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 in detail how to dry carrots at home in the article, since this root vegetable is often used in every family for cooking different dishes.

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

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

Which carrots to choose for drying and how to prepare them

Let's start, perhaps, our theory with the choice of standing root crops. You may not know, but not all varieties are ideal for drying. Late ripening carrots are considered the best choice, since they are more resistant to various diseases, and they can be stored longer without losing their natural rich taste.

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

First you need to dig up the fruits correctly

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

Taking it out of the ground, we put the dug crop on a cloth, paper or pallet, so that the root crops are a little weathered and freed from moisture.

After preliminary drying, we proceed to cutting off the carrot tops

For cutting, you need scissors, with which we cut it down to the very base from which it grows. If not cut off completely, then new stems with leaves may begin to grow from the remaining areas.

Do not rush to throw away the tops - it can also be successfully dried.

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 modern household appliance. This will be discussed further.

Read more about methods for quickly cleaning carrots from dirty accumulations and skins 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, nitrate-free vegetables with fruits, and then dry them in a natural way.

Drying in the open air is very easy to implement, but alas, it takes more time than drying in any kitchen gadget. It will take approximately 2 weeks to air dry your carrots.

How to dry root vegetables at home

1. Fruits without rot, mold and other damage are washed (rather carefully) in ordinary cool water.
2. Next, we clean the fruits (the link to the article on cleaning carrots is above).
3. Now it remains to cut them, put them on a sieve, baking sheet or tray and leave to dry in direct sunlight for 10-14 days. Stir the drying every few days so that all carrot pieces dry out evenly.

At night, in fact, like early in the morning, your drying roots must be removed from the street - taken to the room. It can rain at night, and in the predawn hours there is a high risk of dew falling - this will spoil the result and lengthen the total drying time.

You can cut carrots for drying as you like: into rings, half rings, quarters, plates, cubes, or even grate it. The shape of the carrot does not matter, its thickness is much more important. Cut the root vegetables thinly so they can dry out 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 for a few hours a day, and the ventilation there is poor (especially if it is glazed).

But there is a way out - drying in the oven (gas or electric). In the oven, fruits dry faster than in the sun, but you have to tinker a little. If that doesn't scare you, then let's get started.

We dry carrot fruits in the home oven step by step

• Wash vegetables so that dirt is not visible anywhere on the surface of the fruit.
• After washing, we clean the root crops.
• Now it is worth blanching them so that neither the taste nor useful properties are lost. We boil 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 over 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 in an oven preheated to a temperature of 60-80 degrees, dry for about 4-6 hours. From time to time, drying must be interfered with.

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

How to dry carrots in an electric dryer

A vegetable dryer is ideal for drying any kind of fruit. It is easy to use and, like the oven, allows you to quickly dry carrots in bulk portions.

Drying of carrot fruits should be carried out as follows:

1. My carrots, peel off the top layer, cut into small pieces.
2. We spread the slices or 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 in places so that the drying is uniform.

Recipe for drying raw carrots in an airfryer

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

To dry carrots in the airfryer, you need:

• Wash, peel, wipe vegetables, removing moisture residues.
• Now you need to finely chop everything, but it is better to grate on a grater for carrots in Korean.

• After chopping, the root vegetables must be laid out in one layer on the grates, which should be placed in the electrical appliance in turn.

Be sure to insert a high temperature resistant device between the cone and the cap. Thanks to him, the outflow of humid burning air will occur.

• The conditions under which the product must dry are as follows: t \u003d 120 ° C, blowing speed is medium. Drying time is 15-30 minutes. The more you put carrot slices, the longer it will last, so it is better to dry in medium portions.

Drying delicious carrots in the microwave: step by step recipe

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

Drying raw carrots step by step in the microwave

1. Cut the washed peeled vegetable into bars or strips (the thickness of each piece should be small).
2. Put the chopped fruits on a plate covered with a paper towel, and cover them on top with the same paper towel.
3. We put a plate (flat) inside the device, next to it we place 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 carrots are still soggy, the power will have to be reduced from maximum to medium, and then continue to cook for half an hour or even forty minutes. Watch all this time so that the water from the glass does not completely evaporate.

