Go to the Recipe: Bright and Bold Carrot Purée
Do you cook with the lid on? It sounds like it, but I was confused when the instructions said to "Add a splash of water if they start to dry out." Any advice on keeping the puree warm while you get the rest of your meal together?
"Place carrots, water, butter, and salt into a saucepan with a lid". I think adding water is just in case the carrots take really long to cook. In the video they put it back in the pot on low heat to keep the puree warm. I tried this but for some reason my smallest stove on the lowest setting managed to dry out my beetroot puree a few time. So immediately after blending, I pour the puree in a jar, then place the jar inside a pot/bowl with hot water. This serves two purposes.
- You can easily serve and store it. Mess free.(Small tip: make a few of them in one go and save yourself the trouble during the week)
- Put it in a bowl/pot of hot water to keep it warm. Heat it up in the water if necessary, and you won't have to worry about it burning or drying out, this works with the refrigerated puree as well.
Hope I helped. Have a good day.
Can you sub the butter for something non-dairy? What about olive oil?
Great tip Harry on putting in mason jar with hot water in pot for storage until dinner is ready... easy transfer to refrigerator or freezer with leftovers.
I belive i was able to snag a modified version of this from Ben a couple years back. To me is tasted like pressure cooked carrots with the addition of Miso. I remember being able to identify the miso, but don't remember if the pressure cooker was involved.
At any rate, it may be useful modification to add Miso... maybe remove the salt.
Butter contains roughly 20% water... Oil, just fat. Given this method achieved uncovered with an option / suggestion to add more water; i'm going to say - yes; totally fine, as long as you're ok with a different (pretty drastic imho) flavor profile than what there offering.
Any suggestions on the veggie mix between the protein and purée, or good way to judge what works with different proteins and purée?
Addictive!
Could the carrots be cooked, instead, in a microwave? and if so, for how many minutes - or would it be trial and error?
Great tip. However, if you don't have a mason jar handy and are using a small saucepan, you can pop it into a larger one filled with water and put it back on yhe hob. It will sit for ages without drying out if you leave the lid on
Yeah that would work too! You can cook the carrots any way you like! Time would be trial and error I think
The lemon juice really brightened up the flavour, I was skeptical but this went great with chicken!
I think the lemon juice should be halved. It overwhelmed the carrots. Would suggest adding the juice a bit at a time and tasting as you go.
Good idea, I tried it yesterday. Tastes better cooked in a pot, they taste a bit flat cooked in a microwave. I think cooking the carrots in a water-butter emulsion makes them a bit sweeter and more complex flavour. That said I am nit picking, if convenience and speed is the goal go with microwave, difference is very small. I am going to try reaheating the puree in a hot pan to recreate the roasty sweet flavour the original recipe gives.
what a wonderful idea to add miso! Will try today and let you know.
From the recipe: "Add a little lemon juice, stir, and taste. Keep adding lemon juice, bit by bit, until your purée is as bright and acidic as you like it."
Damn, it was good with the apple-fennel salad and fried sous-vide chicken
I added a bit of thyme to the carrots, and a looot of lemon to fight the sweetness of the carrots.
Perfect!
A small hint for those who chose to make it all in Thermomix; start on 100 degrees blend all to coarse mix and continue on 90, but use less water as the cooking environment will keep the moisture within.
Also great when you put some Butternut in
Cheap, easy and wonderful. No more to say...
A little extra butter and a little Amaretto di Saronno (to taste) makes this taste like it was made in heaven and shipped to your house.
You mean Butternut squash? Butternut candy? Sounds interesting.
When you say butter, is it unsalted?
When transferring the carrots to the blender do you also transfer the cooking liquid with it?
Hi, I haven't been able to get a puree consistency as shown. What type of blender would I need, or is it a food processor? I did see a link to a $500 blender LOL
$500 is worth every penny. They are amazing!
Try a nutra bullet or similar
Does anyone have suggestions on storing and reheating this? I'm trying to get better at dinner parties and these sorts of simple things are where i fall on my face most of the time. I assume i could make the puree, store airtight in a fridge and then reheat in small saucepan over low heat days later?
Always
yes
Made this with the apple, walnut and fennel salad together with a roasted chicken leg (no Sous vide machine) with crispy skin and it was awesome. Would have never put the combination together myself, but it was perfect. Sweetness from the carrot, some acidity from the apple and the dressing and the textures just went together perfectly. It was a combination my palate hadn't experienced before and was just a delight to eat.
