What to do with carrot tops + 12 Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What can I do with the tops of carrots? ›

Carrot tops are high in vitamin C, vitamin K, and potassium. Use them as you would parsley, or in place of parsley in recipes. Strip the leaves from the tough stems, add them to stock or soup, put them in salads, or make chimichurri. Or make this carrot top pesto.

As soon as you get a bunch of carrots with bright green tops, clip off the greens. Wrap them up and store them in the crisper drawer in your fridge until you're ready to use them, or freeze them to make vegetable stock. Wash and dry them well. It's no secret that carrots grow in dirt, so wash the leaves well!

Freezing carrot greens is a great option because they'll stay fresh, and you won't need to rehydrate them before using them. After thoroughly washing the greens and drying them with paper towels, remove the leaves and chop them up. Then, put them on a baking sheet in a single layer and place them in the freezer.

Once the taproot (carrot) is removed it cannot grow another. When cut from the top, the growing point for the taproot is removed, however the growing tip for new leaves is not removed. The growing tip (meristem) that forms the leaves can also grow new adventitious roots (fibrous roots), but not a taproot.

In fact, their bitter flavor is what makes carrot tops so unique for use in the kitchen. They can be enjoyed raw or cooked (cooking them will soften the bitterness), and bring an earthy flavor to all sorts of savory dishes.

Carrot leaves are still commonly discarded but they are beneficial to one's health when consumed as juice, vegetable, or chutney.

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.

Freeze on a baking sheet: Spread the cooled and dried carrots on a baking sheet and freeze for about 5 hours or until frozen solid. Freeze in resealable bags: Transfer the carrots to resealable plastic freezer bags or freezer-safe reusable bags, label and date the bags, and freeze for up to one year.

In addition, carrot tops contain several vitamins and minerals essential to overall health, including vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium. A diet rich in these nutrients has been associated with many health benefits, such as improved immune function, reduced risk of chronic disease and improved heart health.

Your carrots might just need a big gulp of water. If you notice that your bag of carrots is bendy, place them in a glass jar or zip-top plastic bag and fill it with water to cover them.

How do you preserve carrots for years? ›

An easy way to extend the harvest season is to cover the carrots with several feet of deciduous leaves. The four choices for long-term storage of carrots are freezing, canning, drying and pickling. To freeze carrots, select young, tender, coreless, medium-length carrots. Remove tops, wash and peel.

First, the carrot (Daucus carota sativus) is not an annual. Unless something goes seriously wrong, it won't die over the winter. Nor will it rot. Instead, the carrot is a biennial: it lives for 2 years.

Carrot (Daucus carota) seed production requires two years. Roots form during the first year and then require a cold period (at least 10 weeks of temperatures below 15 °C) to stimulate flowering and seed production. Two methods of production are used: Seed-to-seed.

Carrots should be ready for harvest about 60-80 days after sowing seeds, depending on the variety. The tops of the carrot roots will be about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter and likely starting to pop out of the soil, though not necessarily. They will also be vibrant in color.

Cut the green tops off your carrots to lock in nutrients. The leaves of root veggies steal their nutrients - even after they've been picked!

Those carrot greens aren't just for looks, you know. Those bunches of carrots you see in the grocery store with the fluffy bright greens are the freshest carrots in the store.

Items like beets and carrots naturally grow with gorgeous green leaves on top. After harvest, a grower will sometimes leave the leaves for appearances sake. This is because many stores and some grocery shoppers really like carrots and beets have that farmer's market halo of freshness around them.