Carrots are my next victim in the puree and powder obsession. Our local farm usually carries these in the fall and I love to stock up. Two years ago I bottled a ton a carrots and no one was eating them so I had to employ my sneaky skills of pureeing and powdering. I drained the water, pureed the carrots, froze half of them in food cubes and dehydrated the rest. I liked it so much that I no longer bother with bottled carrots and go straight to the puree and powder.
Powder
First lesson I learned with carrot powder is, it doesn't work like the pumpkin and yam powder, no raw dehydrating here. I ended up with carrot "rocks" that put a permanent ring around my beloved Twister Jar! No, carrots must be pureed first and then spread on dehydrator trays like you are making fruit leather.
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So first step is to steam those carrots until they are soft and tender, you could also put them in a slow cooker overnight. I don't bother with peeling the carrots, as a lot of nutrients are in the "skin" part, so I give them a good brush scrubbing and then cut into chunks. My chunks for this batch may have been a little too big because the steaming time took about and hour. The smaller you make the chunks the faster they will steam. You want them to the point where you can poke a fork easily into the carrot. Once ready place in a blender or food processor and blend until they are pureed.
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Spread the puree on fruit roll sheets for the dehydrator and dehydrate until the sheet is crisp. You can see how there will be "crack" marks throughout the dried puree. Break apart into a blender and blend into a powder. I like to use this powder in sweet breads, pancakes and waffles. When I had nothing but zucchini for my Garden Cake, I used this carrot powder. You can also put in an old spice jar and sprinkle into your soups and dinner dishes. As a bonus the powder makes a great natural food coloring.
Frozen Food Cubes
With the remaining puree, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Pop out and store in freezer bags with a label, you may want to include that two cubes equal 1/4 cup. I loved using these for baby food and they make a great add in to soups, casseroles, sweet breads, pancakes, essentially anything you are using the powder for.
