Carrot dishes around the world
We usually associate carrots with their vibrant orange colour, but there are also yellow, white, red, purple and black cultivated varieties. The original wild variety was native to southwestern Asian and Europe, and today's cultivars can grow up to a metre in height, and flower in the summertime.
Across the world, this vegetable is celebrated in traditional cultures through regional cuisine. In Germany they are served as a side dish with beer, and in France they are prepared with a glaze to serve alongside meat. Because this vegetable is naturally sweet, it's also used to make puddings. In India, for example, it is combined with milk and saffron to make a jelly. In Croatia, it is baked with walnuts, flour, sugar and spices to make a cake that very much resembles the classic Western version with cream-cheese topping.
