Want to make a grated carrot salad or carrot cake? For the best flavor, skip the store bought shredded carrots. Instead, learn how to shred your own!
Whenever I make a recipe that calls for shredded carrots – say, a salad or carrot cake – I always shred my own at home. I tend to avoid pre-cut produce as a rule, but I especially steer clear of bagged grated carrots. They’re drier and more brittle than ones I grate myself. Plus, when I shred carrots at home, I can taste their natural sweetness. Out of the bag, their flavor isn’t nearly as good.
Taste aside, you could argue that buying shredded carrots saves time. But if it does, it doesn’t save much. This method for how to shred carrots by hand is quick and easy, and it only requires one piece of basic equipment: a box grater! Try it once, and you’ll never buy grated carrots at the store again.
How to Shred Carrots
This method for how to shred carrots is super simple. All you need is a box grater and a bunch of carrots!
When I make shredded carrots, I look for a bunch of carrots with tops. I trim off most of the tops, leaving an inch or so attached to the carrot. This stub of green gives me more to hold on to while I grate the carrots, helping to avoid cut fingers.
I find it useful, but if you can’t find carrots with greens attached, don’t worry! Any large carrots will work here.
Wash the carrots well, and use a vegetable peeler to peel off their skins. Place a box grater on a cutting board.
Using a downward motion, scrape the pointed end of the carrot along the large holes of the box grater. Be careful to keep your hands and fingers out of the way! Repeat this shredding motion until you reach the last 2 inches of each carrot. I recommend stopping there to avoid cutting your hands. That’s it!
This method will work for any quantity of carrots, but I use it most when I’m just shredding 1-4. If I need a larger quantity of grated carrots, I use the shredding disk on my food processor to save time.
How to Use Shredded Carrots
Shredded carrots are a wonderful addition to sweet and savory recipes. I often toss them into salads for extra color and crunch, and they’re also delicious in these curried millet and carrot cakes. Otherwise, I love to use them in carrot cake-inspired treats. Try them in any of these recipes:
- Best Carrot Cake or Vegan Carrot Cake
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Vegan Carrot Waffles
How do you like to use grated carrots? Let me know in the comments!
Shredded Carrots
Ingredients
- 4 carrots*, peeled
Instructions
- Place a box grater on a cutting board. Pick up a carrot by its thick end, and run its tip down the large holes of the grater. Continue this downward shredding motion until about 2 inches of the carrot remain intact. Stop here to avoid cutting your fingers on the holes of the box grater.
- Repeat with the remaining carrots.
