Drying is a convenient way to prepare a large number of healthy vegetables for the winter, because they do not take up much space and are always ready-made. We will tell you about how to dry carrots at home in detail in the article, since this root crop is often used in every family to cook different dishes.

There are also many ways that you can easily and fairly quickly dry fruits, and we will offer you to consider all of them.

Each option is simple, but not everyone is available to absolutely everyone, so we have prepared a selection of “dry” recipes so that you choose the best and most convenient for yourself.

What carrots to choose for drying and how to prepare it

We will begin, perhaps, our theory with the choice of standing root crops. You may not know, but not all varieties are ideal for drying. The late ripe carrot is considered the best choice, as it is more resistant to various diseases, and it is stored longer without losing its natural rich taste.

As for the preparation of carrots, this process consists of several stages:

First you need to dig out the fruits correctly

If you do not buy them ready-made in the market or in the supermarket, and then grow up blood in your garden, then remove the root crops from the earth correctly.
  You need to grab the tops and pull the fruit carefully (if your soil is very hard, pry the ground with a shovel) so as not to damage its integrity.

Having taken out of the earth, we put the dug crop on a cloth, paper or a pallet so that the root crops are slightly weathered and freed from moisture.

After preliminary drying, proceed to cutting carrot tops

For the cut, you will need scissors with which we will cut it down to the very base from which it grows. If you do not cut it to the end, then new stems with leaves may begin to grow from the remaining sections.

Throw away the tops - do not rush - it can also be dried successfully.

After all the manipulations, it remains only to clean the carrots of dirt and send them to dry either in the fresh air or in some kind of modern household appliance. This will be discussed later.

Read more about methods for quick cleaning of carrots from dirty accumulations and peels in one of the articles on our portal.

The classic way to dry carrots in the sun

If you live in a private house or you have a house in the country, then this is a huge plus for you, because you can not only sunbathe and relax there, but also grow healthy, non-nitrate vegetables with fruits, and then dry them in a natural way.

Outdoor drying is very easy to implement, but, alas, takes more time than drying in any kitchen gadget. Approximately the whole process of drying carrots in the air will take 2 weeks.

How to dry root crops at home

1. Fruits without rot, mold and other damage to my (rather carefully) in ordinary cool water.
2. Next, clean the fruits (a link to an article on peeling carrots is above).
3. Now it remains to chop them, arrange them on a sieve, baking sheet or tray and leave to dry in direct sunlight for 10-14 days. Every few days, the drying should be mixed so that all carrot slices dry out evenly.

At night, in fact, as in the early morning, it is necessary to remove your drying root crops from the street - to take them to the room. It can rain at night, and in the predawn hours there is a high risk of dew - this will spoil our result and lengthen the total drying time.

You can chop the carrots for drying as you like: with rings, half rings, quarters, plates, sticks, or even grate it. The shape of carrots does not play a role, its thickness is much more important. Cut the root vegetables thinly - so they can dry much faster.

How to dry carrots in the oven while preserving vitamins

Residents of an ordinary apartment cannot afford to dry a vegetable at home. The balcony is not the most suitable place for this: the sun's rays fall on it only a few hours a day, and the ventilation there is poor (especially if it is glazed).

But there is a solution - drying in the oven (gas or electric). In the oven, the fruits dry faster than in the sun, but you have to tinker a bit. If this does not scare you, then let's proceed.

We dry carrot fruits in a home oven step by step

• My vegetables so that nowhere on the surface of the fetus was not visible dirt.
• After washing, we clean the root crops.
• Now it’s worth blanching them so that neither taste nor beneficial properties are lost. We boil the water, put our peeled carrots in it, boil them for 15-20 minutes (the accuracy of the cooking time depends on the size of your fruits). Immediately after boiling, pour them with cold water.
• Let the blanched carrots cool, then cut into any geometric shape, but not thicker than 3 mm.

• We distribute everything evenly on a baking sheet and place it in an oven, heated to a temperature of 60-80 degrees, to dry for about 4-6 hours. From time to time, drying should be interfered.

Leave a small distance between the pieces so that they do not stick together, and do not stack the slices in several layers, otherwise it will dry and dry for a long time.

How to dry carrots in an electric dryer

The dryer for vegetables is ideally suited for drying any fruit. It is easy to use and, like the oven, it allows you to quickly dry carrots in bulk portions.

Drying carrot fruits should be as follows:

1. I wash the carrot, peel off the top layer, cut into small pieces.
2. Put the sliced \u200b\u200bor grated mass on the trays of the electric dryer, set t 65 ° C and bring it to readiness for 5-6 hours. In the process, the trays must be rearranged so that the drying is uniform.

