Carrot Leaves and Carrot Tops: Edible, Delicious Recipes, Benefits and Effects

Carrot leaves, also called carrot tops, are usually removed from the carrots sold in the market. They contain all the nutrients found in carrots. So can carrot leaves be eaten? How do you cook them to make them delicious? What benefits and effects do they have? In fact, carrot leaves are edible, and carrot leaves also contain extremely rich vitamin A and vitamin B2. Older generations loved to eat them, but people born in the 1990s eat them less often, and some may have never even seen them.

What value do carrot leaves have?

Carrot leaves, also called radish tops, and in some regions also known as laifuzi leaves, have the effects of promoting digestion and regulating qi, resolving phlegm and relieving cough, clearing the lungs and soothing the throat, and dispersing blood stasis and reducing swelling.

Modern medical research shows that the nutritional value of carrot leaves is higher than that of carrots in many respects. Their vitamin C content is more than 2 times higher than that of the root; the content of the mineral elements calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc, as well as riboflavin and folic acid, is 3—10 times higher than that of the root.

The health benefits of carrot leaves:

1. Lowering blood sugar, which helps people with diabetes control their blood sugar.

2. The potassium succinate in carrot tops helps prevent hardening of the blood vessels and lowers cholesterol, and eating them regularly has a certain effect on preventing and treating high blood pressure.

3. Medicinal health benefits such as promoting urination, aiding digestion, regulating qi, resolving phlegm, and relieving cough.

4. In addition, carrot leaves also contain relatively high amounts of molybdenum, and eating carrot leaves regularly has a certain effect in preventing nearsightedness, presbyopia, and cataracts.

5. Most importantly, carrot leaves have a very high dietary fiber content, which can prevent constipation and prevent colon cancer. For people who love beauty, eating some carrot leaves regularly can not only fill the stomach and reduce the intake of staple foods, but also help with weight loss and slimming.

Practical proven remedies using carrot leaves:

1. Treating indigestion: Stir-fried tender carrot tops with shredded dog meat is crisp, tender, spicy, and fragrant, and can warm the body, tonify the spleen and stomach, and benefit the kidneys and support yang.

2. Treating urinary tract infections: Boil dried or fresh carrot tops with an appropriate amount of brown sugar in water and drink it once a day for two consecutive days to cure a urinary tract infection. Using it together with anti-inflammatory medicine gives better results.

Reminder: Carrot tops should not be eaten together with ginseng, rehmannia, or shouwu.

How do you eat carrot leaves?

Carrot leaves are not only tasty, but there are no restrictions on how to eat them. Cold dressing, making dumplings, simmering soup, and steaming are all good ways to eat them.

1. Steamed dish

The most common way to prepare carrot leaves is as a steamed dish. The steamed carrot leaves have a very fresh fragrance, somewhat like the taste of steamed garland chrysanthemum stems. Dipped in a little vinegar and garlic sauce, the flavor is quite unique. If after steaming you splash on a little hot oil with chili, it tastes even better than eating meat.

However, note that the steaming time should not be too long. Take them out as soon as they are done. If they are left covered inside for a long time, not only will the color look bad, but the texture will also be affected.

2. Cold dressing

Since carrot leaves, like other vegetables, lose vitamins relatively easily, it is best to blanch the whole leaves first, then toss them with the seasonings you like and eat them.

3. Simmering soup

When using carrot leaves to simmer soup, it is best to add some meat, such as lean pork or pork bones.

This is because it not only increases the calcium-supplementing effect, but also the light, slightly bitter taste and rich crude fiber of carrot leaves can make the meat easier to digest.