At the end of the summer, sometimes the weather does not always cooperate with us. In fact, sometimes cool weather can come early and ruin most of your late-summer garden. In our case, this happened to us recently with an early polar vortex that hit our area. We got lucky and pulled up all of our carrots early; however, we had so many that we had to figure out a new way to store them, so why not pickled carrots?
We decided to try to “quick pickle” our carrots with the vinegar and pickle seasoning we had laying around to make pickles out of cucumbers. Did it go well? Yes, but we’ll be waiting for three weeks to determine if the flavor is there.
Unfortunately, our dill plant froze during the polar vortex. It’s a large one, and the flowers are amazing in salads and pickles, so I was looking forward to putting some of our dill in the carrots. That won’t happen, but I was able to find some organic dill locally at the grocery store, so we’ll just have to use that instead!
Either way, you should preserve your carrots to eat through winter. This is what I did to preserve our carrots, even the small ones, to prevent them from being frozen.
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QUICK PICKLED CARROTS
Ingredients
- 1 lb carrots (peeled, cut into spears if preferred)
- 2/3 cup distilled white or apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup water (for stronger flavor, sub vinegar)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp organic cane sugar (or stevia to taste)
- (optional) fresh dill
*I substituted the sea salt and organic cane sugar for standard pickling seasoning you can get at any store. I had it on hand already.
Before beginning, sanitize your jars. You can do this any way you see appropriate. I use the dishwasher on the sanitize setting along with the heated dry setting. You can also boil the jars.
- Add your carrots and washed fresh dill (optional) to a sanitized mason jar and set aside while you make the brine.
- To a small saucepan add distilled white vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir to fully dissolve salt and sugar. Taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding more salt or sugar to taste.
- Pour the brine over the carrots, ensuring they are fully submerged. If needed, add more vinegar or a little water to cover.
- Seal well and shake to combine. Then refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The flavors will deepen and intensify the longer it marinates. The best flavor is achieved after 24 hours.
- Will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks (sometimes longer).
Note: These carrots should not be put in the freezer. These work well, however, because they can be eaten almost right away.
Make sure you try to pickle beets and other things too! Why not try this recipe today?
source : Sara Tipton