Recipe for drying raw carrots in an air grill

You can also dry your favorite fruits quickly and easily in the air grill. This process is not much different from a similar procedure in other types of household appliances, but still has certain differences.

To dry carrots in aero grill, you need:

• Wash vegetables, peel, wipe, getting rid of residual moisture.
• Now you need to finely chop everything, and it is better to grate Korean carrots on a grater.

• After grinding, the root crops must be laid out in a single layer on the grids, which are placed in an electrical appliance in turn.

Be sure to insert some kind of appliance that is resistant to high temperatures between the cap and the lid. Thanks to it, the outflow of moist burning air will occur.

• The conditions under which the product should dry are as follows: t \u003d 120 ° C, blowing speed is average. Drying time - 15-30 minutes. The more you lay carrot slices, the longer it will last, so it’s better to dry with medium-sized portions.

Drying delicious carrots in the microwave: step by step recipe

The microwave oven is perfect not only for cooking and heating dishes, but also for drying many vegetables. Today, we will try to dry fresh carrots in it for the winter, so that the vitamins do not disappear, and the natural taste is preserved.

Dry the raw carrots in the microwave

1. The washed peeled vegetable is cut with bars or straws (the thickness of each piece should be small).
2. We put the sliced \u200b\u200bfruits on a plate covered with a paper towel, and cover them with the same paper towel on top.
3. We place a plate (flat) inside the device, next to it we install a glass filled with water.
4. We give the microwave heat, turning it on at full power for literally 3 minutes.

If after a few minutes of drying (at full power) the carrot remains raw, the power will have to be reduced from maximum to medium, and then continue cooking for half an hour, or even forty minutes. Watch all this time so that the water from the glass does not completely evaporate.

The secrets of drying carrots in an oven for tea

No matter how strange it sounds, dried carrots are even put in drinks, such as tea. But carrots should be dried not only where, but either under the sun or in the oven.

In the sun, the process occurs in exactly the same way as we described in the article above, but the drying for tea takes place in the oven in a slightly different way compared to traditional oven drying:

1. Sliced \u200b\u200bcarrots on a baking sheet are sent to the oven, heated to the limit.
2. First, dry the product at this temperature for 20 minutes, then remove it from the oven and let cool at room temperature.
3. Next, put the baking sheet in the oven again, dry it at a maximum degree of 20 minutes and again let it cool. In total, it is necessary to dry and cool 3 times.

A bit with troubles, but tasty and healthy in the end.

Rules for storing dried carrots at home

After drying, the product must be held for a couple of days in one large container so that the moisture in the carrots can be evenly distributed.

The storage room should be dry and dimly lit, without direct sunlight. The shelf life of such carrot drying is 1 year.

If until this moment you still doubted whether it was possible to dry carrots at home, now you know for sure that this is not only possible, but also necessary.

After all, dry carrots are used as an additive to many first, second courses and are even taken for brewing aromatic tea.

Agree, the range of applications is very diverse and wide. So take note of our proven and step-by-step master classes - they will come in handy repeatedly.

Many housewives ask themselves: how to dry carrots at home and will their benefits not be lost with this method of harvesting? To answer this question, you need to talk more about such a useful root crop.

Carrots have a rich chemical composition, due to which it has a regulatory effect on the metabolism in the human body. Carrots are rich in proteins and carbohydrates. The concentration of carbohydrates increases over time and depends on the degree of ripeness of carrots.

The composition of the root crop is poor in cellulose, which allows it to be used while dieting. The composition of carrots is replete with useful vitamins (B1, B2, B6, C) and a whole group of important minerals (potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, iron and others). The root crop is especially rich in carotene, which the body processes into vitamin A.

The body's intake of useful substances contained in the root crop helps to resist the development of various diseases. The most important among these substances is considered to be carotene. Therefore, the consumption of carrots in food in winter is of great value for human nutrition.

And here there is the problem of its storage. The storage of root vegetables in winter has a negative effect on a number of useful components from the composition of carrots, and they are split as a result of the oxidative respiration process. One of the common ways of storing useful root crops is deep freezing and preservation. The widespread belief that deep-frozen vegetables retain their beneficial composition better is not fully true. In the manufacture of this type of product, quick freezing is used.

The best way to keep carrots for the winter is to dry.Drying makes it possible to prevent or suspend those processes of the destruction of the nutritional composition, which lead to a decrease in the nutritional value of the orange root.

Natural carrot drying

When asked how to dry carrots properly, nutritionists have a clear answer.

The harvesting process can be carried out in two different ways: using the natural heat that the sun provides, and using the heat received from electrical appliances.

