Not Just Rabbit Food: 5 Tasty Ways to Eat Carrot Tops

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.

• 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