Carrots and celery and parsley, oh my!

April 22, 2020 6:24 PM

I bought too many carrots. I have about 12 oz. of carrots I would like to use up, and I don't see my wife and I munching on that many. I also have about half a stalk of celery and half a bunch of parsley to use up, too. Do you have a recipe for me?

The easier, the better. But I am leaning more toward something cooked, instead of a salad.

My supermarket is fairly well stocked.

No mushrooms, eggs or sweet potatoes. No food processor, instant pot, pressure cooker or grilling.

I expect we would eat any side dish with beer-battered fish. But I am open to ideas for a main dish.

Also, if you can give me recipes to use only two out of three of these things, that's not bad, either.

posted by NotLost to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Best answer: Chop and boil it all with an onion and a chicken thigh or two and some rice or noodles and you have chicken soup. Add dried thyme, sage, bullion cube/stock,oil, salt, pepper, frozen peas etc as available to taste. A little cayenne goes well too imo, ymmv.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:33 PM on April 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I made this roasted carrot and feta salad last week to also use up carrots, and it was fantastic. Parsley is a big ingredient in it, and it’s both cooked and a salad. I will definitely make it again.
posted by heurtebise at 6:41 PM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

You can caramelize carrots like you caramelize onions. Carrots go well with ginger. And/or chocolate.
posted by aniola at 6:45 PM on April 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

This recipe specifies certain vegetables but I promise any root veg with the lemon brown butter sauce is divine. Do get some radishes if you've never had them roasted, parsnips are good, fennel is amazing, carrots are perfect. I've even thrown in frozen artichoke hearts.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:50 PM on April 22, 2020

If you have a blender (regular or immersion), I'd check out the myriad recipes that come up by googling "carrot soup." Roasted, Thai, all kinds of yummy variations on a theme.
posted by kate4914 at 7:01 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

You can do a quick pickle on carrots. I like them spicy. Pickled Carrots
posted by Gneisskate at 7:23 PM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Do you have dogs? Ours love carrots. Cleans their teeth and freshens their breath!
posted by notsnot at 7:26 PM on April 22, 2020

Hold back your parsley, cook the rest in the bottom of a big pot in lots of olive oil, maybe add a sweet potato or onion too, whatever. Add lentils and water, simmer until the lentils are done. Put the parsley in and enjoy the best soup.
posted by fritley at 8:00 PM on April 22, 2020

Use a peeler to slice them into raw noodle like strips. Then toss with feta, sunflower seeds and a champagne vinegar or white balsamic vinegar and some olive oil. (Note that a dark balsamic will make it look pretty ugly brownish, but will still taste ok, though a little strong). Makes a lovely lettuce-less salad.
posted by slateyness at 10:12 PM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I haven't tried this, but I was visiting a friend, a serious meat eater whose wife and one daughter are vegetarians and as is often the case, he largely eats vegetarian at home, or adds meat he cooked on the side, as does the second kid. I was paying him a visit once, and his wife had a menu on the board for the following week's dinners, and one of them was "carrot hot dogs."

I asked them about it, and I got a recipe that was pretty much like this one. You cut the carrots to fit your buns, parcook them, and then marinate them with savory ingredients and liquid smoke.

My friend is not the sort of person who says one thing in front of his wife and another in private, but he told me the same in both conditions: they're pretty good.

I think this is worth trying, because if they work out, great, you've got a cool recipe. If they suck, well, at least you used up a load of carrots.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:20 PM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When I make instant ramen at home, I chuck out the flavor packet and add the following: chopped or grated carrots, thin-sliced celery, any other chopped vegetables that're likely to work (broccoli, cabbage), big splash of soy sauce (1-2 Tbsp?) (a small amount of bouillon would work too), a little splash of sesame oil (1-2 tsp?), a squirt of sriracha to taste, and a bit of garlic (chopped or granulated, whatever's at hand). If I think of it, I might put in about an ounce of meat: bacon, ham, cooked pork, roast beef, leftover chicken.

I don't think parsley would go amiss here, but I never keep that stuff around so I've not tried it.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:29 PM on April 22, 2020

Carrot, Orange and Ginger Soup:
lots of carrots, grated (4-5 grated cups), 1/2 onion, 1 Tbsp minced ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2L broth or stock, 1-2 cups orange juice. Scallions or cilantro to garnish if desired.

Sweat the onions in oil until transparent, then add garlic and ginger. You can add a little bit of chili paste or chili flakes here if you like spicy things. Add broth or stock. Cook until the carrots are soft. Blend until smooth- use an immersion blender if you have one. Add orange juice. Finish with a knob of cold butter if you like, which will add richness, and salt and pepper. Garnish with scallions or cilantro.
posted by unstrungharp at 10:56 PM on April 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Unless your carrots are totally on their last legs, you can keep them for a fair amount of time (like, weeks) in the fridge and use them whenever needed, in smaller quantities. The celery too. The parsley: chop, toast with some chopped garlic in olive oil, have it on top of that beer-battered fish.

-- A tablespoon each of finely chopped carrot and celery sautéed in a tablespoon (at least) of 50-50 butter and olive oil will be the perfect base for a tomato-y pasta sauce.

-- Very thinly sliced carrot is great in bouillon. Don't over-boil.

