The Best Roasted Frozen Carrots Recipe - Build Your Bite (2024)

FAQs

Can you freeze uncooked carrots for roasting? ›

Freezing carrots is such a great way to avoid waste. It will also make cooking them a little quicker from frozen. Like most vegetables, if frozen raw, the texture, taste, colour and nutritional value of carrots deteriorates. Make sure you blanch the veg to preserve these elements.

The secret is to roast them.

Roasting draws out the natural sweetness and you get a nice caramelized flavor. They're so much better than boiled carrots! Roasting is also easy; it's hard to overcook a roasted vegetable: if it gets too done, it's clearly burned.

Undercook them, and the texture is tough and dense. Overcook them, and they're dry and wrinkled. The secret is to soften the carrots slightly by boiling them briefly before roasting. The texture will be firm-tender with just the right amount of caramelization on the outside.

The best way to lessen this texture change, as much as possible, is to blanch carrots prior to freezing. However, be aware that over-blanching will also result in less than stellar texture also. Just a couple of minutes in boiling water and then straight into the ice bath they go!

This is actually due to moisture loss that occurs in the freezer. But the rubber-like texture of your carrots can also be influenced by a few factors such as slow freezing, using old and wilted carrots for storing, improper storage/container, or over blanching.

Roasting really brings out carrots' best qualities. To make them, just toss carrots with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake until they're golden on the edges and tender throughout.

“When the vegetable is cut, its cells rupture and release sugars and volatile hydrocarbons, the sources of the vegetables' sweetness and aroma,” he writes. "The more cells you rupture, the better the taste.”

Roasting Tips

Parboiling skin-on carrots and parsnips lets you soften them without them losing too much moisture. Follow up by browning in a 375°F (190°C) oven for about 40 minutes.

What pairs well with carrots? ›

Carrots pair beautifully with warm, earthy spices like cumin, coriander, and cinnamon. Toss them with 1/4 teaspoon of one or more of these spices before roasting. Use a garlic Parmesan seasoning. Skip the honey, and toss the carrots with 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder instead.

Roasting intensifies the flavour by removing water. Try not to brown them too much though, which will give them a burnt-sugar taste. Use complimentary spices. Mace, which is the dried membrane that surrounds nutmeg, compliments and enhances the flavour of carrots very well.

That's likely because carrot skins can turn bitter and dry when they're cooked. For some, the flavor difference is barely noticeable, but for others, the earthiness is a complete turn-off. Carrots' glossy exteriors may also turn dusty and dry in the heat of an oven.

As they cook, vegetables give off moisture, and when arranged too close together it results in a soggy outcome. Follow this tip: To achieve beautiful browning and crisp, roasted perfection, vegetables need some breathing room. Arrange vegetables in a single layer and don't overcrowd the pan.

The reason this hack works is because carrots are a very dense root vegetable that doesn't have a ton of moisture. Since it has a lack of moisture, roasting it will just burn the item before the inside can cook. This is the same for things like broccoli – the top part burns before the stem can cook.

Most vegetables need to be blanched before being freeze dried. This step of briefly boiling vegetables helps to prevent changes to color, texture, and flavor, caused by enzymes, during long term storage.

Drop into a large pan of boiling salted water and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Drain well and lay out in a single layer on a baking tray to dry out and cool completely. Place in the freezer for a couple of hours, then put in freezer bags and freeze for up to 1 month. To cook, preheat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/ gas 5.

You can freeze carrots without blanching them, but they will lose their signature crunchy texture.