Do you eat baby carrots?
Do you have an opinion about baby carrots?
Up until a month ago, baby carrots were a staple in my fridge and I never thought twice about them. They have been my go-to healthy crunchy snack ever since college, and I regularly toss them in everything from soups to smoothies to my favorite fried rice. No peeling required. No fuss. No problem, right?!
Wrong. Pretty sure that a small, harmless little bag of baby carrots spawned the closest thing to a “fight” that Kathryne and I had as roommates during our month in Austin. She was aghast that I would buy baby carrots, much less enjoy eating them, and went off on her soapbox about how they are the watered-down, less-flavorful, lower-quality, mechanically-shaped counterpart to their full-sized namesakes. She can tend to be pretty opinionated about her vegetables, so I decided to just let it go. And then do the mature thing and, you know, continue chomping on my baby carrots around the house day after day. ;)
Sure enough, a week or so later I was sitting at the kitchen island baby-carrot-snacking away when Kathryne surreptitiously slid an organic, freshly-peeled, non-baby, whole carrot across the counter and said, “Try this.” I rolled my eyes and took a bite, ready to settle this food bloggers’ argument and prove my baby carrots’ worth once and for all. And…
…the bigger carrot was better.
Ugh. I mean, not by a landslide. It was still totally in the same family as my little babies, and didn’t taste any different. But the flavor was definitely stronger, the texture was crisper, and I felt like Bugs Bunny would have probably preferred it. Darn. Of course, I did not admit defeat immediately. But the next time we arrived home from Whole Foods and Kathryne saw that I also pulled a bunch of organic, whole carrots out of my grocery bag, I had to concede. She was right. (Which I’m pretty sure I will never live down.) ;)
No, she was gracious and happy to have converted me to the world of full-sized carrots. And I was happy that they have made my snacking — and a smoothie like this — all the tastier. So grab some (big) carrots, and let’s make one!
