In this day and age, using every part of the vegetable is becoming essential. So, what if you’ve got a bunch of carrot tops you don’t know what to do with?
Can You Freeze Carrot Tops?
Yes, you can freeze carrot tops for up to 3 months. Rinse and dry them before you place them into a freezer bag. Remove as much excess air from the freezer bag as possible, and seal it tightly before freezing.
Do Do Carrot Tops freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Carrot Tops? Yes
How to Freeze Carrot Tops
Freezing carrot tops is simple – they freeze fairly well, and can make a great, quick addition to nearly any meal:
- Rinse and Dry: Rinse and dry the carrot tops thoroughly. These parts of the carrot are far from the soil so that they can be sprayed with pesticides and other things often. To avoid this impacting your food, thoroughly wash the carrot tops.
- Bag Up: Place the rinsed and dried carrot tops into a freezer bag, ensuring they are well-packed. That will minimize the air in the bag and, in turn, ensure that as little freezer burn as possible takes place.
- Seal: Remove excess air from the bag by pressing down on the bag. If all the carrot tops are at the bottom, you can bunch them up well and then roll the base of the bag up toward the top, pressing out excess air as you go.
- Freeze: Freeze carrot tops in the centre of your freezer to avoid freezer burn. Freezer burn can also be avoided by wrapping a damp towel around the sealed bag where you store the carrot tops.
3 Tips for Freezing Carrot Tops
Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing carrot tops to have the best results:
Use a Damp Towel
A damp towel can help to prevent freezer burn by, essentially, sacrificing itself a little. The water in the towel will freeze solid before the carrot tops do, directing some of the intense cold away from them.Ā
Be Gentle
The more delicate leaves of the carrot tops may crumble a little during the freezing process. This is because they have a lot of water in them, and those water molecules may expand and contract a little during freezing. In turn, this can damage the foliage itself.Ā
Include in a Marinade
Carrot tops can be a great thing to add to the roasting pan when roasting a meat cut. If youād like to ensure that the carrot tops add some flavour to the pan, you can freeze them in a small marinade.
How Long Can You Freeze Carrot Tops?
You can freeze carrot tops for around 3 months before the freezing process at all damages them.
Typically, this damaging process will occur as the water content expands and breaks the cell walls.
Unfortunately, you’ll be lucky if carrot tops last beyond 48 hours in the fridge. They will very quickly turn limp.
How Do You Defrost Carrot Tops?
You can easily defrost carrot tops by simply placing the freezer bag into the fridge, and allowing any ice thatās present to melt away.
After that point, the carrot tops will be at fridge temperature – safely stored and ready to use.
Can You Refreeze Carrot Tops?
Yes, you can refreeze carrot tops as many times as you might need.
They contain no meat, fish, or dairy, so they can be safely refrozen as much as you might need.
You might notice some textural degradation during freezing, however – the carrot tops can lose some level of their toothsomeness as ice from the freezer freezes them solid.
Do Carrot Tops Freeze Well?
Yes, carrot tops do freeze quite well.
The main reason for this is the same as with most veggies – they retain a lot of their vitamin and mineral content, and if cooked correctly, it can be hard to tell that theyāre different to fresh vegetables.
Related FAQs
If youāve still got questions about freezing carrot tops or carrots in general, then these may help:
Yes, pesto made from carrot tops can be frozen for around 3 months in the slots of an ice cube tray topped up with olive oil. Once frozen solid, store them in a freezer bag.
Sources
We have verified the information on this page using the following resources:
