You can save money when you ditch baby carrots and buy whole carrots instead. Cut your own carrot sticks for easy serving and snacking.
Served in a Ploughman’s Lunch, packed into School Lunches, or assembled on a Veggie Tray or Relish Tray, carrot sticks are a nutritious and colorful must-do vegetable.
Chances are you’ve bought at least one bag of baby carrots in your time. Sometimes they’re true baby carrots, the thinnings from a harvest, other times they’re just regular carrots that have been chopped and shaped to look like it.
While convenient, these ready-to-go carrots aren’t as tasty as whole carrots. Neither are they as affordable. Baby carrots cost up to two or three times as much as regular ones.
There is a better way, a way that was good enough for our moms and our grandmothers: Buying whole carrots and cutting them yourself. Who woulda thunk it?
Why Do This
It tastes better. True baby carrots are younger and not as flavorful as full-grown ones. Those that are hacked to look like them are often treated in solutions that change their flavor and texture. Cutting your own carrots tastes so much better!
It’s cheaper. At my local Ralphs right now, baby carrots cost $1.49/lb while whole carrots can be had for as low as 60 cents/lb. If you eat a lot of carrots, this can really make a difference in your overall grocery budget.
It’s easy. Cutting carrots into sticks is super quick and simple, a great task to do when you Meal Prep Vegetables for the Whole Week.
Ingredients
All you need for making carrot sticks is whole carrots!
Choose carrots that are firm and smooth, avoiding any that are withering, soft, or cracked. Sometimes that’s hard when they’re packaged in brightly colored bags, so give the bag a good feel.
The bigger the bag of carrots you buy, the lower the price per pound will be. If you’ve got room to store the carrots in the fridge, the bigger bag could be a good investment.
Cut as many carrots as you think you’ll eat over the next week and store the rest in the bag in the vegetable bin.
Avoid storing them near apples which give off a gas that can make them taste bitter.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Cutting your own carrot sticks is not hard to do!
- Wash and peel your carrots. Cut off the two ends.
- Chop each carrot into stick-length chunks.
- Split each chunk in half, lengthwise.
- Cut each half in half again, lengthwise.
Storage: store the carrot sticks in an airtight container. For best results, add cool water to the container to keep the carrot sticks from drying out.
You can also add cool water to carrots that have started to go limp. The cold water will perk them right up.
FAQs
All food will eventually go bad if not preserved in some way. Carrots, however, are long keepers, lasting several weeks to months, depending on how they’re stored.
Once you’ve cut carrot sticks, you should try to use them within a week to ten days.
Like many vegetables you can freeze, carrots need to be lightly cooked (either by boiling or steaming) prior to freezing to arrest enzyme activity and protect their texture.
To freeze carrot sticks: Wash, peel, and chop carrots. Blanch 3 minutes, shock (plunge in ice water), drain, and freeze in an airtight container.
Keep in mind that frozen carrots will only be good for cooking after they’ve been frozen. They won’t be crunchy like what you’d serve on a veggie tray.
More Knife Skills to Learn
How to Cut Carrot Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 lb whole carrots
Instructions
- Wash and peel the carrots. Cut off the ends.
- Chop each carrot into stick-length chunks.
- Split each chunk in half, lengthwise. Cut each half in half again, lengthwise.
- Store the carrot sticks in an airtight container. For best results, add cool water to the container to keep the carrot sticks from drying out.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on May 19, 2009. It’s been updated for content and clarity.
Janelle
I don’t even peel our carrots anymore and my kids are used to it! Even easier! And I agree with not liking baby carrots! Even my kids say that they are hard to chew!
Chris
I can’t stand bagged baby carrots (slimy one day, dried up and covered with white stuff the next!). I read that they are not actually “baby” carrots at all — they are mature carrots that have been peeled and cut to a smaller size (and then rounded, I suppose?).
I much prefer to spend the few minutes to wash, peel and cut real carrot sticks. I like them really slender — got used to cutting them that way for kids with braces. I used to be a marching band mom, in charge of band camp lunches, and I insisted on cutting up “real” carrot sticks rather than using bagged baby carrots. Can’t tell you how many teens with braces used to thank me for cutting up the carrots that way. Apparently not many people do it anymore!
Karen J
When our granddaughter was 3 she told us she only likes snowman carrots, not baby carrots. That has stuck in our family and we always call regular carrots “snowman carrots”. Like Janet, I also like the loose ones, as you can pick the size you need. I pick hefty ones for beef stew and thinner ones for stir fry.
Janet
I never buy baby carrots. I don’t like the taste or the price. We usually buy about 2 lbs every week. Half are cut up for carrots sticks, about 1/4 are grated for salads and the other 1/4 is diced for soups and other entrees. At our store you can purchase carrots in a bag or loose. The loose are usually 40 to 50 percent cheaper per pound.
Jessica Fisher
Interesting about the price difference for loose. I don’t think I’ve noticed loose, just bundles with their tops. Are they trimmed and loose?
Janet
They have their tops and are simply tossed in a bin and you pick out the ones you want. I typically try to pick out some slim ones for sticks and some fat ones to grate. By the way, I shop at Kroger.
Diane
I hate those bags of ‘baby’ carrots, they are always wet and slimy. I ALWAYS buy regular carrots and peel them!
Donna Clelments
One question: where on EARTH are you getting carrots .50 a pound? Where I live, it’s over a buck, and that’s from the ‘cheapest’ available source.
Jessica Fisher
This post is a bit old, but if I buy the big BIG bag, I can still get them for that price. Currently, it’s about $0.75 for the smaller bags.
Mo
It’s also healthier to buy big carrots and cut them up, the little ones are technically processed and rumour has it, they have cholrine in them (which is why they turn white after a few days).
Nice little reminder, that takes only a minute or so to cut them up, and you’ve got a healthy snack for a few days!
AllieZirkle
I rarely buy baby carrots. They’re expensive! My mom and sister gag at the thought of eating a carrot stick, but that’s how I serve them to my family. With a hubby and kiddo in braces, it’s easier for them to eat thin carrot sticks too. I feel wasteful slicing baby carrots!
jasi
grandma always cut them in quarters up top, halves down below and halves lengthwise. they’d go into a crystal cut pitcher with a little water, ice cubes and celery sticks in the fridge for all day snacking. awesome