The indisputable advantage of the second method, in comparison with the first, is a significantly shorter drying cycle. At home, the procurement process consists in removing the liquid contained in it from the raw material due to its evaporation using natural or artificial heat.

If the hostess decided to prepare carrots using drying in the sun, then she needs to know a number of rules. Most often, an open area, well blown by the wind and accessible to sunlight, is selected for this, protected from possible harmful factors of human activity.

Good for harvesting at home, a summer cottage or a veranda of a garden house is suitable. It is advisable to choose the south side for this. There should be no dust on the selected site. It will be useful to have a canopy near the drying zone so that the dried carrots do not suffer from rain. During drying, carrots must be mixed to check readiness.

The finished product is packed in wooden or tin containers (cotton bags are also suitable) and stored in a dark room. Tea containers are good for storing carrots.

Artificial drying

Another available and quick way to winter harvest carrots is drying in an electric dryer. With this method, infrared radiation is widely used. It has the ability to penetrate deep into the dried raw materials by 6-12 millimeters, which is enough to produce carrots at home, in which carotene, which is so useful in winter, is not split.

Carrots need to be used for drying clean. To do this, the raw materials must be washed and peeled and cut or grated as the hostess wants. You can grate it on a coarse grater, or you can cut it into cubes. Dried carrots are simply worth their weight in gold for our diet. This is due initially to the fact that it is rich in carotene.

How to dry carrots in an electric dryer is usually indicated in the instructions for use of this appliance. Carrots are dried for a long time due to the presence of a large amount of moisture.

Root crops are dried at a temperature of about 60-70 degrees for about 6 hours. For complete drying, it may take several cycles. Their number is selected individually during electric drying, so the process requires constant supervision.

Dried carrots can be used on the farm, in the preparation of various soups, pies and other preparations, and even when brewing tea. It can be used as food at any time of the year under strict observance of storage conditions.

Dried carrots will decorate the first and main dishes, a high content of nutrients will save the body from vitamin deficiency. How to dry carrots in an electric dryer? How else can you prepare a root crop for the winter? We will tell in this article.

How to dry carrots: rules for harvesting and storage

To get high-quality winter preparations, carrots should be correctly selected and prepared. For drying, mid-ripe or early, medium-sized root crops are suitable. It is better to choose vegetables in which the lower part is rounded - they are more sweet and bright.

Preparatory stages:

• sorting - arrange carrots to size, remove root crops with signs of spoilage;
• cleaning - cut the tops, remove the green veins, thoroughly wash with a brush, do not remove the peel;
• heat treatment - immerse carrots in boiling water for 12–20 minutes, depending on size, with a toothpick it is difficult to enter the finished vegetable;
• cool in a container of ice water.

Prepared carrots can be cut into 3 mm slices, small cubes or cubes, and thin straws.

It is not difficult to store dried carrots - for this, cloth bags or glass and tin containers are suitable.

How to dry carrots for the winter: the main ways

An electric dryer allows you to quickly prepare winter preparations from various vegetables. The instructions for the device indicate the temperature and duration of the process. The ideal temperature for drying carrots is 6-70 degrees.

To completely dry the root crop, it will take several cycles - complete drying of the vegetable will take 6-17 hours, depending on its variety and the size of the pieces. Properly cooked carrots retain a bright color, has an elastic consistency.

Air-solar drying is the best way to harvest carrots, provided that the vegetable will not get dust and dirt from the environment. The prepared root crop needs to be decomposed in a thin layer on a sieve, 3-4 times a day it needs to be mixed. Drying time - at least 14 days.

For drying in the microwave, carrots should be cut into small sized cubes, spread out in a thin layer between two sheets of thin paper. Place the workpiece in the microwave, put a container of water. Readiness must be checked every half minute, the water in the tank should be constantly.

Dried carrots are very convenient. It can be used for first courses, desserts, pastries and much more. Depending on what the procurement is planned for, prepare it in various ways. This review is devoted to carrots, shaved with thin straws.
Recipe Content:

Carrots - an indispensable vegetable for the normalization of digestion, the prevention of acute respiratory viral infections, an excellent antiseptic, reduces the risk of oncology and premature skin aging. The vegetable contains almost all the substances that our body needs. Therefore, the question “to stock up on it for the winter or not to stock up”, the answer is obvious - necessarily “yes”. The root crop can be prepared in several ways: freeze, preserve and dry. In this review we will learn how to prepare it in the last way.

