Carrots
Top 10 binned food
Enough to feed santa’s reindeer nearly 30 tonnes of carrots every day! So versatile with so many ways to use up your leftovers that they should be eaten and not binned. Find out how you can use your carrots in different meals and how to freeze for another day too.
Crunchy, sweet delicious carrots are one of our more flexible veggies to use up. We can eat them raw, grate them in salads and bake carrot cakes. No matter what their shape or size discover more about one of our favourite veg and lets save them from the bin instead.
How to store
How to store fresh carrots
Carrots are best stored at the bottom of the fridge.
Freezing carrots
Cooked or uncooked carrots can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.
Storing cooked carrots
Store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Carrots top tips
How to freeze and defrost
To freeze: Chop or dice the carrots and freeze on a tray until solid. Transfer to a sealed container or bag and add a label. The label should include what the food is and the day it was frozen. Use within a couple of weeks.
To defrost: When you take food out of the freezer, it’s important to defrost it safely. Don’t defrost at room temperature. Ideally, defrost fully in the fridge and use within 24 hours. Or, use a microwave on the defrost setting directly before cooking/ reheating. Always check the on-pack guidance for frozen foods.
Eating the whole food
No need to peel carrots. Just scrub before use. Carrot leaves are also edible. Whizz into a quick carrot top ‘pesto’ with olive oil, cheese, garlic and nuts.
Be fabulous with leftovers
Leftover fresh carrots
Juice your leftover carrots with a touch of ginger and mix with ginger ale, lemonade, lime or coconut milk for an exotic, refreshing, zingy, nutritionally-packed juice. Or use them up by grating them for salads, or carrot cake or muffins. Finely slice (or grate) raw cabbage, leftover carrots and onions and mix with mayonnaise for a quick and easy homemade coleslaw.
Leftover cooked carrots
Use up in dishes such as soups, stews and curries.
Buying tips
Think about buying carrots loose to help you buy only what you need. This will ensure that all your food is more likely to be eaten and saved from the bin.
Think about swapping fresh carrots for frozen. Frozen foods last a long time in the freezer, you can use as much as you need when you need to and they can often be a cheaper option. Carrots are also available tinned.
Perfect portions
Use our portion calculator for a quick and simple way to check how much of this food to serve at mealtimes.
Valuing your Carrots beyond the price tag
Goodness in food
Your food is more than its shape, colour and price. Your food has an important role to play to help keep you healthy and with enough energy to live your life how you wish to.
- Beta-carotene - is converted into vitamin A in the body and is vital for healthy vision.
- Good source of fibre - which helps to keep the digestive system healthy and helps you feel fuller for longer.
Food story
By the time your food arrives in your home, it’s already been on quite a journey starting with how it’s made or grown and how your food reaches the supermarket.
So please help our food to finish its story in the most sustainable way, ensuring the planet’s resources that’s already used are put to good use. Take care of your food when it’s in your home and ensure every edible morsel is eaten - and that your food doesn’t end up in the bin!
Why not try these delicious recipes to use up Carrots
This recipe can be adapted to suit what you have in the fridge. Stewing steak will work just as well as diced beef, just cut it yourself beforehand.
In a hurry? You don’t need to make the curry paste from scratch - you can use a ready made green or red Thai curry paste.
Pretty much anything that’s close to its use-by date can be transformed under the guise of a Spanish omelette. You can include cooked potatoes, cooked vegetables such as peas, leeks, carrots, courgettes, onions etc, that last rasher of bacon and cheese that’s going hard around the edges.
