But this humble root vegetable deserves more credit. Packed with nutrients, endlessly versatile in the kitchen, and grown right here in the UK all year round, carrots are one of the country’s quiet food heroes. But rather than just boil them for your weekly roast, we’ve looked at some of the best ways to cook carrots. And delved into their health benefits.

A homegrown success story

Nearly all the carrots on British plates are grown locally, with UK farmers producing over 700,000 tonnes every year. That’s around 100 carrots for every single person in the country. They’re harvested throughout the seasons, starting in the south and moving northwards. Meaning fresh carrots are always available.

Each one costs just a few pence, but together they’re worth almost £300 million to the UK economy. From field to shop in just a couple of days, with minimal food miles, they’re a sustainable choice too.

Read more: how to eat more sustainably

The health boost inside every bite

Nutritionist Dr Laura Wyness points out that the standout nutrient in carrots is beta-carotene, which gives them their bright orange colour. Our bodies convert beta-carotene into Vitamin A – essential for vision, healthy skin, and a strong immune system.

Carrots are also full of fibre, something most of us lack in our diets. One medium carrot contains around 2g, edging you closer to the recommended 30g daily intake. On top of this, carrots are low in calories, naturally sweet, and 80% water, making them a refreshing and filling snack. Compared to a banana, a carrot has over 50% fewer calories and sugars, yet delivers far more Vitamin A.

Chewing raw carrots can even help with oral health by stimulating saliva. This reduces harmful bacteria, while the crunchy texture helps break down plaque.

Spicy carrot soup

Ideas for new ways to cook and enjoy them

Carrots are cheap, colourful, and incredibly adaptable. They can be roasted, mashed, grilled, grated, spiralised, juiced, or baked. And they come in more than just orange – purple, yellow, pink, and stripy varieties can make your dishes stand out.

Try these easy ideas:

• Roast with honey and cumin for a sweet-spiced side.
• Toss carrot ribbons into salads or stir fries.
• Grill whole carrots, then serve with mascarpone and toasted nuts.
• Blitz the green tops into a bright, punchy pesto.
• Grate with apple and raisins for a fresh coleslaw.
• Bake into cakes, muffins, flapjacks, or even ice cream.

Carrots also work beautifully at every meal. Think overnight carrot cake oats for breakfast, a crisp carrot salad at lunch, and sticky roasted carrots with balsamic glaze for dinner.

Roasted whole with honey drizzle

Farmers behind the crunch

It takes more skill and technology to grow carrots than many realise. Fields are rotated to keep crops healthy, frost is warded off with straw, and GPS-guided tractors sow seeds in perfectly straight lines. Robots even help with weeding and sorting. Today’s carrots contain 50% more carotene than those grown in the 1970s, thanks to careful breeding and soil management.

Will Hunter, a fourth-generation farmer from Lancashire, says: “We are very proud of what we grow and want to show the skill and care that goes into producing something as ‘simple’ as a carrot. If every household ate just a few more, it would make a huge difference to British farming.”

A vegetable worth celebrating

Affordable, nutritious, and sustainable, carrots prove that sometimes the simplest foods are the most powerful. Whether you crunch them raw, roast them golden, or bake them into something sweet, they bring colour and goodness to your plate.

So next time you shop, add an extra bag. Britain’s farmers, and your body, will thank you.

Carrot factoids

1. Britain produces over 700,000 tonnes of carrots each year – that’s the weight of 70 Eiffel Towers – around 100 each for every member of the population
2. Carrots are harvested all year round so they are always fresh from the field starting earlier in the year with southern regions and moving up the country from Kent to the north of Scotland.
3. The first recorded carrots weren’t orange – believed to have originated in Afghanistan in 7^th Century AD – carrots were purple or yellow, with orange developed in the 16th century in Holland.
4. To keep them cosy over winter and free from frost, carrots are covered with beds of straw
5. Carrots like fresh soil and a new place to grow each year. To protect them from disease, carrots can only be grown in the same field once every seven years, so farmers ‘rotate’ them around their farm
6. A love medicine: The Greeks called the carrot “Philtron” and used it as a love medicine
7. Carrots like sandy soils, growing wonky if the land is stony.
8. A lot of research, innovation and technology goes into growing the best carrots in the UK, from making sure the seed grows well in the soils we have, to improve nutrient value – today’s carrots have 50% more carotene that those of 1970 – and to make sure they last well on shop shelves. GPS is used in tractors to plant the carrots perfectly straight lines and robots are used for weeding and sorting
9. Carrots are worth £290 million to the UK economy – but one of the cheapest veg to buy

www.britishcarrots.co.uk

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I’m a cheese sort of a girl. I mean, I like puddings but given a choice, it’s always the cheese board for me. Today is actually National Cheese and Wine Day, which gives me an excuse to shovel dairy and grape in like Bacchus (pun intended). It’s a US ‘day’ but I don’t care. I feel it my duty to observe this occasion.

So I had a little think about the best British cheeses, and here’s a few of my faves. There are too many to include them all, but this is a good selection. A board, if you will.

Hard cheese

Let’s kick off with arguably the UK’s most famous cheese; cheddar. Contrary to popular belief, the term ‘cheddar’ does not have a protected designation of origin. However, if you want the real McCoy, look for the phrase ‘West Country Farmhouse Cheddar’. Because only cheeses made from Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Cornwall cows are allowed to carry that.