Secrets of drying carrots in the oven for tea

As strange as it may sound, dried carrots are even put in drinks, for example, in tea. But the carrots should be dried not only where, but either under the rays of the sun, or in the oven.

In the sun, the process occurs exactly the same as we described in the article above, but tea drying takes place in the oven somewhat differently compared to traditional oven drying:

1. We send the chopped carrots on a baking sheet to the oven, red-hot to the limit.
2. First, we dry the product at this temperature for 20 minutes, then we remove it from the oven and let it cool at room rates.
3. Next, put the baking sheet in the oven again, dry it at the maximum degree for 20 minutes and let it cool again. In total, dry and cool 3 times.

A little with troubles, but it will turn out tasty and healthy in the end.

Rules for storing dried carrots at home

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

The storage room must be dry and dimly lit, out of direct sunlight. The shelf life of such carrot drying is 1 year.

If up to this point you still doubted whether it is 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 and second courses and even taken to brew 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 many times.

We washed and peeled the carrots.

From 10 kg it turned out:
9 kg (90%) - refined product
1 kg (10%) - waste.

Using a meat grinder and a shredder attachment, they grated the carrots. A net or pallet was placed in each tray and carrots were laid on them. 9 kg were placed on 20 trays, 450 grams per tray. Carrots were dried for 17 hours at temperatures of + 55-60 ° C and an indoor temperature of + 5 ° C. The Ezidri Ultra dryer consumed 13 kW in 17 hours.

From 9 kg of peeled carrots, 930 grams of dried product was obtained.
Shrinking 10 times.

Dried carrots are added to stews, cereals, soups, borscht, when baking bread. Also, it is harvested for hiking, as it weighs 10 times lighter in dried form.

Dried carrots are one of the ingredients for cooking.

One of the oldest ways to preserve carrots is by drying. Dried carrots were considered a gourmet dish during the reign of Charlemagne and were a delicacy. In Russia, carrots were dried in a shady place, in a draft. In the XVII century. in Europe, dried carrots were used in soups. Now, dried carrots are used by housewives in many countries, because this product is a component of various dishes, so it is important that the root vegetable is always “at hand”.

Choosing the right root vegetable and preparing it for drying

1. For drying, choose fresh, medium-sized root vegetables, early and mid-season varieties are better suited. It is advisable to choose a bright orange color, which indicates a high content of carotene in carrots. The core should not be coarse and small. It is better to choose carrots that are the same size. The tops and neck are removed. Do not rush to throw away the tops, it contains a large amount of vitamin C. It can also be dried and later used as a seasoning for dishes. Root crops are cleaned and washed thoroughly, while damaged areas are removed.
2. The prepared product is spread on a baking sheet and dried. Now the drying process can be facilitated for housewives by a modern dryer for fruits and vegetables, since the drying process is faster and the beneficial substances and taste are preserved much better.
3. The finished dried fruit is elastic and slightly fragile, it is better to store it in a cloth bag or glass jar.

Dried carrots are a source of vitamins and minerals

Many dried vegetables do not lose their beneficial properties for the human body. The same applies to carrots. It is a very valuable food product in winter. When the root crop is dried, carotene practically does not disappear. In addition, dried carrots contain potassium, iron, phosphorus, nickel, calcium, iodine and many other health-promoting minerals. Carrots contain many vitamins: A, groups B, C, E, K. Carrots do not lose their calorie content, 100 grams contain 221 kcal. Carrots are high in fiber. Fresh root vegetable has a specific smell - this is the merit of essential oils. If you want to keep them in full, it is better to use the well-proven Ezidri electric dryer instead of an oven for drying.

Useful properties of dried carrots

The constant use of carrots has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the human body. Its chemical and mineral composition can help overcome many diseases.
It is recommended to be introduced into the diet for people with rapid fatigue, weak immunity. It has long been known that eating carrots in sufficient quantities has a positive effect on visual acuity. Carrots give this magical property thanks to vitamin A, which our eyes love so much. Dried root vegetables are recommended to be used to lower blood pressure, stroke, varicose veins. Due to the high fiber content, digestion is improved. Dried carrots should be used with caution for people with ulcers, especially in the acute period of the disease. Carrots have a beneficial effect on kidney and liver cells, have a diuretic and choleretic effect.
In addition, carrots are often used for cosmetic procedures, as a means of skin rejuvenation.