-- Chopped fresh parsley is also great in bouillon.

-- Chopped carrot-celery-parsley sautéed and spiced up with black pepper and some herbs de Provence and perhaps a teaspoon of chopped capers is good with your fish, again.

-- You could ferment them. Slice moderately thinly, or cut into thin sticks (julienne), put in a clean jar with a lid, top with salt water (4cups to 1,16oz of salt), some crushed garlic, 1/8 teaspoon celery seeds and/or dill seeds and some oregano, let sit in fridge for a week or so until sour, funky and delicious, let burp occasionally.

You don't want salad? Consider less salad: use the coarse grater for half a carrot at a time, add some olive oil, mix. Add a judicious amount of lemon juice, mix, taste. Add a judicious amount of salt, mix, taste, adjust lemon and salt. Grind some black pepper over it. Add 1/4 clove of finely mushed garlic, mix. Great with the fish.

Cut carrots and celery in not-too-big bits. Toast a little in butter, fill up with a cup of chicken stock and add a few tablespoons of dry white wine and some herbs-of-your-choice. Simmer until almost soft, then raise the temperature and boil away the liquid until about a tablespoon is left, add freshly chopped parsley.

All this said, if you are not really fond of carrots, you might do your wife and yourself a favor and let them slide.

I still think this is a trick question. This is like, what, five carrots??
posted by Namlit at 2:13 AM on April 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

This is a subcritical mass of carrots; runaway explosion almost certainly is not a problem.

Carrots keep fine in the fridge, but are terrific when cut and kept in water in the fridge - perky and juicy. This is also a remedy for when they lose firmness. Cut and place in water. Change the water every few days, to be on the safe side, I suppose.
posted by Glomar response at 5:08 AM on April 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

You'll find a lot of recipes for carrot soup that use ginger or curry or orange juice or apple juice, and those are all fine. However, the best carrot soup I ever had was pretty much just carrots, cooked and pureed, with maybe a little salt.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:53 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I might have carrots every day now? These ideas are great. I love roasted carrots.

Re the parsley that has the shortest refrigerator life. When I knew I had no plans for my last bag of parsley, I blended it with oil, salt, lemon juice, garlic and a bit of water to make it blend into a pesto-like sauce. I've been using that sauce - on top of pasta, on top of lamb chops, splash into some homemade marinara. I thought about adding it to mac n cheese. And after a week, it is still bright green and looks good. It would look great on roasted carrots or swirled on a carrot soup. Any pesto recipe with parsley subbed for basil minus the parm and pinenuts would be similar though parm and pinenuts would be good too! I got the idea from Daniel Gritzer of Serious Eats, https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/04/vegetable-scrap-herb-pesto.html .
posted by RoadScholar at 6:53 AM on April 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

I like these muffins a lot. Bonus: vegan, so you don't need eggs. You can substitute any kind of milk for the almond.
posted by something something at 7:07 AM on April 23, 2020

Carrot fries - just cut into 4 inch pieces and then divide into 2-4 pieces by cutting the long way. toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them out on a sheet pan. Cook at 425 for 20 minutes. The smaller you go, the less time you need, but you do want some browning on each piece.
posted by soelo at 7:55 AM on April 23, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for all the ideas. I guess I wasn't clear. I am hoping to put the carrots, celery and parsley all into one dish. Or at least two of the three items.
posted by NotLost at 8:10 AM on April 23, 2020

Best answer: In addition to dishes you can make RIGHT NOW, have you considering freezing a mirepoix? Finely dice onions, celery and carrots (FINE = no larger than pencil eraser size), gently cook in some good oil or oil/butter, then add about the same volume of olive or neutral oil and freeze. The high oil content should make it easy to scoop out a spoonful or a few when needed.

Mirepoix level up: If you have some tomato paste, cook it gently with the veggies while stirring until it goes brick red, then add oil and freeze as above. I have had a struck-by-lightning revelation about the importance of cooking tomato paste with veggies after making this red lentil soup.

And as far as the parsley goes, I learned how to use sad cilantro and parsley to enhance a soup base from this harira recipe. No chopping required and no sad, wilted green presence in the final dish: just flavour.
posted by maudlin at 8:57 AM on April 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

Carrots last a long time, easily a month, so there's no rush. I like to roast them with good chicken broth and olive oil or butter. @ 1/4" broth in a roasting pan (water and Better-Than-Bouillon is fine), a fair bit of olive oil or butter, peeled carrots, sliced lengthwise to be generally a uniform thickness so they roast evenly. Herbs are nice - rosemary or any savory mix. 350F until they're soft and all liquid is gone, toss several times during roasting. These are like crack at my house. Sweet, savory, salty crack that's good for you. Do not undercook. Carrots take well to thorough cooking.

I'd chop and freeze the celery for the next soup. If you really want to cook it all now, add it to stir-fry, which is a good way to use carrots too.

Parsley keeps well if you stand it up in a glass with a couple inches of water in it, in the fridge, or rough chop and freeze for the next recipe that needs it.
posted by theora55 at 2:18 PM on April 23, 2020

Response by poster: I will make the soup first, and that will easily use all three ingredients. The carrot and feta salad looks tasty and really easy. I plan to do that in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for all the ideas!
posted by NotLost at 7:29 PM on April 23, 2020