Lancashire Bomb

For cheddar made in Cheddar, head to the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company. They have a good range of cheeses, but my money is going on the Vintage. Packed with flavour, it’s quite nutty and rich with a proper kick. If you’re less keen on what I call ‘itchy gum cheese’ they have milder cheeses, but honestly, that’s not what you come to a cheddar for, is it?

Another hard(ish) cheese that gets me all excited is the Lancashire Bomb, made by Shorrocks. It’s sort of a softy hard cheese. The black wax on the outside is immediately recognisable, and it’s kind of crumbly, kind of spoonable when warm; strong enough to fill your nose, but super creamy. Moreish.

Blue cheese

Obviously there is always the wonderful stilton to pick up here, and we’ve been making it here in the UK since the 1700s. Its provenance is a bit more protected than cheddar, but there are still varying degrees of quality. Try and find some from small producer Colston Bassett, but if not, you could do a LOT worse than Lidl’s Deluxe Mature Blue Stilton when it’s in stock.

Colston Bassett Stilton

A relative newcomer, Brighton Blue from the High Weald Dairy in Sussex is a really great little cheese. It’s perfect for those who like a blue cheese hit but don’t want to be punched to the ground by it. It’s an award-winner that’s a lot milder and more gentle than a stilton.

Soft cheese

If you’re a brie or camembert fan, there’s good news from the UK in the shape of Baron Bigod, from the Fen Farm Dairy. I was in Norfolk recently and splurged a ridiculous amount of money on local cheeses I’d never heard of, the Baron being one, and it was outstanding. It’s somewhere between brie and camembert, a bit cabbagey on the nose but much creamier in the mouth. It’s also the only traditional raw milk Brie-de-Meaux style cheese produced in the UK. Don’t even think about eating it until it’s at least room temperature. You want this drooling on the board to be scooped up with bread or biscuit. A very impressive cheese.

Baron Bigod

Also worth a shout here is Hampshire Cheeses’ Winslade, modelled on the Alpine Vacherin Mont d’Or. Its box is pine, the scent of which gently permeates the rind. This is a mellow, earthy cheese with a pretty rind and a lingering flavour, and you should try it.

Boost your immune system with the right nutrition

Washed rind

Hands up, I’m not a huge fan of the washed rind – the pungency gets into my nostrils and then I’ve sort of had it. But I couldn’t write this piece without mentioning Stinking Bishop by Charles Martell. And yes, I know there are a lot of really excellent British washed rinds out there – I’m just not personally a fan so I can’t extol their virtues. Go find an article about washed rinds.

The Bishop though, once it’s warm enough, and as long as I don’t actually sniff it too much, I can go for that. The inside is lovely and creamy, and for me it’s worth overcoming the outside honk.

Actually I’m going to mention a Scottish washed rind cheese here too, because I’ve only tried it once and it was amazing. Caboc is rolled in oats, and made with full fat cream from Highland milk. It’s an extraordinary cheese, from Highland Fine Cheeses. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

Semi hard and other stories

Stop sniggering in the back there. Firstly, let’s talk about smoked cheese. It’s another thing I feel a bit unenthusiastic about… however, almost by accident one day I discovered something extraordinary. Which is that a decent smoked cheese, brined green olives, and a really decent peaty malt whisky is a triumvirate of oral wonder. Trust me on this.

Lord of the Hundreds

I don’t know much about smoked cheese so given a choice I’d probably plump for Applewood Smoked Cheese, produced in Ilchester in Somerset, because it’ll be reliably decent quality. But I’m open to suggestions here if you know of some really good independent smoked cheese gurus. I’m a newbie to smoked cheese.

Crumbly, dryer cheeses also sort of leave me a bit lukewarm, but a good Wensleydale – such as this Special Reserve, is a thing of joy with a slice of fruit cake (a Northern thing apparently). And further south, there’s the excellently-named Lord of the Hundreds, a ewe’s milk cheese from the Traditional Cheese Dairy. It’s not exactly crumbly, but crumbly and funky enough to be used instead of parmesan, and has a rich, warm, honeyed colour and taste. It’s an absolute corker.

Goat’s cheese

Dorstone Goats Cheese

When we talk about best British cheeses, goat’s cheese needs an article all of its own, really. There are so many types – hard, soft, wrapped in things, cave-aged – one could ramble. But I’ve had a few, as they say, and need to pick just a couple.

Dorstone Goats Cheese, from Neals Yard Creamery, is a very young cheese. Should be eaten within three or four weeks, and is light, and lemony and almost moussey. I like nubs of it in a sweet salad with roots, or just spooned straight in.

For a more traditional log-style goat, the White Wood from White Lake Cheese Co in Somerset is just lovely – a soft bloom on the outside, almost funky mushroomy flavour. Soft and creamy. Utter and complete heaven with truffled honey and a charcoal biscuit.

So there you are. Just a few to tinker with. There are so many I adore, I could write a book. And originally I was going to include British wines with this article, but I think I’ll do those separately. Indulge in a little more, ahem, research.

Finally – a word to the wise. If you’re offering a cheese board to guests, or making one up just to guzzle yourself, less is more. Have two or three really good cheeses, rather than a whole range of different things going on. Better on the palate.

If you have British produce you’d like me to explore, find me on Twitter @SamHL

Sam Harrington-Lowe

Sam is Silver’s founder and editor-in-chief. She’s largely responsible for organising all the things, but still finds time to do the odd bit of writing. Not enough though. Send help.

The post Best British cheeses to tantalise your tastebuds appeared first on Silver Magazine.