I just heard a news item on radio 4 about new research that indicates the benefits from cooking carrots whole. Now, that sounds like very old news to me. I recall my first cell biology practical at Bristol Uni back in the 70's, we cut carrots into varying size pieces (with whole carrots as a control) and then after boiling them analysed the 'cooking water'. The very clear result was that the smaller the pieces the more concentrated the levels of salts etc. in the water - ie. the less remained in the carrots.
This simple experiment came close to proving the bleeding obvious, but heyo, us young scientists had to start some where and I guess a lot of important principles came out of the experiment.
The recent research discussed on Radio4 also shows that cooked, whole carrots have more flavour than cut ones - no surprise there either. So the simple message is cook carrots whole if you want to keep the nutrients, anti-cancer agents and flavour.
The study, carried out by Dr Kirsten Brandt and researcher Ahlam Rashed, from the University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, found that "boiled-before-cut" carrots contained 25% more of the anti-cancer compound falcarinol than those that were chopped up first.
New seasons carrots are easy
to cook whole, they are thinner and cook quickly, I steam them or roast
them and the flavour is wonderful. I also find that freshly harvested
carrots clean very easily if not allowed to dry before washing - once
they have dried the skin hardens and in the worst case the only way to
clean them is to peel or scrape. Large carrots can take an age to cook so cutting is unavoidable - the suggestion is that to preserve goodness make the cuts so that the cut surfaces are minimised. I tend to go for chunks of carrot but for ease of cutting fat discs might be just as good. It seems that cutting 'julienne' is a real no-no, especially if the cooking water/steam is discarded.
The most nutritious carrot remains the one pulled from the garden, wiped on the inside of my shirt (so the dirt doesn't show) and munched while admiring the tasty crops to come.
Carrots are easy to grow, even if you have a very small plot (or no garden at all) - take a look at my guaranteed way to grow carrots item
I was surprised to read that carrots are more nutritious cooked that raw. It is not that they contain more nutrients, it is that the nutrients are more available after the cell walls have been broken by cooking.
However I am sure there is a lot to be said for the for the regular exercise that the immune system gets from chomping on carrots that have been cleaned on an old shirt or dew covered grass.
Posted by: Thomas | June 18, 2009 at 11:11 PM