The easiest way to Freeze Carrots (With or With out Blanching) ~ Homestead and Chill

Are you in quest of a easy approach to guard up to date carrots from the yard? Let me practice you one of the best ways to freeze carrots – with or with out blanching, in any kind you need! Then they’re ready and able to toss into future soup, stew, stir fry, baked gadgets, and additional. That’s definitely certainly one of my favorite quick strategies to guard homegrown carrots.

This submit will cowl the simple step-by-step technique of freezing carrots, deal with recurrently requested questions, along with biggest practices on one of the best ways to retailer, defrost, and put together dinner frozen carrots too.

DeannaCat is holding a bunch of freshly harvested, orange root vegetables by their greens.

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RELATED: Get suggestions on one of the best ways to plant and develop carrots proper right here. We moreover choose to make fermented carrot pickles and this delicious creamy roasted carrot and sweet potato soup to freeze and defend our bounty.

Incessantly Requested Questions

Do I’ve to peel carrots sooner than freezing them?

No, it’s optional to peel carrots sooner than freezing. Within the occasion you prefer your carrots peeled, you presumably can in spite of everything, nonetheless we don’t! Among the many biggest nutritional vitamins and antioxidants current in carrots are most concentrated inside the pores and pores and skin, so why cast off it – and add an extra tedious step? We not at all peel carrots sooner than consuming them principally, notably since they’re homegrown.

Can you freeze carrots with out blanching?

Certain, you presumably can utterly freeze carrots with out blanching them first. It’s an additional quick and easy approach to guard them should you’re in a rush! All it is necessary to do is wash, chop, dry, pack, and freeze them as outlined beneath – merely skip the blanching and ice bathtub steps. Nonetheless, keep in mind the truth that raw (not blanched) carrots acquired’t keep up pretty as prolonged inside the freezer.

Blanched vs not blanched: what’s the excellence?

Blanching carrots in boiling water (or steam) quickly deactivates certain enzymes current in carrots, which in flip helps to sluggish the pure degradation course of. This means blanched carrots retain larger color, style, texture, and complete prime quality longer – for as a lot as a yr inside the freezer.

Then once more, it’s biggest to utilize frozen carrots which were not blanched inside a few months. The usual will start to say no thereafter. For instance, we recurrently freeze raw carrots with out blanching inside the fall to utilize in soups that winter.

So, should you want your frozen carrots to stay good for as long as attainable, it’s biggest to blanch them first. Notably must you hope to eat them on their very personal later, harking back to a facet of sautéed carrots. However within the occasion that they acquired’t be the star of your future meals (e.g. in a single factor like soup) then freezing carrots raw is an excellent quick alternative!

A hand is holding a silicone bag full of prepared carrot rounds. Below is a baking sheet with more rounds and half moons of carrots.

Offers Needed

Latest carrots. The brisker, the upper! I don’t recommend freezing carrots which might be already going limp. Protect raw carrots up to date and crisp by storing them inside the fridge inside a plastic bag with a tiny splash of water.
For blanching: an enormous pot or steam blancher (what we favor to utilize) along with an enormous mixing bowl to make an ice bathtub
A baking sheet and clear lint-free towels for air drying
Air-tight freezer containers of choice. I choose to freeze carrots in these reusable silicone meals storage baggage or these sturdy BPA-free freezer containers with lids.

Instructions

Step 1: Wash and Decrease

Begin by completely washing your carrots. I prefer to suggest scrubbing them with a transparent brush to remove filth from any cracks and crevices, notably should you’re choosing to not peel them first.
Subsequent, trim off the stem end and reduce the carrots into your desired kind or measurement, harking back to rounds or sticks. You presumably may even depart small carrots full. I like to cut ours into bite-size rounds and half-moons, glorious for future soup or stir fry. You might also use a subject grater to make and freeze shredded carrots. (See additional suggestions on freezing shredded carrots within the path of the tip of this submit.) Moreover reduce out and discard any damaged spots.
To freeze raw carrots with out blanching, skip straight to step 4.

A wood cutting board contain many whole carrots that range in color from orange, to yellow, and red. A knife is laying on the board next to many cut rounds of carrots, and a bowl of prepped carrots sits just above the cutting board.

Step 2: Blanch

To blanch carrots sooner than freezing, you presumably can each use the boiling water approach or a steam blanch. Have your ice bathtub ready and prepared too!

Ship an enormous pot of water with a pinch of salt to a rolling boil, OR use a pot with a steamer basket insert and lid. If using a steamer, add enough water so that it covers the underside of the pot nonetheless not so deep that it touches the steamer insert. Each methodology, be certain that the pot is totally heated and steamy sooner than together with the carrots.
As quickly because the water is boiling (or the pot is filled with steam), add the carrots. Cowl the pot with a lid and set a timer instantly. Do not overcook them!
Blanch reduce carrots for 2 minutes (3 minutes if steam blanching or boiling full carrots). When boiling, start counting as quickly because the water returns to a boil after together with the carrots. When using a steamer, toss the carrots halfway by to promote even blanching.
If blanching quite a lot of batches, return the pot to a full boil/steam sooner than processing the following batch.

A steam blancher is halfway full of vegetable rounds and half moons.

Step 3: Ice Tub

Quickly swap blanched carrots to an ice bathtub to stop the cooking course of. Prepare an ice bathtub (an enormous bowl of water and ice) and have it ready sooner than you blanch the carrots.

