
We've been getting carrots with their green leaves from our CSA farmer. The amount of the greens are enormous compare to the size of the carrot. I was wondering why store brought carrots are leafless. Is it because of space limitation since food in the US often travels hundreds or thousands miles before it sits on a store's shelf? Space is money. I got it. Edibility could be another reason. If it's not edible, why bother, right?

Curious about the greens, I did a little research online and found some conflicting results. Some say they have various kinds of vitamin and mineral, and especially have high potassium content. However, some say they contain
alkaloids, chemical compounds that are often toxic. Some say they contain allergenic substances, that can affect some people just like peanut to some people.

I tend to believe that carrot greens are safe to eat. Well, I mean my carrot greens. They are organic and I know where they come from; and our farmer is an amazing lady that eats plants that I never heard of so I know she has tried carrot greens and would tell us if they were toxic.

So I cooked some of they greens and they were great. They had strong and bitter taste, just like parsley. I mixed the chopped carrot greens with small amount of ground beef, seasoned it with salt, pepper, cumin, and corriander, then wrapped the mixture in cabbage leaf. For the sauce, I used onion, coconut milk, chilli pepper, turmeric, lemon grass, keffir lime leaves, palm sugar, coriander, cumin, salt, and pepper. This dish reminded me of
buntil, a traditional Javanese dish made out of papaya leaves, that my sister loves so much.

So, next time you have carrot greens, don't waste or compost them right away. Who knows you could make something great out of them and could share with me how you cook them.