Stop Throwing Away Your Carrot Tops

The common supermarket carrot rarely stacks up to the cartoon image many of us grew up with. I’m thinking, of course, about Bugs Bunny munching into a crunchy carrot with a leafy green stem atop.

So if Bugs Bunny can eat a carrot, greens and all, why can’t we?

Carrots in supermarkets usually arrive without their green tops. You’ll often have to grow a carrot in a garden or pick it up at a farmer’s market to find one with its leaves attached. Then, even if we do happen upon a green-topped carrot, we often chop off its foliage before eating.

This is a shame because there are actually a bunch of uses for those green carrot tops.

Carrot tops are edible

For starters, stop throwing away your carrot tops because you think they’re inedible. They are actually very nutritious.

That rumour about them being poisonous is not true. It’s just one of the many misconceptions surrounding carrots. But you should definitely thoroughly wash carrot leaves before cooking or eating them (as you should every fruit and vegetable).

How to use carrot tops

As a recipe from The Guardian explains, carrot tops are slightly bitter but make for great ingredients in garnishes and sauces.

The Kitchn suggests you sauté them with some olive oil, garlic and other greens for a nice warm side. You can also make a mean pesto by adding carrot leaves to your spinach or basil blend.

Oh My Veggies reckons you should make a chimichurri with your carrot tops or add them to a zesty salad like tabouleh. They make great flavour additions to soups and broths, too.

If you’re game, you can eat the tops raw in a salad, but given their bitter taste, you may not want to. You’d be better off sprinkling in chopped carrot tops like herbs rather than tossing in an entire bunch.

The bottom line is there are heaps of ways to use carrot greens, so if you buy a carrot with its top still attached, don’t let it go to waste.