Immediately after blanching, fastidiously swap the carrots into the ice water. Use tongs or a wire skimmer to fish them out of the boiling water, or simply elevate and dump out the within basket if using a steamer.
Allow the carrots to loosen up inside the ice bathtub for 3 to 4 minutes.
Add additional ice between batches as wished to keep up the water icy chilly.

A small strainer is full of sliced carrots, held above a metal bowl filled with ice water and more prepared carrots.

Step 4: Air Dry

Whether or not or not raw or blanched, it’s very important that carrots are fairly dry sooner than freezing them. An extreme quantity of additional moisture can merely end in freezer burn, inflicting an unpleasant style.

After the ice bathtub (or if freezing raw, after washing), let the carrots drip-dry in a strainer inside the sink. Then lay the carrots out on a clear towel on a baking sheet or on the counter to air dry after their wash or ice bathtub. Use one different clear towel to softly pat them dry or set a fan shut by to help expedite drying if wished.

A variety of yellow, orange, and red root vegetables drying on a sheet lined pan.

Step 5: Flash Freeze (Optionally obtainable)

Counting on how you propose to utilize your carrots, chances are high you may want to keep in mind flash-freezing them sooner than packing them into freezer containers. Flash freezing is the strategy of pre-freezing meals in a single layer, which helps forestall them from sticking collectively. This makes it easier to take out solely a handful to utilize in a meal as wished. Or, you presumably can skip this step and simply freeze the carrots in smaller elements that you must use abruptly.

As quickly because the carrots are fairly dry, lay them out on a baking sheet or completely different freezer-safe tray that will match inside your freezer.
Unfold the carrots in a single layer, touching as little as attainable.
Put the tray into the freezer for one to 2 hours, until the carrots are frozen steady.
As quickly as frozen, swap the carrots into their closing freezer storage containers.

A metal baking sheet is lined with cut round and half moons of carrots, ready to be flash frozen in the freezer.

A metal baking sheet is full of frozen carrot rounds and half moon cuts. Plastic containers full of prepared carrots and a silicon bag of ready to freeze carrots are around the baking sheet.

Step 6: Pack and Freeze

Lastly, pack up the carrots into freezer-safe containers of choice. I personally like to make use of those sturdy BPA-free freezer pint containers – the right measurement in order so as to add to a pot of soup. They arrive in several sizes too! We moreover choose to freeze carrots in these reusable silicone meals storage baggage.

It’s biggest to fill your containers good and full (with as little empty air space as attainable) to help cut back the possibility of freezer burn. Within the occasion you employ freezer baggage, try and press or suck out as loads air as attainable sooner than sealing the bag.

It’s best to positively date and label the whole thing! Use blanched carrots inside 12 months for the best high quality, and unblanched carrots inside two to some months.

A hand is holding a pint sized plastic freezer container full of sliced vegetables ready to freeze.

Carrots have been sliced into rounds, half moons, and shredded. Some are in a silicone bag, plastic freezer containers, and some are still on a baking sheet. A couple whole carrots are off to the edge of the prepared vegetables.

Can you freeze shredded carrots?

Fully! Freezing shredded carrots is an ideal approach to guard carrots to utilize in future stir fry, baked gadgets, or completely different dishes that call for grated carrots.

Shredded carrots are notably quick and easy to freeze raw. Use a subject grater to shred them, pack them into containers, and put them inside the freezer. You might also blanch them to increase prime quality and shelf life. Adjust to the an identical course of outlined above, nonetheless blanch for only one minute as a substitute of two to some.

Since they’ll all clump collectively, it’s biggest to freeze shredded carrots in small elements that may probably be easy to utilize later – harking back to in pint containers (2 cups) to your favorite carrot bread recipe. These 1-cup silicone molds are moreover truly useful for freezing small elements. Merely pack, freeze, then pop them out of the silicone mould to retailer the small blocks collectively in an air-tight freezer bag.

A cutting board has a box cheese grater on top of it along with a small mound of shredded carrots along with a plastic container full of shredded carrots.

Defrosting and Cooking Frozen Carrots

Like each frozen vegetable, you presumably can’t depend on frozen carrots to be the an identical as up to date. Don’t plan on snacking on them like crisp, raw carrot sticks! However since they’re so crunchy, carrots are additional forgiving and fewer weak to getting mushy than completely different veggies. They make a perfect facet dish, or addition to any recipe that requires cooked carrots.

To defrost frozen carrots, you presumably can put the container inside the fridge to defrost in a single day or let it sit out on the counter for just a few hours. The smaller the gadgets of carrot, the a lot much less time it’ll take. We recurrently solely let ours partially defrost sooner than tossing them proper right into a pot or pan (notably when using them in soup), after which permit them to finish defrosting as part of the cooking course of.

The necessary factor to avoiding mushy, soggy frozen carrots is to not overcook them. Prepare dinner dinner solely until they’re fork-tender, harking back to a quick saute in a frying pan with olive oil or butter. You might also put together dinner frozen carrots in boiling water, a microwave, air fryer, instantaneous pot, or roast them inside the oven. Proper right here is a simple data on cooking frozen carrots.

Properly folks, that concludes this lesson. I hope you found this data to be useful. If that is the case, please depart a overview beneath – and be at liberty to ask any questions!

Have additional veggies to guard? Get the simplest suggestions on one of the best ways to freeze inexperienced beans, freeze basil in ice cube trays, freezing tomatoes full, or two easy strategies to freeze zucchini.