It’s time to dehydrate carrots. We just harvested buckets of carrots and I can only store so many of them in the fridge or freezer. My detached garage is unheated and my basement is too warm so neither of those are options for long term dry storage (read more about harvesting and storing carrots). That leaves dehydrating, a process that will allow me to keep carrots without worry for at least a year.
I use dried carrots by tossing them directly into soups, stews or casseroles. Others I use when making homemade soup mix in a jar. I’m also thinking of making some carrot powder (simply grinding the dried carrots in a coffee grinder or food processor) to use in cakes, smoothies, soup, breads, pancakes, etc. Sort of like what I did with my beet root powder.
Blanch Before You Dehydrate Carrots
Some websites say you do not have to blanch carrots before drying. As much as I love a good short-cut, I respectfully disagree. I highly recommend that you DO blanch carrots before dehydrating. WHY? Because blanching protects against loss of color, texture and flavor. Unblanched dehydrated carrots will last about 3 months before their quality noticeably deteriorates – have a look.
I dried the same variety of carrots at exactly the same time for the same length of time and stored them in the same way for 3 months. The white carrots are those that weren’t blanched, the orange carrots are those that were blanched. Which would you rather have?! Blanching stops enzyme action that causes loss of color, texture and flavor. In dehydrating it also shortens the drying and re-hydration time, keeps dried veggies fresh for longer, and kills microorganisms that could induce spoilage.
Blanch your carrots!
How to Dehydrate Carrots
I use the 9 tray Excalibur Dehydrator so I can dehydrate a lot of carrots at once! You see below that in one batch, I did sliced and shredded carrots as well as a batch of sliced purple carrots. I used my food processor to slice the carrots. They don’t come out in perfect coins, but because I use these carrots for soups, casseroles and other mixed dishes it doesn’t really matter. I have not tried using my oven to dry carrots. If you try this, remember the ideal temp is about 125°F – so set your oven to the lowest possible temp, maybe prop the door open and rotate trays. You’ll need a good 8-10 hours.
How to Re-hydrate Carrots
It is best to soak dried carrots before using in a recipe.
- Cover carrots with boiling water and let soak for 20-40 minutes until tender. Use 2 cups water for every 1 cup dried carrots.
- Typically 1 cup dried carrots reconstitute to 2 cups carrots.
- If using in soups or stews, soak for 20-30 minutes and add liquid and carrots to recipe.
- If using in fried rice, stir-fries, casseroles, etc. soak for 30-45 minutes then drain any remaining liquid before adding to recipe.
The longer you let them soak, the more they plump up and look just like regular cooked carrots.
How to Use Dehydrated Carrots for Trail Food
Add sliced or shredded carrots when assembling meals for your backcountry trips.
I usually add a total of 1/4 cup of dried veggies per meal per person. Typically that includes a mix of veggies. For example if I were making a mac and cheese meal, I’d add 2 Tbsp dried green peas and 2 Tbsp dried carrots. If I were making that meal for two people, I’d double it.
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Source: Getty Stewart
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