Turn carrots from drab to ‘delicious’ with simple glaze hack

As much as we all want to be healthy, sometimes it can be difficult to eat vegetables.

Occasionally, they can be tasteless and bland, depending on the season, but mixing up how you cook them can make all the difference. When it comes to carrots, there’s a simple way you can pack flavour into the humble veggies.

According to Chef Kelly Scott, known as kellyscleankitchen on TikTok, using one simple method can make anyone fall in love with carrots. All you have to do is change the way you prepare them.

To start, she chops some carrots and pops them into a pan with some thyme, salt and butter. She steams them with the lid on for five minutes before adding a drizzle of maple syrup and some chicken stock. Fill until the liquid comes up half way.

Kelly then simmers this for a further five minutes until the carrots are cooked through. Remove the lid, and continue to simmer until the liquid totally evaporates and leaves you with a nice glaze.

Kelly said: “It’s the perfect combination of savoury and sweet, and comes together in under 30 minutes.” Her boyfriend also admitted they taste “delicious”.

Since she shared the recipe, it’s been liked hundreds of times, and people were quick to comment too. Many seemed to think they look pretty great.

One person said: “Wow, I’ve always done almost the same recipe, except dark sugar instead of syrup. I’m doing this tonight.”

Another wrote: “I haven’t made these in a while. Glad I saw this to remind me.”

A third also replied: “My go-to carrot recipe is cinnamon, star anise and honey. Finished with butter. It’s amazing, and my partner wolfs down the whole lot every time I make them.”

When it comes to cooking carrots, people can make common mistakes. When you overcook them, you can actually cause them to become dull, flavourless and they can also lose their nutritional value and bold colour.

The best ways to avoid this, if boiling, is to set a timer to cook them, and put the carrots into an ice bath as soon as the timer goes off. You should always look for a tender-crisp texture, which means they only need to be cooked until they are fork-tender.

It’s also vital to salt the water to season the carrots as they cook. This will help them to become a lot tastier.

Meanwhile, roasting carrots can also work to boost their qualities. To do this, simply pop them in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper and bake.

When done they should be tender and golden around the edges. This will add a caramel note to the vegetables as the sugars brown.