These easy carrot straws are sweet with a hint of heat, crunchy and slightly addictive.
This month’s recipe redux challenge is to dehydrate or otherwise dry the season’s best fruit and vegetables for later use. When I saw the theme, I was a little concerned as I don’t have a dehydrator… yet. I worked with the time and equipment I have. Since this post would go live on the first day of fall, I thought carrot chips would be fun to try.
For this oven version (which I’m calling carrot straws for obvious reasons), all you need is a vegetable peeler and your oven. Get the fattest carrots you can find to get nice wide strips. Wash and peel the carrots, use the vegetable peeler to create the carrot strips, evenly coat with the dressing and bake. The carrot strips will shrink way more than you’d expect. Keep this in mind when adding to the pan.
Here’s a look before…
And after…
Properly dehydrated carrots become shelf stable and can be used for months to come. I won’t claim that these are properly dehydrated but they sure are tasty! They didn’t last long in my house.
Maple Ancho Carrot Straws
Ingredients
- 1 lb. large carrots peeled
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 T maple syrup
- ½ t ancho chili powder
- Coarse salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F.
- Using a vegetable peeler, slice long thin strips of carrots. Pat dry to eliminate any excess moisture.
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, maple syrup and ancho chili powder.
- Add the maple syrup mixture to the carrots. Toss to evenly coat the carrots with the dressing.
- Spread the strips into an even layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. (Don't overcrowd the pan.)
- Sprinkle with coarse salt to taste. Bake for 1 ½- 2 hours, or until the carrots are dried out and crispy. (Bake time will vary with the thickness of your strips.)
- Allow the carrot straws to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Check out what the other Recipe Reduxers oven dried, dehydrated or cooked up this month!
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gretchen | kumquat
ooo, i love carrot chips! the flavor is so intense and awesome. these look delish… and great lead photo too! 😉
Marisa
Thanks, Gretchen! And glad you approve of the lead photo 🙂
Meal Makeover Mom Janice
Wow, these look delish and so easy to make. I’ll be trying these soon – and I love that they keep for a long time. 🙂
Marisa
I’m sure these still had some moisture in them as they were not as crunchy the second day. I couldn’t fathom leaving the oven on for hours and hours.I love them as is though…perfect as a quick snack for Sunday football.
Liz - Meal Makeover Mom
Such a clever recipe! Carrots are everywhere right now (hooray for farmers’ markets), so I’ll be sure to pick some up tomorrow. Must try this!
Marisa
Thanks Liz! Let me know what you think!
Danielle Omar -- Food Confidence RD
What a great little snack….never thought to dehydrate carrots and perfect way to use them up before they go bad. Pinned!!
Marisa
Thanks Danielle! They really did turn out well. It’s easy to eat a few too many when they are right out of the oven.
Min
This is so creative! I just made some carrot fries literally hours ago and am wishing I didn’t use up all of my carrots :(. Pinning to try soon!!
genevieve @ gratitude & greens
I am SUCH a big fan of veggie chips! Love the maple-chilli seasoning you used 🙂
Mary @ BrightonYourHealth
Will be making these…tomorrow! Great idea.
Marisa
Thanks, Mary!
Karman @ TheNutritionAdventure
What a fun snack! I like that you incorporated a little sweet and little heat with the carrots!
Marisa
I love sweet and spicy. One of my favorite combos!
Ashley Galloway
Eeeeeekk! Not even kidding, I squealed when I saw this recipe. I LOVE carrot chips and yours look so crunchy and sweet. Great photos, too 🙂
Marisa
Ha! They were pretty tasty! Thanks!
Anne|Craving Something Healthy
Love love love this recipe! The sweet spice mix sounds perfect. Pinned and on my to-do list 🙂
athletic avocado
what an awesome idea! can’t wait to try! 🙂
Katie Cavuto
This looks TOO good!! What a fun spin on sweet potato fries!
Marisa
Thanks Katie! These flavors would be great with sweet potato fries. I’ve made them with chipotle before – just a bit more heat to offset the sweetness.
Deanna Segrave-Daly
I have never made carrot chips and will rectify that very soon with this recipe.