Welcome to the second post of the Foodventure Series! This popular root vegetable might have you seeing things a bit more clearly after you’re done with it.
Now when it comes to carrots, I'm not the *biggest* fan of them; I like to keep my sweets in the fruit or unhealthy dessert portion of my diet, and the overwhelming carrot-y taste that appears in roasted root vegetables isn't the most desirable when making a side dish. Still in all, I do love a good slice of carrot cake, and my eyesight has still been poor due to intense hours of screen time, so I figured that maybe now is a good time to learn how to incorporate carrots into my diet a little bit more. Fortunately for me, I have been able to find a happy medium; between eating Trader Joe’s root vegetable fries and sneaking a few carrots into my fruit smoothies, I’ve been slowly trying to add these into my normal diet.
Without further ado, though, let’s get into it!
According to The Carrot Museum in the UK (because yeah… that’s a thing) the orange root veggie that we know of was derived from its purple and yellow ancestors in Central Asia during the period 900 CE. This species, formally named daucus carota subsp. sativus, was not consistent in historical writings until about 600 years later. The carrot’s first sighting as a food crop began in the tenth century, where it was spotted in Persia, Iran, and present-day Afghanistan. Today, though, this sight-catching (and sight-improving) vegetable can be cultivated anywhere in the world where there are temperate weather conditions. The cultivation process works to harvest two main varieties: the Eastern/Asiatic carrots, or carrots with mainly purple or black roots which might be direct descendants from the OG carrot; or, the Western carrots, which sport orange, red, or white roots and are the result of a crop mutation.
But why is there so much hype about carrots being healthy, especially when it comes to eye health? Well, to start, carrots are extremely nutrient-dense, high in fiber, antioxidants, and minerals. What makes them a sight for sore eyes, though, is the presence of vitamin A, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Vitamin A can help prevent an eye disease that causes sight difficulty in darker settings, while the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin can prevent macular degeneration. Which is a form of vision loss that can affect older adults. That’s not all, though! The presence of carotenoids, or warm-colored pigments that are present in carrots and other yellow, orange, or red veggies, can serve as antioxidants that can fight off cancer-causing free radicals in the body. These are only a few of the various benefits that carrots could have, as carrots can help with digestive issues, lung damage, immune function, and cardiovascular healing.
But although my eyesight is getting worse and I already have slight digestive issues, II still hate the way that carrots taste. So, if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering how to mask the carrot-y taste.
Luckily for y’all, I actually have been cooking with these a little bit. If you want a simpler option than the recipes that I’m about to suggest, try throwing a carrot or two into a smoothie or juicing session so the other fruits and veggies you use can hide the sickeningly sweet veggie taste. If you want to hide it with seasonings or other ingredients, though, I got you covered. Check out the recipes I use for a sweet dessert, or for some fries that don’t taste all that carrot-y:
What food do you want to see next in the Foodventure Series? Let me know in the comments!
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Sources (not cited, used for reference/inspiration/information):