As we all know, carrot is one of the most popular vegetables in the world, often claimed to be the perfect health food. However, when people talk about Chinese foods, carrots are seldom mentioned, compared to other kinds of vegetables such as potato, tomato, cumbersome, broccoli, etc., so you must want to ask a question, “Do Chinese eat carrots?”
The answer is an absolute yes! Chinese do eat carrots! Because carrots are considered super healthy food in China. I remember when I was a child, my mum tirelessly emphasized the importance of eating carrots and how highly nutritious they are.
Chinese think carrots can provide a particularly good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants, which can have a lot of benefits to children and young people. Also, elder people can lower their cholesterol and keep their eyes healthy by consuming carrots.
There is no doubt that carrots are playing a critical role in Chinese daily diets but I have to admit that carrots are never cooked as the main dish, which is probably why people will wonder if the Chinese eat carrots.
How carrots are served by the Chinese?
Because carrots are never served as the main dish on the Chinese table, people misunderstand that there is no carrot ingredient in Chinese food. Now let me show some most common ways that carrots are served by the Chinese.
Add some carrots when making soup
Chinese love to add some carrots when they’re making soup, especially southern Chinese, because boiling carrots can naturally occur a sugar flavor that is very different from just adding sugar, making the soup taste more balance.
For another, boiling carrots can greatly increase the supply of healthy elements. Such as the naturally occurring sugar possessing anti-cancer properties. But solely boiling carrots is too plain, so the Chinese prefer to make soup with carrots, which is a much more acceptable way, particularly for kids.
Use carrots to make a stir-fried dish
As we all know, Chinese foods include a great variety of stir-fried dishes. Stir-fried dishes are tasted great but sometimes can be a bit oily. Because of that, the Chinese like to use the carrot as one of the ingredients, which makes carrots one of the most common vegetables in Chinese stir-fried dishes.
Stir-frying is the easiest and most efficient way to get great carrot flavor and if you add some pork, a classic Chinese food, “stir-fried carrot pork”, is beautifully made. Of course, the Chinese sometimes will just stir-fry carrots without any other ingredients, which is such a no-brainer dish that everyone can make.
Use carrots to make desserts
Because of the natural sweetness of carrots, the Chinese usually will use them to make desserts as well, like cake, Chinese sweet soup, congee, etc. Still, carrots are mostly used for lifting flavor for desserts, and seldom can one find a dessert solely made with carrots.
Use carrots to make cold dishes
Being used for making cold dishes probably is the most common way to consume carrots in China. After simply boiling the carrots and then slicing them, the Chinese will find some vinegar and soy sauce and mix them with carrot slices, which is a very traditional Chinese cold dish. Also, people love to add carrot slices or carrot cubes to many other cold dishes, which not only can increase more flavors but also can be a little decoration.
Directly eat the raw carrot
Yes, the Chinese will directly eat raw carrots without boiling and slicing, just like eating apples. Chinese understand that eating raw carrots can better absorb the nutrients in carrots and retain the most antioxidants. Chinese usually eat raw carrots in private at home, so maybe it’s part of the reason that you can’t feel how Chinese love eating carrots.
Most popular Chinese carrot recipes
Chinese pork dumplings
Dumpling is a very traditional Chinese food. Most Chinese dumplings are made with pork and people will add other vegetables to create more flavors. Adding carrots is one of the most popular ones. The stuffing made with pork and carrot tasted great. With a little sweetness of carrots, the taste of pork dumplings can be more balanced and make people have more appetite.
Stir-fried carrot pork
Stir-fried carrot pork is a very popular Chinese dish. Not only because it tastes great and nutritious, but also because it’s extremely easy to make. All the ingredients you need are just carrots, pork, and salt. After slicing the boiled carrots and pork, you simply need to fry them and put in a little salt. I’ll make one from time to time at home.
Stir-fried carrot eggs
Pretty similar to stir-fried carrot pork, stir-fried carrot eggs are easy for people to cook as well. Being the main ingredient of this dish, carrots can make scrambled eggs taste all-natural sweet in an entirely savory dish.
Rice fried with eggs and carrots
Chinese love fried rice with eggs, including myself, just because it’s very convenient and saves food. Sometimes if I cook too much rice and have no idea how to deal with it, I will make fried rice with eggs my next meal. However, when I was in high school, I found a miracle dish from a regular Western Chinese restaurant, which is rice fried with eggs and carrots.
At the time, I hated to eat carrots, not even wanting to have a bit, until I tried the fried rice with eggs and carrots, I was changed. The sweetness of carrots mixed with eggs and rice so I couldn’t tell its carrot taste, but all ingredients were perfectly matched, which was so impressing me.
Carrot slices in the sauce
A classic Chinese cold dish and super easy-made food. You just need to make the boiled carrot slices (or make it cubes if you want) and then put them into the refrigerator for around one hour. After that, you just need to add some soy sauce and vinegar, and then are able to enjoy this super appetized Chinese cold dish.
Carrot congee
Congee is one of the Chinese main breakfast staples. To make it more flavorful, the Chinese love to put various ingredients when they’re cooking the congee, such as pork rib, beef, dry cabbage, and so on. The carrot congee is the one we can’t miss. When paired with the right spices and ingredients, carrots congee can be an expected breakfast surprise, which is sweet and wonderfully tasty.
Carrot rip soup
If you have any friends from Guangdong, one of the Chinese southern provinces, you definitely will be asked to have soup every day in each meal. As an indispensable part of the Guangdong dining table, the culture of soup is deeply rooted in the lives of the Guangdong people.
The soup is cooked in many ways. Many housewives have their own unique soup-making recipes and carrot is one of their favorite ingredients, especially when they’re cooking port rip soup. Using port rib cook soup can be too plain if you just add salt, but with carrots, the soup can be overall tasted more balance. Maize is also an amazing ingredient for cooking pork rib soup.
Chinese Braised beef with carrot
Chinese-style braised beef is sweet with unique deep flavors developed from the use of potato and carrot. The beef is braised in a rich savory broth with potatoes and carrots until super tender. Adding carrots can greatly brighten up the dish and make it a more nutritious meal.
Just carrot
No boiling, no slicing, no cooking, but just directly eat the carrot after washing it with water. I see my mum eat carrots in this way a lot. If it wasn’t for my mum, I wouldn’t believe carrots can be consumed like fruits. In fact, directly eating raw carrots probably can help you better absorb the rich nutrition in carrots.
