I have no idea what I’m doing post No. 2
I’ve been ordering from Azure for over a year now. All this time, I have pretty much stuck to a few pantry staples. Grains, nuts, and oils mostly. The past few months I’ve been venturing out and exploring other products. Which leads me to today’s post: Carrots.
I bought 22 pounds of “juicing” carrots for $11. I don’t have a juicier, nor do I plan on juicing these carrots. But I’m determined to learn how to preserve food and this seemed like a great way to learn. I was nervous the carrots were going to be really small or have an absurd amount of “legs”. But most looked great. There were some that were really small, but most were large, great looking carrots.
I already buy frozen carrots so I figured that’s where I’d start. My oldest daughter heard me mention carrot muffins so of course she wanted to help in the kitchen. I tasked her with washing carrots. I peeled. After a large stack of carrots were washed and peeled, I had to make lunch for all the hungry children. Once the sandwiches were made, I got back to work dicing the carrots. I had read I should blanch the carrots before freezing. So I got the water boiling and added the carrots. Cooked for 2 minutes then tossed them in some icy water. I figured while I’m at it I should freeze some sliced carrots as well. Repeat the process. I let all the carrots dry a bit on a kitchen towel. before flash freezing them for about an hour. Once they were at least mostly frozen, I dumped them all in freezer bags.
Next step was to shred. I read that you don’t need to blanch shredded carrots before freezing. I grab out the food processor and shred away. I ended up shredding about 20 cups of carrots. I put 15 cups in the freezer in individual 1-cup ziplock bags. Then 2 cups went to the carrot muffins. The rest back in the fridge to eat this week and to let the baby snack on.
I still had a few more carrots left that we had already washed and peeled. So I scoured the interwebs for ideas. I came across pickled carrots. That sounded interesting. There are so many different kinds and methods of pickling carrots. I finally settled on these zesty pickled carrots. I had all the ingredients and it seemed simple enough.
These are so good! They are the perfect mix of sweet and spicy. I’ve been snacking on them everyday. Even the kids like them “a little bit”.
I still have a couple pounds of carrots left in the fridge that I am too exhausted to do anything with today. Hopefully we find enough ways to eat them and not let them go to waste. For now, I need to make those promised carrot muffins!
FYI: If you add shredded carrots to cheesy taco meat, everyone just thinks it is cheese. Its been a great way to sneak in some extra vegetables!