As time goes on I’m running low on vegetables to write about as part of my weekend blogging. Fortunately, I just realised that I’ve never written about carrots. I suppose the simplest things often get overlooked.

One medium (61 gram) carrot only has 25 calories, 20 mg calcium, 195 mg potassium, 5054 mcg beta carotene, 3.6 mg of vitamin C.

I love the different colours of carrots that you can get at the farmers’ markets. Despite what many people say, I also find the carrots at the markets far more delicious and sweet than the ones from the grocery stores. Honestly, as much as I love the convenience of the one-stop shopping, I kind of wish we could go back to the days of small local specialised markets. Or if we could even have a mini farmers’ market inside each grocery store that would be great. Sometimes it’s just not easy to get to the farmers’ market and this way more people would have access to the local bounty. Sorry, little digression there… Back to carrots.

Carrots are great raw (and if you get the lovely market ones you can get away without peeling them if you give them a good scrub) or cooked. Just be aware that vitamins, such as vitamin C, are heat sensitive so you will have some nutrient loss when you cook them. You’ll lose more vitamins depending on your cooking method as well. The shorter the length of time you cook them, the more vitamins you’ll retain. If you boil them, save the water and use it in soups or mashed potatoes.