Don't Skip This Step For Ultra Tender Grilled Carrots

Carrots are a fantastic and incredibly versatile root vegetable, being used in both savory and sweet dishes alike with delicious results. They're well known for their slightly sweet flavor and bright orange color, as well as their numerous health benefits. Chief among them are improved eye health, as well as being high in beta carotenes, fiber, potassium, antioxidants, and vitamin K1 (via Healthline).

There are many creative and appetizing ways to prepare carrots on their own, whether steaming, blanching, pan frying, baking, pureeing, or grilling them. The root vegetable isn't just heralded for its flavor, but also its snappy texture that, while enjoyable in certain dishes, you may want to cook out for an incredibly soft and tender, melt in your mouth sensation. When grilling them, though, the high heat results in a slower cook time, or a risk of burning them to a point of being inedible. This results in a crunchier, crisper carrot. Luckily, there's a simple solution to achieve incredibly tender grilled carrots.

To get a perfectly tender grilled carrot without burning it on the grill, you'll first need to steam it, Chef Yotam Ottolenghi told MasterClass. After steaming them, their time on the hot grill will just give them beautiful char marks and crispy, flavorful exterior, while the inside remains soft and fork tender.

Chef Ottolenghi recommends not making a mistake steaming the carrots but only steaming for roughly 10 minutes, or until fork tender in the densest part of the carrot. He also advises choosing large carrots, so this may vary if your vegetables are smaller or larger. The simplest way to steam them is, of course, in a steamer basket over boiling water. If you don't have a steamer, Epicurious recommends using either a microwave, steaming/boiling directly in shallow water, or using tin foil to create a makeshift steamer. Once done, you can simply add oil, salt, pepper, and other seasonings as desired and pop them right on the grill.