Julia Child’s Butter Braised Carrots

A late-night Reddit rabbit hole got me reading about other people’s experiences maturing into food tastes. Were there things you didn’t eat as a child that you enjoy now as an adult?

Survey says a LOT of people like beets now. Maybe because they were forced to eat them as kids? I had the opposite experience. Root vegetables were shunned in my household because THEY CONTAINED CARBS AND SUGAR AND THAT IS THE DEVIL (if you’re trying to lose weight).

My mom would have made me eat beets and carrots if she’d been given the OK to make them for dinner. But out of all the root vegetables, carrots somehow got a pass. Cooking them? Roasting them? Heating them up? Totally off-limits. They were only allowed raw, as a potato chip replacement.

I can still hear my mom’s ghost shouting from my childhood kitchen: “GO EAT SOME CARROTS!”

My algorithm switched into root vegetable mode, and forty-five-year-old me (with my readers on!) watched a young man make Julia Child’s Butter-Braised Carrots on TikTok. And I was like, “You know what? Hell, yeah.” (My child will cringe at that reference.)

I made the carrots two days later and…

THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT.

The best part? No fuss. Just simple ingredients you can set and forget: butter, water, salt, a little bit of sugar, and pepper. WOW. One of the greatest ways to use up that bag of long-forgotten carrots. (See also: carrot coconut soup)

Don’t let anyone tell you they aren’t good for you. Also, maybe put them on your brunch menu for Easter?  My Mom would have loved them. 

I had ours with Sol Food Chicken and a salad the other night(see above!).

CONTINUE READING