How Many Baby Carrots Should Be In A Serving?
Did you know that it is recommended that at least half of your diet should be vegetables and fruits? The truth is, vegetables offer priceless health benefits to the body hence it would be great if you ate daily servings of vegetables and fruits. One of the vegetable servings you are going to find irresistible is a dish of well-cooked baby carrots. A question that most people do ask is “how many meals should I be eating?” and “how many baby carrots should be in a serving?”
Before I answer your questions and show you what you might be missing, let us first know what baby carrots are since some people might be clueless about what’s going on here. I know right now a lot of questions are running through your mind. Some of them might be “what are baby carrots and how are they grown?”
Baby carrots are planted from a special type of carrots seeds that usually grow tender and slim. They are grown in a different way compared to the normal carrots. To achieve slender growth of the roots, the seeds are planted in tight clusters and looser soils.
How Many Baby Carrots Can I Use To Prepare A Serving?
The number of baby carrots you will use in preparing your serving will depend on the amount of calories you need. Since carrots contain sugars, they are a great source of calories for the body. Please note that a serving of vegetables should not only contain carrots. For a great taste and high nutritional content, a good serving should contain several vegetables and fruits.
Usually, one serving equals one cup of vegetables. Therefore, to make a serving, you will need at least ten baby carrots together with other vegetables like broccoli florets, tomatoes, spinach and other vegetables depending on the recipe you will use to make the serving of your choice.
How To Prepare A Serving Of Baby Carrots
The shelf life of baby carrots depends on how to preserve them. Baby carrots can last for a month if they are stored in a fridge properly
There are several creative recipes that you can use to make a vegetable serving. You can prepare baby carrots with lemon and parsley. You can also prepare glazed baby carrots or baby carrots with sweet ginger butter.
Recipe for preparing baby carrots with lemon parsley
Ingredients:
- 10 pieces of baby carrots
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon of chopped parsley
Procedure:
- Place the baby carrots in a saucepan and cover with water
- While it’s cooking, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and cook till soft
- Drain the excess water after it has cooked
- Add the 3 tablespoons of butter, the lemon juice, and the chopped parsley then stir
- Add salt and pepper to taste
This is a serving for one. You will be so much amazed at how delicious the serving would taste that you would wish you had read this article earlier. Watch a video on how to prepare baby carrots with parsley:
How to prepare a serving of honey glazed baby carrots with parsnip
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of melted butter
- 10 baby carrots cut into small coins
- 3 medium parsnips cut into small coins
- A half a cup of chicken broth
- 4 tablespoons of honey
- 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon of paprika
- 1 tablespoon of ground pepper
Procedure:
- Put the frying pan over medium heat and add the two tablespoons of butter.
- After the butter is hot, add the cut pieces of baby carrots and parsnips and cook for about five minutes.
- Add the chicken broth and the 3 tablespoons of honey and stir.
- Let the mixture cook for about seven minutes.
- Season with parsley, salt and pepper and the paprika.
- Stir and let the mixture cook for five minutes.
The total cooking period should take between fifteen to twenty minutes. This will make around two to three servings. You can then serve yourself together with your friends or guests and enjoy this delicious taste that you are not going to forget anytime soon.
You can click the link below to watch a video on how to prepare a serving of glazed baby carrots.
Preparing baby carrots with sweet ginger butter
Ingredients
- 10 pieces of fresh baby carrots.
- 3 tablespoons of butter.
- 2 tablespoons of crystallized ginger.
- White pepper freshly ground.
Procedure
- Put the carrots in a saucepan over low heat and cover with water.
- Add ¼ of a tablespoon of salt and allow the mixture to simmer.
- Allow the carrots to cook till soft.
- Drain the excess water and transfer the cooked carrots into a different saucepan.
- In a different saucepan over low heat, add the butter and the crystallised ginger and then stir the mixture.
- Allow the mixture to boil so that the sugar in the crystallised ginger can be dissolved in the butter.
- Add the cooked carrots to the pan until they are entirely coated with the butter and the ginger.
- Add salt and the ground pepper to taste.
There you have it. Now serve it and give your taste buds something to talk about.
Health Benefits Of Eating Carrots
Carrots come packed with a lot of health benefits. First, carrots are a rich source of Vitamin A that improves vision and stimulates cell growth, boosts the body’s immunity to diseases and aids in reproduction too.
In terms of boosting the body’s immunity, carrots are one of the top anti-cancer foods hence it is advisable that women should eat more carrots if they want to reduce risks of developing cancer, especially breast cancer.
Carrots are also an important source of dietary fibre.
How Many Servings Should You Take In A Day?
Do you know that nutritionists recommend that at least half of what you eat in a day should consist of vegetables?
Since the body needs a high amount of calories supplied to it daily for normal functioning, sources of calories like servings would be nice to take on a daily basis. Active people like young children and women should take at least four daily servings of vegetables. Older people should take at least three servings a day.
However, if you have weight-related issues, then you might need to ensure that you don’t eat too many carrots that are more than what the body requires. Since carrots are sweet, you are likely to forget and over eat them.
In case you might be worried about the calories in the carrots, then the best solution is to make sure that you prepare it in a serving that also contains other crunchy vegetables like broccoli.
Conclude
To finally finish, I would like to encourage you to start eating a healthy diet and lead a life that is free from worries of developing cancer, more so if you are a woman. From now on, make eating vegetables part and parcel of your life.
Immediately you try out one of the recipes above for preparing vegetable servings using baby carrots, you are not only going to find the taste irresistible but will also benefit yourself health wise.