Nutribullets explode when you put hot stuff in them - seen the videos - pretty grim
I added some ginger and 1/4 Habanero chili to it - awesome addition!
You could put it into a steam oven - or, alternatively, use a bowl that can be placed into a large enough pot with water in it (place the bowl on something that keeps it above the water) and warm it like this.
yes unsalted so this way you can control the amount of salt in the recipe
how we can combination food or sauce. I mean food we serve with what food
Also called: “bain Marie”.
does anyone know the yield on how much puree this recipe would make
There is an excellent book called The Flavor Bible that lists hundreds of food items and the foods that pair with them. Highly recommended!
Good receipt and amazing purèe for taste and colour. Finished with a pinch of Maldon salt at the moment of serving. 👍
How about an immersion blender?
Maldon Salt !!! Oh yeah !!!
Can you have the option to convert this into US measurements please?
Please include US measurements in your recipes!
You are way better off getting a kitchen scale and weighing ingredients in grams. This one is excellent and just under $30: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Scale-Pull-Out-Display/dp/B0020L6T7K/?th=1
You guys are the best, the is not one recipe that I have tried from your website that hasn't been less thank perfectly delicious! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world!!!
looking awesome
i did .5 of the recepie, my puree came way darker.... i had to remove the carrots before 40 minutes, it was at the minimum, btw 50gr, of water is just a little bit... should i add more? also it was super sweet. i didnt at lemon maybe thats why? really sweet
Pretty much the same recipe as all the vegetable purees on ChefSteps, and they are all great. I don't know why I didn't discovery this simple approach years ago. I've even been able to turn my pea-adverse friend into a pea lover!
For the carrot version, you'll save some time using a food processor to slice. And you can slice them even thinner to cook quicker (~15-20 min). There is also no reason to peel the carrots if you wash them well.
There is also no reason to add the butter and salt during steaming. Just add them at the blending step for simplicity, the ability to adjust to taste, and less mess.
I usually add half the amount of butter, and it is still nice, but go for decadent if that is what you like. But don't skip the lemon.
And don't add any of the steaming liquid when blending unless you need to. There's a lot of water in carrots and you risk ending up with a watery puree. A Vitamix is great to make it super smooth.
NOTE: As with many ChefSteps recipes, they tend to over-salt (they also usually use Diamond Kosher), so start with half the recommended amount and season to taste during the blending step.
FWIW, you can switch to ounces using a button at the top.
But grams are definitely the best way to go if you are serious about becoming a better cook.
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/weight-vs-volume-speed
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/weight-vs-volume-accuracy
You can easily make this a day or two in advance, store it in Tupperware in the fridge and then reheat in the microwave just before plating. I do this with all of CS's vegetable purees to simplify my life when doing a dinner party (I'm doing it as we speak lol!).
As little as possible. Carrots have a lot of water in them and you risk ending up with a watery puree. You can always add more if it is too thick or your blending is having trouble, but you can't take away once you've added it.
I put my puree thru a screen which I feel gives me the best smoothness
The best way is to cool completely, vacuum pack it and freeze it. it will keep great for a month or two
The salt will help you with the naturally water in the carrots, so therefore I won't recommend you to skip the salt in the steaming process. Have a great day!
As far as including salt when steaming, it really makes no difference in this situation.
More importantly, a common problem with many ChefSteps recipes, as numerous commentators have noted over the years, it that they over-salt. Besides which, you should always adjust seasoning to taste at the very last step, so adjusting the butter/salt/lemon to taste while blending makes everything easier (and you avoid a greasy pot from the butter).
Also recently made their pomme rösti, and thankfully I made a practice one first before a dinner party...painfully salty following the recipe. And yes, I use Diamond Kosher, just as they do (and unsalted butter).
They did luck out in their Pot de Crème, which has a ridiculous amount of salt. But it actually works in that recipe (with maple syrup on top).
Absolutely love this template, although I agree with BostonBestEats - season & buttter after cooking.
If you’ve got some veggies you know you’re not going to eat before they go bad, make a batch of purée, vacuum seal some portions & freeze. Then you can drop them in with your sous vide protein for a mega-easy midweek meal.
I make a cauliflower puree following this template pretty regularly, but the carrot purée really remarkable, particularly for its sweetness and beautiful color. As usual, @BostonBestEats has good advice here. Butter and salt after steaming gives you lots of control; lemon juice is fundamental to balancing the natural sweetness. A Vitamix is pretty indispensable here for achieving a super light and airy texture.
