Can You Freeze Grated Carrots?

Grated carrots are the perfect addition to salads, coleslaws and even in the base of sauces. But what happens if your carrots are on the turn and you want to preserve them, grated, for that little bit longer?

How to Freeze Grated Carrots

Freezing grated carrots is straightforward. All you need to freeze them successfully is a few good-quality freezer bags:

1. Grate Carrots
   Using a box grater, grate the carrots into a bowl. You can peel them beforehand but this is not necessarily.
2. Place Into Freezer Bags
   Portion the grated carrots into freeze bags and then seal the bags up tightly. When sealing them up, remove as much air as possible by squeezing the air out from the bottom to the top.
3. Shake After 30 Minutes
   After the grated carrot bags have been in the freezer for 30 minutes, remove them and give them a vigorous shake. THis will prevent all the grated carrot from clumpiing together. You’ll still get some clumping.
4. Return to the Freezer
   After shaking the bags to ensure they don’t completely clump together, you can return them to the freezer.

Should You Blanch Grated Carrots?

Usually, we would advise blanching most vegetables. However, as the strands of carrot are already so delicate, we would actually skip blanching them in this case as it can easily cause them to overcook which will leave you with exceptionally mushy carrots.

3 Tips for Freezing Grated Carrots

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing grated carrots to have the best results:

Shake the Bag
It’s vital that you shake the bag after 30 minutes of it being in the freezer if you want to be able to defrost a handful at a time. They will freeze in one clump without a brief shake.

Mix With Other Roots
If you want to use the grated carrots in a coleslaw (which doesn’t freeze well) or a salad then try mixing with other root vegetables including beetroot and celeriac.

Use from Frozen
If you’re using the grated carrot to bulk out a pasta sauce, pie filling or casserole then grab them from the freezer and toss them into a pan with a drizzle of oil and warm over a low heat.

How Long Can You Freeze Grated Carrots?

Although grated carrots will keep in the freezer for up to a year, we would advise trying to use them up within the first 6 months to stop any major textural changes from taking place.

You Can Freeze Grated Carrots for up to 6 Months

How Do You Defrost Grated Carrots?

This depends on how you plan on using the carrots. If you want to use them raw then you’ll need to thaw them overnight in the fridge. Once thawed, you may need to give them a little squeeze to remove excess liquid and then drain them.

If, however, you want to use them in a cooked dish then you can use them directly from the freezer without defrosting them.

Can You Refreeze Grated Carrots?

We would strongly advise against refreezing them. You’ll already find they lose their crispness once frozen. If you refreeze them, then they will become soggy and limp.

The only exception here is if you want to use frozen grated carrot in a dish, such as a bolognese sauce, which you then want to freeze.

Do Grated Carrots Freeze Well?

Grated carrots freeze reasonably well – depending on their use. If you’re looking to add them to a salad, plain, for texture then they are not any good.

If, however, you want them softened and want to dress them with a rich sauce then you’ll be fine to use frozen grated carrots.

The major thing to be aware of is that the texture will soften in the freezer. As crystals form in the body of each carrot piece, they stretch the internal structure. When it is then thawed, it can leave the one crisp carrot quite limp and soft.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing grated carrot or carrot in general, then these may help: