The best way to store carrots and keep them fresher for longer is to keep them whole. Also, make sure they're young, tender, fresh and don't contain any blemishes.
Extra tip on how to store carrots to keep them fresh:
The best tip is to pick carrots that are freshly harvested. And if you can't freeze them immediately after harvesting, pop them in the fridge until you can transfer them to the freezer.
Wondering how to keep carrots fresh in the fridge? Don't place them near apples, bananas or melons, as these fruits contain ethylene gas. Exposing carrots to this will result in a bitter flavour which could set in in about two weeks.
Leave them dry as is if you want to learn how to keep carrots fresher for longer.
And when the time comes to use them (either for a recipe or munching on them raw), rinse or scrub them under fresh running water (bonus points if you have a vegetable brush to help remove dirt).
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Did you know that greens reduce the moisture and nutrients of carrots? Thus, use a sharp knife to carefully slice off those leaves (and be careful).
Optional tip for how to keep carrots fresh:
Ever heard of blanching vegetables? It's the process of quickly scalding veggies in boiling water before popping them in ice water. Blanching stops enzyme actions which lead to less flavour, colour and texture.
. Fill 2/3 of a pot with water and set it to boil on high heat.
. Fill a bowl of about equal size with cold water and add about 12 ice cubes.
. Add the carrots to the boiling water and cook them briefly (about 2 minutes for sliced carrots and 5 minutes for whole baby carrots).
. Remember that you can safely reuse the blanching water about 5 times.
. Afterwards, use a slotted spoon to lift the carrots out of the boiling water and add them to the bowl of ice water. Cooling them down is essential for crisp and fresh carrots as it stops the cooking process.
. Then place the carrots in a colander and let them drain for a few minutes or allow them to dry on some layers of paper towels.
. Take each individual carrot and wrap it tightly in dry paper towels. The tighter, the better.
Optional tip: Bubble wrap can work just as well, but see if you can opt for the ones with the small textured bubbles. This will provide the ideal amount of moisture for the carrots, yet the bubble wrap's texture will stop the moisture from collecting on the carrots' surface.
Plus, bubble wrap can easily add about 2 weeks' extra freshness to your stored carrots (using plastic bags can quickly lead to rotting).
. After wrapping, pop the carrots into an airtight container, and ensure you have at least 1.25cm of empty space between the container's lid and the top carrots. This is due to food expanding once it freezes, which means you'll need as much extra space in that container as you can get.
. If you do decide to use a plastic bag (but only for a little while before the carrots start rotting), first squeeze out as much excess air as you can before sealing the bag. And if you happen to have a vacuum sealer, don't be shy to use it.
. Glass containers are certainly not the best way to store carrots, as the glass can crack and break inside your fridge.
. Lastly, to ensure crisp and fresh carrots, make sure to label the container with the date that you placed the carrots in the freezer. That way, you'll know how long the carrots have been in there.
Now you can comfortably freeze your carrots until it's time to use them. Those carrots, if packed correctly, can retain their quality for about 9 months if you're using an ordinary freezer with a plastic container.
Plus, using frozen carrots in cooked dishes will definitely up the flavour.
Optional tips for freezing carrots:
. You can also use a knife to dice the carrots smaller (sizes of about 6.35 mm is fine).
. Place the cut carrots on a baking sheet and ensure the pieces don't touch each other. Overlapping carrots will freeze together.
. If you don't have enough space on the baking sheet to freeze all the carrots simultaneously, opt for multiple baking sheets.
. Add the baking sheet(s) to the freezer for about 1-2 hours, or until you can see the carrots have been frozen solid (that happens once you can't cut or break the individually frozen carrot slices).
. Thereafter, you can pop the carrot slices into a freezer-safe plastic container.
Now that you know how to keep carrots fresher for longer, feel free to repeat these steps in future the next time you have a tad too many carrots at home.
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