Todd A. Price aka "TAPrice"

Homepage and writings; A Frolic of My Own (personal blog)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, there's this and where there's one recipe, there's bound to be more.

btw, someone told me just yesterday that carrots that you buy with the greens still attached were sweeter than the ones in the package..I guess thats because they're fresher??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

carrot tops...

1. functional, raw garnish.

2. addition to an herb salad or "mesclun" mix.

3. (repeated) great for stocks.

4. addition to a hearty soup like sausage/escarole, borscht, etc.,.

5. i wonder if it'd be interesting if it were dried and spun through a coffee grinder.

6. part of an herb compound butter, maybe.

.t.

eGullet Ethics Signatory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Completely OT, but when I was a kid I used to grow carrots in our backyard just because a certain butterfly (Black Swallowtail) would lay their eggs on the leaves. I always had a roomful of jars filled with carrot tops and happy caterpillars. It's a cool little experiment if you have kids, and the end result is gorgeous.

As far as cooking, I think that they would make a nice addition to flavor stocks, not sure how tasty they would be eaten as themselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cant really imagine how much "flavor" carrot tops can impart to a stock. But, I have done a carrot top puree. Used it as part of a vegan tasting menu. Just blanch the tops until they come apart when you rub them through your fingers and puree them with enough bottled still water for it to spin. Pass through a tamis and youre good to go.

-Chef Johnny

John Maher
Executive Chef/Owner
The Rogue Gentlemen

Richmond, VA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like that!  great idea!  what dish did you use them in?

t

I called it "Textures of Carrot". It was Carrot Agnolotti (Carrot farce in Fine herbs pasta dough), carrot top puree, carrot foam, and carrot powder. It was a great dish, now that I think about it. Anyway, it was the "pasta" course of a 9 course vegan menu we did a while back.

-Chef Johnny

EDIT : Just wanted to add, that we did make a vegan pasta dough, using egg substitute and soy milk and such. i just figured someone may point that out.

Edited by ChefJohnny (log)

John Maher
Executive Chef/Owner
The Rogue Gentlemen

Richmond, VA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IIRC, On Hell's Kitchen, someone used raw carrot greens as a garnish and was told by Ramsey that the greens were too bitter to be edible. Is that only in the raw state? Once cooked, what do they taste like? I've never had the chance to try them, and they have pretty much stayed under my radar until this thread.

Screw it. It's a Butterball.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to see entire menus written like that...

"an array of an ingredient".

cooked form.raw form garnish.form as powder.form as froth.form as puree.form as sauce.

"a study of the next ingredient".

its heated.its blended.its flowers.its greens."it" as a serving vessle.

do you know what i mean?

i absolutely LOVE that style of cooking.

we should explore/brainstorm that in a new topic..."an ingredient and its array, what would YOU do?".

fantastic.

eGullet Ethics Signatory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...