Here's one more way to cut back on kitchen waste: try cooking with your carrot tops! We've been seeing these nutritious greens popping up on restaurant menus and food blogs in all kinds of interesting ways: whizzed into pesto, blanched and dressed with sesame seeds or snipped into a pretty salad of shaved carrot coins.
And yes, despite what you may have heard, carrot tops are edible. (Even Harold McGee agrees.) You might already be tossing them into stocks, but how about showcasing their herbal, earthy, subtly carrot-ish flavor in one of these recipes instead? Their texture can be a little tough, so go for the leafy tops rather than the stems, and blanch them if needed.
Carrot Top Recipes to Try
- Grilled Cheese with Roasted Carrots & Carrot Green Pesto at Happy Yolks
- Moroccan Carrot & Chickpea Salad at 101 Cookbooks
- Roasted Carrot & Black Bean Tacos with Cilantro & Carrot Green Chimichurri at Rosemarried
- Carrot Greens with Sesame Dressing from Melissa Clark
- Velvety Carrot Soup with Carrot Top Pesto at Sunset
Have you ever eaten carrot tops?
(Images: Happy Yolks; 101 Cookbooks)
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This carrot top soup recipe from Deborah Madison is maybe the most carrot-y flavored thing I've ever tasted: http://journalsquarecsa.weebly.com/uploads/5/6/0/1/5601342/carrots.pdf
We eat all our vegetable tops, actually. I wash them and freeze them. Then I throw into stock or use them like those boxes of frozen spinach. Last night, I pulled a bunch of radish tops out of the freezer and chopped them and put them in lasagna. Like spinach, only FREE with the radishes, and local greens at this time of year!
I blogged about using them in shepherd's pie here:
http://thriftathome.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-to-do-with-radish-tops.html
Thanks for this--I never know what to do with them.
I stuff them in chickens for roasting instead of parsley or other herbs. They impart a nice earthy flavour.
I never thought about using them for pesto. Great idea!
There's an oxtail stew I make that calls for carrots and is supposed to be garnished with parsley, but as long as I get my hands on carrots with tops still attached I'll use the chopped carrot tops instead. Feels like a more cohesive dish and adds a lovely, much-needed herbal bite to an otherwise heavy stew.
You had me at grilled cheese.
I'm so excited by this post! I love finding out how to use "waste" from our food. This is gonna be such a fun ingredient to try out! I love the idea of the pesto!! How "carrot-y" do the tops taste?
Maria Tadic
http://beanafoodie.com/blog
The first recipe you posted is owned by Wisconsin Cheese, and Happyolks wrote the recipe for them, though you don't even cite them...http://wisconsincheesetalk.com/2012/04/02/the-rosalie-grilled-cheese-sandwich/