Where can you use dried carrot root vegetable?

Dried carrots are added to almost all first and second courses. It gives the dishes a taste and a specific golden color. It is more often used for cooking broths, both vegetable and meat, aspic. So that the vitamins and minerals that are rich in carrots do not disappear, it should be added 15 minutes before the dish is ready.

Dried carrots are often used as camping food. This is a great alternative to fresh carrots if you are going outdoors. On a hike, dried carrots will save you the trouble of cleaning and washing root crops, and will lighten the weight during transportation. Also, for such needs, you can prepare a mixture of several dried vegetables, for example, carrots, cabbage, onions, bell peppers, parsley, dill, etc. And already, being in the fresh air, you can easily cook a soup of dry vegetables over a fire.

Dried carrots are used in baking. When kneading a standard bread dough, add 2 tablespoons of the product. In this case, the amount of water must be increased by 20 ml. You will have healthy carrot bread.
Drinks are also prepared from dried carrots: tea, kvass and coffee. Carrot tea can be consumed every day; in terms of taste, this drink is no worse than black tea. To make tea from dried carrots, pour 1-2 tablespoons of carrots with boiling water in a 250 ml cup and let it brew for 15-20 minutes, then add sugar to taste.

Carrots are a useful and indispensable product in the kitchen, which is used to prepare many dishes. But it is not always possible to buy a fresh root vegetable, in this case, carrots dried by you can be an excellent alternative. She is always at hand and is not inferior to either the taste or useful qualities of fresh.

Many housewives ask themselves: how to dry carrots at home and will their benefits be lost with this method of harvesting? To answer this question, it is necessary to tell more about such a useful root vegetable.

Carrots have a rich chemical composition, due to which they have a regulating effect on the metabolism in the human body. Carrots are rich in protein and carbohydrates. The concentration of carbohydrates increases over time and depends on the ripeness of the carrots.

The composition of the root vegetable 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 vegetable is especially rich in carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A.

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

And here the problem of its storage arises. Storing root crops in winter has a negative effect on a number of useful components from the composition of carrots, and they are broken down as a result of the oxidative process of respiration. One of the common ways of storing a useful root vegetable is deep freezing and conservation. The popular belief that deep frozen vegetables are better at retaining their beneficial composition is not entirely true. Fast freezing is used in the manufacture of this type of product.

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

Natural drying of carrots

Nutritionists have a clear answer to the question of how to properly dry carrots.

The harvesting process can be carried out in two different ways: using the natural heat provided by the sun, and using the heat obtained from electrical appliances.

An indisputable advantage of the second method, in comparison with the first, is a significantly shorter drying cycle. At home, the harvesting 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 decides to prepare carrots using drying in the sun, then she needs to know a number of rules. Most often, for this, an open, well-blown by the wind and accessible to the sun's rays site is chosen, protected from possible harmful factors of human activity.

A summer cottage or veranda of a garden house is good for harvesting at home. It is advisable to choose the south side for this. The selected site should be free of dust. It will be helpful to have a canopy near the drying area so that the dried carrots are not damaged by the rain. During the drying process, the carrots must be stirred to check their readiness.

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

Artificial drying

Another affordable and quick way to harvest carrots in winter is drying in an electric dryer. Infrared radiation is widely used in this method. It has the ability to penetrate into the depth of the dried raw material by 6-12 millimeters, which is enough to obtain carrots at home, in which carotene, which is so useful in winter, is not split.

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

How to dry carrots in an electric dryer is usually indicated in the instruction manual for this electrical appliance. Carrots dry for a long time due to the presence of a large amount of moisture in them.

The root vegetable is dried at a temperature of about 60-70 degrees for about 6 hours. It may take several cycles to dry completely. Their number is selected individually during electric drying, so the process requires constant supervision.

