how do you solve a problem like carrots?

[valancy]

I hate carrots, but the house is full of them - frozen, fresh, and canned. The only way I've liked them cooked is boiled on the stove with butter, roasted like with pot roast (or in the crock pot), or in carrot cake. :)

I'm no chef - my fiance does most of the cooking - but I'd like to make something that uses the carrots without tasting like carrots (which I think taste like dirt + sugar).

Can anyone recommend good recipies or methods of preparation, keeping in mind that I don't eat spicy food? I can do basic cooking, but I like to make recipies so don't let the recipe "level of complication" stop you from suggesting something, please.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Here's a good, breakfasty muffin recipe, for when you get tired of carrot cake:

2 C flour
3/4 C brown sugar
2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
4 t cinnamon
3 C carrots, grated
1 C apple, grated
1/2 C nuts
1/2 C raisins
2/3 C coconut
3 eggs
1/3 C oil
2/3 C yogurt
1 1/2 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Mix in fruity nutty bits. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Combine. Glop into greased muffin tins. Bake 350F, 20-25 min. Makes 18.

And here's an interesting salad that you will either love or hate:

1 large carrot, cut into 2-inch-by-1/2-inch matchsticks
1 medium (1 lb) daikon radish, cut into matchsticks
1 t salt
1/4 C unseasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 T sugar
1/4 C water

1. In large bowl, toss together carrot, radish and salt. After several minutes, mix and lightly knead vegetables with your hands. Working over a colander set in a bowl, gather up veg in your hands and squeeze out the liquid. Rinse and dry bowl, return vegetables to it.

2. In glass bowl, mix vinegar, sugar and water. Heat in microwave 1 min or until sugar dissolves. Cool to room temp.

3. Sprinkle 1 T of vinegar mixture onto veg. Mix with your hands, then squeeze out and discard liquid.

4. Add remaining dressing to veg. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 min or for up to two days.

[serene]

They disappear into spaghetti sauce, adding nutrition without a carroty taste.

[serene]

Oh, and they add great moisture (without carrotyness, in my opinion) to meatloaf, shredded finely.

[sid]

Ah, exactly what I was coming to say! :-)

Years ago, when I was trying to get more veggies into my diet, I read an article that just advised chopping vegetables up very, very small, so you never had a big, unpleasant bite to chomp into. That method really worked for me, and now I eat veggies all the time without needing to miniaturize them. (It was the same article that suggested grating carrots into spaghetti sauce. *g*)

[melannen]

We had a vast number of carrots to use up this winter, due to a church-dinner snafu, and discovered that if you boil and mash or puree them (or, with canned carrots, if they're unsalted/buttered, just mash/puree) you can substitute them for cooked/canned pumpkin in almost any baking recipe that uses pumpkin. (They do taste a little bit carroty instead of pumpkiny, but if you like carrot cake it should be fine.)

[libitina]

And I like them pureed (after cooking) into soup with a rich, creamy coconut milk and ginger base.

[riverlight]

I've never done it, but I think you can make pickled carrots. It's surprisingly easy, actually—I have pickled beans—and is delicious.. Plus the pickling process disguises the taste somewhat.

(I heartily recommend the spaghetti sauce solution given above!)

[azurelunatic]

I have made pickled carrots halfassed without a recipe, and I found them good.

[azurelunatic]

They're good in white bean + bacon soup, and apparently they can counteract a certain amount of spice too.

Thanks!

[valancy]

Thanks for all the delicious suggestions, everyone! I'm all for sneaking them into stuff where I won't taste them. This morning, my niece asked me for a snack and I had to tell her I didn't have any, I don't have any cookies or crackers or chips, all I have is vegetables. She said "I like vegetables" so I gave her a carrot. :D