Not Sure How To Use Frozen Carrots? Throw Them In A Smoothie

Imagine this: When searching your freezer for something to cook for dinner, you find a bag of frozen carrots that you purchased ages ago and forgot all about. However versatile in cooking, carrots are those veggies that we sometimes neglect because they're not usually the main ingredient in a recipe. Even if they are, we might try to find accompaniments for them, such as pairing carrot soup with hearty bread or tossing them into a stir-fry. Luckily, those neglected frozen carrots can be used in delicious smoothies to add a punch of nutrients and flavor to beverages. 

Frozen vegetables are as healthy as fresh produce, and carrots have nutrients that can bolster the health properties of your breakfast smoothie. They contain Vitamin A and an antioxidant known as luteolin, both of which fight inflammation in the body, as Eating Well reports. Health benefits aside, carrots add sweetness to smoothies thanks to their natural sugar content, without overpowering their other flavors. This is why carrots work well with other, more flavorful ingredients, such as oranges and mangoes. 

You don't have to thaw frozen carrots before throwing them in a blender, as long as your equipment's blades have handled chunks of frozen produce before without a problem, but it's probably a good idea. It's important to consider that frozen produce can damage not just the blades of your blender but also the container itself. There is another benefit to thawing your frozen carrots beforehand — it will prevent lumps and chunks from forming, giving your smoothie a smoother consistency (oh, is that how they got their name?). If you want to thaw frozen carrots before throwing them into a smoothie or for other carrot-needing recipes, you can do so by keeping them in the fridge overnight or by placing them in a sealable plastic bag that's put in a bowl of water.

Thawing carrots aside, with all food recalls we've seen so far in 2023, it's probably best to cook your frozen veggies before using them. While we might assume that freezing temperatures will kill food-borne microorganisms, this isn't the case. You should heat frozen veggies to a temperature of at least 155 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any bacteria in them, according to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

You might not always be using store-bought frozen veggies, like if you have some leftover carrots from last night's dinner that you want to freeze for later use in smoothies, so there are some rules of thumb to follow when freezing them yourself. Generally, don't freeze your carrots when they're raw, as this will degrade their taste, color, and texture – instead, blanching raw carrots keeps them looking vibrant. In fact, blanching carrots is super quick and easy — simply peel and cut them into smaller pieces before boiling them for a few minutes and then dunking them in a brief ice water bath. 

Once blanched, drain your carrots and store them in vacuum-sealed bags. Frozen carrots should be used within a year, so don't forget about them — put them in an area of the freezer where you see them regularly and clearly label their bag with the date on which they were put into the freezer. Give frozen carrots a whirl in the blender to start your day with a yummy smoothie.