Vegetable Carving 101: Simple Carved Carrot Leaf

At long last I have found a really good reason to continue exploring the world of fruit and vegetable carving: the holiday of Tu B'Shevat is coming up this Friday night, and since we'll be celebrating with loading the table with as many kinds of fruit (and nuts) as possible, carved fruit and veggie platters seem just perfect. So introducing another instalment of Vegetable Carving 101, this time it is Simple Carved Carrot leaves! The great part about carrot leaves is that they can be made way ahead, like now for example, and will keep perfectly in the fridge in a container of water. The little leaves you see here are just my first attempt, and did it just before I was about to prepare dinner, so that all the little scraps were not wasted, but rather thrown into a chicken stir fry!

Just a few of these carrots on a plate with a scoop of egg salad or tuna, or maybe lining the outside of a plate of hummus or relish of some kind would look amazing. If you really plan ahead you could pickle them and serve them mixed in with other veggies. Hmmmm, there may be just enough time to do that for Friday night, but gotta hurry!

Carrot leaves are carved from slices of carrot made on the diagonal, and work the best with large carrots. You'll also need a knife preferably a vegetable carving knife like the one above, but an x-acto knife would likely work as well.

I just bought some big carrots (and kolhrabi) so I can photograph a little tutorial for you tomorrow, see you then!