Properly dried root vegetables of carrots retain both color and fresh smell. If you have a jar of dried carrots on the shelf, the preparation time for culinary masterpieces is significantly reduced. Getting into soup, meat stew, dough, etc., the carrot straw straightens and takes its original form. Dried carrot chips or rings can be considered as dietary chips, which can be consumed just like that. In addition, all vitamins and minerals are stored in dried vegetables, and fresh root crops will lose some of their “strategic stock” by spring. Another pleasant moment is the calorie content of dry carrot slices is much lower than that of a fresh vegetable, while the taste is quite pleasant.

• Calorie content per 100 g - 219 kcal.
• Servings Per Container - 100 g
• Cooking time - 15 minutes for preparatory work, 2 hours for drying

Ingredients:

• Carrots - 2 pcs. (big size)

How to cook dried carrots:

1. Wash the carrots well under running water and pat dry with a paper towel.

2. Use a special knife to peel vegetables to clean the root crop. This knife allows you to minimize cut the peel, leaving more pulp of the vegetable.

3. Grate the carrots. To make the straws beautiful, thin and long, use a food processor or grater for Korean carrots.

4. Put carrot chips on a baking sheet in an even layer. Heat the oven to 80 degrees and send the root crop to dry. At the same time, keep the chamber door slightly ajar so that there is air circulation. Also, the vegetable can be dried naturally, left in an apartment in a dry place and after 1-2 days it will dry. Well, of course, you can take advantage of the rays of the sun.

Late autumn is the time of the last harvest for the winter. At autumn fairs, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, beets, onions and other vegetables are abundant, which make up an important and significant part of each person’s diet.

Last year (at the end of winter - beginning of spring), I was faced with the absence of normal (not stained and not rotting) carrots in the nearest stores. It is difficult to imagine cooking the first dishes without this root crop, it is noticeably lacking for the second one, let alone my love for carrot juice .. It was very unusual and extremely unpleasant. I had to buy dried mixes with carrots for dressing soups, and this turned out to be not a very pleasant burden for the family budget.

That is why this fall, one of the important preparations was dried carrots. It was necessary, but the anticipation of the process was bleak .., but in vain! - Drying carrots for the winter was not difficult and not for long. And, of course, the quality of the resulting product is much higher than what you buy in small bags in the store.

So, how to dry carrots  at home?

We leave for the autumn fair, where we buy carrots so nicely packed in small nets. We will harvest in parts, fortunately, raw carrots are stored well, especially if there is a cool room (in our case, the basement).

Carrot wash and clean  from the peel. Using a vegetable peeler (a special knife for peeling vegetables) greatly simplifies and speeds up this process, especially if carrots are large and even - then in general there is a sea of \u200b\u200bpleasure and satisfaction from simplicity and speed.

Next carrots are needed blanchotherwise carrots will quickly lose not only their taste, but also their beneficial properties. To do this, bring the water to a boil, put the carrots in boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the carrots.
Carrots are dried in the oven, for example, without prior blanching, but this is a possible, but not the best option for drying carrots.

I gave carrots cool offby myself (of course, draining the water, and pulling it out of the pan to increase the cooling rate), although I read that it should be quickly cooled under cold running water.

After the carrots have cooled, rub it on a coarse grater. You can also cut in circles up to 3 mm thick or in small cubes - try to make them the same so that the drying goes more evenly.

We spread the grated carrots to all levels of the dryer (at first I tried to spread it in a rather thin layer and at intervals for air, but then I just laid out the whole volume obtained on the grill, i.e. all the carrots that fit in the cooking process in a 3 liter pan was laid on 5 levels of dryer).

There was concern that due to the density of layers of grated carrots on pallets, the drying would not be uniform, but no - the drying went well and took only 2 days.
No, no, don't be scared, not a full 2 \u200b\u200bdays. In total, it turned out 6-7 hours at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. The first day I dried the carrots for 3-4 hours, changing the levels in places every hour, since the bottom of the product was dried faster than at the upper levels. And also removing moisture from the inside of the dryer lid. On the second day, I dried the carrots for 3 hours, also rearranging the levels and stirring the dried carrots a little.

When the carrot consistency became suitable (the carrot should become dry, but not crumbling into powder), I turned off the dryer, let the carrots cool for about half an hour, and put everything in an 800 gram jar. It turned out to be "crowded."

What a joyful orange color for dried carrots! But do not rush to close it with a lid - let it stand for another day in a dry, warm place (covering it with gauze to replace the lid), so the carrots will probably dry out and become even better stored.

Total:  I won’t say by weight (next time I’ll also definitely weigh it (it turned out to be 1.5 kg)), but 800 gram jar of dried product came out of a 3 liter pan with large carrots.

How to store dried carrots?

Dried carrots are stored for a very long time.
Store dried carrots in a dry, dark place in a hermetically sealed container. You can use both glass containers and paper or plastic bags.