How to Chop a Carrot – into chunks

Welcome to the first ever How to Chop a Carrot tutorial! If you haven’t already, please make sure you’re familiar with basic knife safety before starting this tutorial. (link)

Carrots are a great staple vegetable. They’re inexpensive and you can eat them raw or cooked, which makes them perfect for beginners! In this tutorial, we’ll be making carrot chunks, which are great slow-cooked.

First, take a carrot. You don’t need to peel it (a lot of the minerals are right underneath the skin), but you might want to wash it. Use clean water to wash off things like soil, and if you want to be a bit more thorough you can scrub you carrots with a clean washing-up brush.

Next, check your carrots over for any discolouration or blemishes. These aren’t dangerous, they just don’t taste or look very good. If they are on the end of the carrot, you can just cut the end off. If they’re in the middle of the carrot, first place the carrot flat on a chopping board or plate with the blemish facing upwards. Then make a small cut either side of the blemish, making a small ‘V’ (see picture).

We also don’t want to eat the very top or bottom of the carrot. (These are often known as the top and tail – to top and tail your carrots means to chop the top and bottom off.) To avoid wasting too much carrot, only chop a centimetre or less from the end of the carrot (see the picture below).

Next cut along the carrot every 2cm or so, or a little under an inch, leaving the thinner chunks slightly longer and the fatter chunks slightly shorter.

The aim here is to get carrot chunks that are roughly the same size. This lets them cook at about the same time, and absorb any flavours from herbs, spices, or sauces evenly too.

These carrot chunks are perfect for roasts, casseroles, and stews. They take about 2 hours to cook in an oven at Gas Mark 4 (180°C, 160°C in a fan oven). You can also boil carrot chunks, which takes about half an hour. Once they’re cooked, carrots should be soft enough to easily poke a fork into.