Car­rot — a root veg­etable with many names

Car­rots, car­rots, yel­low beets or as we call them “Rübli”: the pop­u­lar root veg­etable is known by many names. Not only that it has many names and is pop­u­lar, it was, before the pota­to appeared, the most eat­en side dish. More­over, it is one of the old­est veg­eta­bles in our coun­try. The car­rot is ver­sa­tile and incred­i­bly healthy. There­fore, it should not real­ly be miss­ing in any kitchen.

The ori­gin, prop­er­ties and his­to­ry of the carrot

The car­rot orig­i­nates from the wild car­rot. Where this actu­al­ly appeared for the first time is not entire­ly clear. It is esti­mat­ed that it orig­i­nat­ed in the Near East. It was already very pop­u­lar in the Stone Age and was con­sid­ered there not only as food, but also as a med­i­c­i­nal plant.

It is now found all over Europe and grows part­ly on mead­ow mar­gins and road­sides. It can be rec­og­nized by its unique flower. Because of its flower, it belongs to the umbel­lif­er fam­i­ly, just like dill, corian­der or fennel.

How­ev­er, the wild car­rot hard­ly receives any atten­tion. How­ev­er, its off­spring, the car­rot, is all the more pop­u­lar. The car­rot is a cross between the wild car­rot and oth­er car­rot species. It has been around since ancient times and is one of the most impor­tant veg­eta­bles in Europe, along with the pota­to and toma­to. Com­pared to its moth­er, the car­rot is much larg­er, juici­er and sweet­er. How­ev­er, the root veg­etable is not and has not always been orange. Car­rots once grown in the Mediter­ranean were white, and the yel­low, red and pur­ple vari­eties orig­i­nat­ed in Afghanistan. The col­ored vari­eties did­n’t find their way to Europe until the 12th cen­tu­ry, and by the 16th cen­tu­ry, yel­low car­rots were the num­ber one veg­etable. But how did the car­rot come to be the one we know today? We have the Dutch to thank for that. They bred the car­rot we know today in hon­or of roy­al­ty, and since it tast­ed bet­ter than the oth­er vari­eties, dur­ing the 19th cen­tu­ry, for exam­ple, the yel­low car­rot was used only as cat­tle feed and the oth­er vari­eties fell into obliv­ion — but they are on the rise again. At the fore­front is the pur­ple car­rot, which is now avail­able again in some super­mar­kets. Today, there are more than 100 dif­fer­ent vari­eties that dif­fer in shape and col­or. The main sea­son for the veg­etable is from July to Decem­ber. How­ev­er, since it is very easy to store, it is avail­able in our coun­try at any time of the year.

The ingre­di­ents of the carrot

Like most veg­eta­bles, the car­rot con­sists of almost 90 % of water and is there­fore very low in calo­ries. On 100 g there are just 26 kcal.

In addi­tion to fiber, the root veg­etable also con­tains numer­ous min­er­als such as potas­si­um, phos­pho­rus, cal­ci­um and mag­ne­sium. The vit­a­min con­tent is also not to be neglect­ed. Thus, the car­rot has vit­a­mins B6, B1 and B2, as well as vit­a­mins C and E. How­ev­er, the most impor­tant ingre­di­ent is carotene, of which the car­rot has the most among all vegetables.

The effect of the car­rot on our body

The root veg­etable, thanks to its sol­u­ble fiber, can stim­u­late metab­o­lism and help send cho­les­terol lev­els. The insol­u­ble fiber con­tained, on the oth­er hand, relieve gas­troin­testi­nal prob­lems. Thus, the veg­etable can work won­ders for both con­sti­pa­tion and diarrhea,

As already men­tioned, car­rots con­tain carotenoids (alpha- and beta-carotene), which have par­tic­u­lar­ly pos­i­tive effects on our body. For exam­ple, a carotenoid diet can pro­tect against can­cer and eye dis­eases, pre­vent high blood pres­sure and hay fever, and nour­ish the skin in many ways. Beta-carotene is the most impor­tant pre­cur­sor of vit­a­min A. For this rea­son, beta-carotene is also called provi­t­a­min A. Thus, the body can pro­duce vit­a­min A from beta-carotene.

Car­rots are also healthy for our teeth. Eat­ing raw car­rots stim­u­lates blood cir­cu­la­tion in the gums. In addi­tion, the teeth are thus also freed from food debris. The vig­or­ous chew­ing sta­bi­lizes the bones in the den­ti­tion and also mas­sages the gums. It also pro­motes the flow of sali­va, which has the effect of flush­ing out bacteria.

Car­rots in the kitchen

Car­rots can be pre­pared in many ways: raw as a snack, in a sal­ad or as a juice, cooked as a side dish, in soups or stews, or baked in the form of a cake — there are no lim­its to the car­rot. The advan­tage of the root veg­etable is that they har­mo­nize with almost all kinds of food.

It is ide­al to pre­pare car­rots with a lit­tle fat. The rea­son for this is the absorp­tion of carotene, which is only pos­si­ble if there is some fat in the food, because the carotene is fat-soluble.

Pur­chase and stor­age of carrots

The per­fect car­rot is intense orange col­or and crunchy-firm. This means, there­fore, that it should nei­ther bend nor look wrin­kled. If the car­rots are bought in bunch­es, you should make sure that the cab­bage looks bright green and fresh.

Basi­cal­ly, the root veg­eta­bles should be pre­pared as soon as pos­si­ble after pur­chase, because the car­rots tend to quick­ly turn brown and soft.

Ide­al­ly, the car­rots should be stored in the veg­etable com­part­ment of the refrig­er­a­tor. There they will keep for about sev­en to ten days. If you have bought a bunch of car­rots, you should cut off the cab­bage before­hand. If the car­rots are in plas­tic pack­ag­ing, remove the pack­ag­ing com­plete­ly or at least open it to pre­vent con­den­sa­tion from form­ing. In addi­tion, you can wrap the car­rots in a damp cloth to increase their shelf life. How­ev­er, they should be washed just before prepa­ra­tion. If you do not use up all your car­rots, you can also freeze them. For this pur­pose, it is rec­om­mend­ed to blanch the car­rots before­hand and cut them into small pieces.

How about a deli­cious car­rot recipe? The AOK has a super tasty recipe for you.

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