Dried carrots can be used on the farm, making various soups, pies and other preparations, and even when brewing tea. It can be used for food at any time of the year, provided that the storage conditions are strictly observed.

Carrots have a rich chemical composition, due to which they can have a regulatory effect on the metabolism in the human body. Carrots contain proteins and carbohydrates. The carbohydrate content increases depending on the degree of ripening of the root crop. This vegetable contains little cellulose, so carrots can be used in dietary nutrition. The vegetable is rich in vitamins (B1, B2, B6, C) and minerals (potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, iron, etc.). It contains a lot of carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body.

Providing the body with the nutrients contained in carrots prevents the occurrence of various diseases. Carotene is the most important of these. Eating carrots in winter is especially valuable. Therefore, the problem of its storage arises. The storage process negatively affects many of the nutrients in carrots, which decompose to support oxidative respiration. You can store this root vegetable either frozen or canned. However, the opinion that frozen vegetables retain vitamins and minerals does not fully correspond to reality. The best option for preserving vitamins is drying technology. Drying will help prevent or slow down the physicochemical, biochemical and other processes that lead to a decrease in the nutritional value of carrots.

Drying carrots at home can be done both naturally - in the open air, and artificially - using dryers. The advantage of artificial drying of carrots, in comparison with natural drying in the open air, can be called a significantly shorter cycle of the entire process. The drying process consists in removing moisture from moisture by transferring it from a liquid to a vapor state using heat.

Most in an actual way artificial drying of carrots is the use of infrared radiation. The penetration depth of infrared rays will reach 6-12 mm, they can have a stronger effect on products due to the significant penetration depth and due to the effect on the molecular structure. Applying this method to drying carrots is the best for preserving carotene.

The higher the quality of the prepared raw material, the better the quality of the dried product will be. Dried carrots made from unripe fruits will be worse than ripe ones. However, overripe fruits are not suitable for drying either. Therefore, the fruits must be in a state of ripeness. For drying, medium-sized bright orange carrots are suitable. Preparation of raw materials begins with bulkhead and sorting and fruits. Rotten vegetables, damaged, ugly, are rejected, in addition, they are sorted by size in order to dry them separately. The prepared fruits are washed thoroughly. To wash off the remnants of pesticides from the surface of carrots, they are washed in water with soda - dilute a teaspoon per liter of water or with the addition of vinegar - a tablespoon of vinegar per liter of water. After that, peel the skin.

Before drying carrots in the oven, it must be blanched - boiled in boiling water for 20 minutes and cooled in cold water. You can dry carrots at home and without blanching, but such carrots will quickly lose their taste and useful qualities. After blanching, the carrots are cooled and cut into 3 mm thick circles, cubes or rubbed on a coarse grater. The carrots prepared in this way are poured onto a baking sheet in a thin layer and dried at 60-80? C for 4-6 hours. Properly dried carrots should have a bright orange color. Store it in a dry and dark place in a sealed package.

Dried carrots will decorate the first and main courses, the 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 you in this article.

How to dry carrots: rules for harvesting and storage

To get high-quality winter preparations, carrots should be properly selected and prepared. Suitable for drying are mid-season or early, medium-sized root crops. It is better to choose vegetables with a rounded bottom - they are sweeter and brighter.

Preparatory stages:

• sorting - sort the carrots by size, remove roots with signs of spoilage;
• cleaning - cut off the tops, remove green veins, wash thoroughly with a brush, do not remove the peel;
• heat treatment - immerse carrots in boiling water for 12–20 minutes, depending on the size; a toothpick should hardly enter the finished vegetable;
• cool in a container with ice water.

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

Storing dried carrots is easy - you can use fabric bags or glass and tin containers.

How to dry carrots for the winter: basic ways

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

It will take several cycles to completely dry the root vegetable - complete drying of the vegetable will take 6-17 hours, depending on its variety and the size of the pieces. Properly cooked carrots retain their bright color and elastic consistency.

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

To dry in the microwave, carrots should be cut into small cubes, spread out in a thin layer between two sheets of thin paper. Place the workpiece in the microwave, put a container of water. You need to check the readiness every half a minute, the water in the container should be constantly.