When you have a large crop of carrots from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve carrots:
- Make a simple soup with carrots, bell peppers, and orach or another leafy green.
- Make a simple soup with carrots, kohlrabi, and tarragon.
- Add the entire plant to other soups and broths.
- Roast them with beets and goat cheese.
- Roast or bake them with rosemary and orange slices.
- Sauté or stirfry them with bell peppers and pine nuts.
- Sauté or stirfry them with bell peppers and bok choy.
- Sauté or stirfry them with dahlia tubers and green beans.
- Use them as a Frame in an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Make a Simple Salad. A couple ideas for Simple Salad combinations with carrots are as follows:
- Bell peppers and bok choy
- Bell peppers and peanuts or cashews
- Add them to other salads.
- Fill a lettuce wrap with them along with cashews.
- Make a carrot "hummus" with cauliflower and tahini. Blend these 3 ingredients together in the food processor to create this tasty spread. It can also be frozen for later use.
- Slice and dip them in ranch dressing, blue cheese dressing, or sour cream.
- Juice them, alone or with apples.
- Make a decoction or broth with the roots, alone or with ginger.
- Make an infusion with the tops, also called the leaves.
- Pickle them, using either traditional or quick-pickling methods, alone or with dill or radishes.
- Dice and freeze them to preserve them for later use.
- Dry the tops to save them for later. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
Further Reading
Growing carrots? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Carrots are also featured in these articles:
- Quick Facts: Growing Carrots
- The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Drying and Dehydrating
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Root Cellar Storage
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Fermentation