They are pureed for babies and put in the lunch box for kindergarten children.

And when they can read later and start going out even later, then they see these vegetables on every other menu.

The carrot is hard to avoid.

That's a good thing, provided that three culinary rules are observed.

First: no carrot and pea vegetables (boring).

Second, don't pair carrots with potatoes (too home-baked).

Third: Don't skimp on the heat, because carrots often taste better cooked than raw.

Jacqueline Vogt

Department head of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

For example, in a Persian-style creation by the Indian-British cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, in which carrots find their way into dried apricots: For four servings, clean, peel and cut 300 grams of carrots diagonally into slices about five millimeters thick, cut six dried apricots in half, one onion halve and cut into strips.

Heat oil or butter in a pan, sauté the onions, add the carrots and apricots and fry until everything starts to brown.

Sprinkle in a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt, stir a little, then pour in about 150 milliliters of vegetable stock.

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, 5 to 10 minutes.

Tastes great as an accompaniment to red peppers stuffed with rice and herbs, but also on its own with rice or flatbread.

Our ancestors already liked carrots, seeds have been found from the late Stone Age in Europe.

Today, around 80,000 tons of carrots and carrots are harvested in Germany every year, whereby the distinction is literally a matter of form: carrots are short and blunt, while carrots, which can be up to 90 centimeters long, are elongated and narrow .

Their color is yellow or orange, the so-called primal carrots, a special breed, are deep purple to black on the outside and orange on the inside.

Carrots contain potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iron, vitamins and especially beta-carotene.

In order to make it optimally usable for the body, it has to be dissolved in fat: Steamed carrots are therefore less beneficial than in combination with butter or oil.

A few drops of oil should always be added to carrot juice.

Carrots are available all year round, and they keep for up to two weeks in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator or in a cool cellar.

For a spread that goes well with whole-grain pastries, carrots are peeled, steamed and mashed and mixed with peeled almonds, oil and almond butter to taste.

You can season it with cardamom or coriander.

The latter also goes well with carrot soup, an unsurpassed basic recipe comes from the fundus of "Essen und Drink" and calls for four portions 600 grams of carrots, 200 grams of floury potatoes, two onions, a clove of garlic, 30 grams of ginger, a liter of vegetable broth: peel the carrots, clean, halve and cut into pieces.

Peel and finely dice the potatoes, onions, garlic and ginger.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a saucepan, sweat everything, add the broth and cook over medium heat until the carrots and potatoes are tender.

Puree briefly with a hand blender, pass through if necessary.

With salt,

Season with pepper and lemon juice, possibly with chili flakes.

You can replace the lemon juice with orange juice, part of the broth with coconut milk - you can't really go wrong.

Vegetables in desserts: This trend is not that old in the restaurant patisserie.

In the bakery and confectionery trade - the everyday form of dealing with sweets - there is a tradition of using field crops in addition to sugar and flour, eggs and nuts, milk and butter, and carrots in particular.

For example for a carrot cake: separate four eggs, beat the egg whites until stiff.

Mix the egg yolks, add 250 grams of sugar and a packet of vanilla sugar, finally 350 grams of grated carrots.

Mix 150 grams of flour with two teaspoons of baking powder, add it as well, and finally stir in the beaten egg whites.

Grease a 26 cm springform pan, line with 200 grams of ground almonds, pour in the batter and bake for about 40 minutes.

Serve with plain yoghurt and whipped cream.