Rainbow Carrot Stir-Fry Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Do you pre cook carrots before stir fry? ›

Blanching the carrots before stir frying ensures that they are perfectly cooked while retaining their vibrant color and crunchy texture. To blanch the carrots, bring a pot of water to boil and add a pinch of salt. Carefully place the carrots into the boiling water and cook them for 2-3 minutes.

Purple carrots are a great addition to salads, soups, and snacks, and they also work well pickled for savory dishes. Orange carrots are known for their Beta-carotene, an antioxidant that is metabolized to vitamin A in your body. Beta-carotene is also responsible for its vibrant orange color.

Some veggies, like snow peas or scallions, don't need the head-start, but woodier root vegetables, like carrots or turnips, will benefit from being par-cooked. You want the vegetables to maintain their crunch, but not be raw. If you're including meat in your stir-fry, choose the right cuts.

They make incredible pickled carrots, are quintessential for brining and deep frying and they make great protein companions when pan-roasted or grilled. Try them eaten raw in veggie platters, pureed into sauces, boiled and braised.

Extra virgin olive oil has a very low smoke point with a strong flavor, making it completely unsuitable for stir-frying.

Cook 1 pound carrots, covered, in a small amount of boiling salted water until crisp-tender. Here's how long to cook carrots on the stove top depending on how they're cut: 7 to 9 minutes for ¼-inch slices. 4 to 6 minutes for strips.

“Rainbow coloured carrots do taste different from orange. Yellow carrots have an earthy sweet flavour with notes of celery and parsley. White carrots are relatively mild. Purple carrots can have a peppery flavour but can also be very sweet.”

All varieties of carrots are extremely nutrient dense and a great addition to a healthy diet – they're high in fiber and rich in potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin K. However, each individual color contains a specific set of phytonutrients (antioxidants) which offer slightly different nutritional benefits.

The taste of each color differs by variety, but there isn't a drastic flavor contrast between them. Some varieties have a sweet and spicy taste to them, while others are sweeter than orange carrots.

The first is to cook your protein and your vegetable separately, and combine them only after both are fully cooked. A second rule of thumb for stir-frying: Choose one vegetable per stir-fry. Finally, always remember to add liquid only after everything is more or less finished cooking.

What not to put in stir-fry? ›

Using the Wrong Oil: Use an oil with a high smoke point, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil, to prevent burning. Olive oil, for instance, might not be suitable for high-heat stir-frying. Adding Too Much Sauce: While sauce adds flavor, using too much can make the stir-fry soggy.

The taste difference between different colored carrots like orange, purple, red, white, and yellow isn't extreme. It isn't even as wide a range as different colored tomatoes. Yet there is some bit of a change to the flavor. It's often slight and it's subtle, mainly showing up when eating carrots raw.

In general, colored carrots tend to have a slightly sweeter and earthier flavor than orange carrots. Purple carrots, in particular, are known for their unique, slightly nutty flavor. Some people describe the taste as being similar to a cross between a sweet potato and a regular carrot.

Loaded with vitamin A and beta carotene, these brightly-colored beauties support healthy vision and a balanced diet.

To prepare vegetables for stir-frying, blanching is the perfect way to jump-start the cooking process, especially for dense vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower (which usually take a while to stir-fry and often get soggy).

Carrots: Blanch small whole carrots 5 minutes and cut-up carrots 2 minutes. Beans (green, Italian, snap, and wax): Working in batches, boil small beans for 2 minutes, medium beans for 3 minutes, and large beans for 4 minutes. Peas (English or green): Blanch 1½ minutes.

Carrots sliced into 1-4-inch slices take 4 to 5 minutes to cook to crisp tender. You can cook them a little longer if you prefer carrots that are even more tender. Just make sure not to boil them too long! Boil them over 10 minutes and the carrots will turn to mush.

Meat first, then vegetables – If you want meat or seafood in your stir fry, cook it first then scoop it out onto a separate plate before cooking the vegetables. You'll add the meat back in at the end. 5. Don't crowd the pan – If you have too much in your pan, the vegetables will steam instead of staying crisp.