Dill Pickled Carrots
These spicy pickled carrots are crisp, tangy, and full of bold flavor. Made with fresh carrots, garlic, dill, and a kick of heat, they're an easy homemade pickle that's perfect for snacking, charcuterie boards, or piling onto sandwiches.
It might have been borne of a need to grow your own food after growing up through the Great Depression, or because she had 7 children over 14 years and kids never stop eating, or maybe it was just because she has the gift, but my Memere always had the most bountiful garden.
Memere always shared her bounty, both fresh and canned; spicy spaghetti sauce, canned peaches, pears, jams, and pickles.
My favorite of all things was the couple of rogue carrots that snuck into the jar of dill pickles. The crunchy pickled carrots were always where it was at.
You could try to argue with me that the garlic is the best part of the actual pickles, but you’d be wrong. The pickled carrots are the king of the jar.
This recipe is dedicated to standing out; like a carrot in a jar of pickles.
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Ingredients
- water
- vinegar
- picking salt
- garlic
- pickling spice
- fresh or dried dill
- red pepper flakes
- carrots
How To Pickle Carrots
- Prepare canning jars, lids, and rings, by washing them in hot soapy water and rinsing well. Place them on a baking sheet with a clean silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Place the baking sheet in the oven at 225f to sterilize until ready to use. I prefer this method to the boiling water method, but if you prefer to boil your jars, feel free to use that method.
- Fill your canner with water – enough to cover your pint jars and turn on to medium-high heat. This will allow the canner to come to a rolling boil while we prep our ingredients for canning.
- In a large pot, add the brine ingredients. Bring your brine to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, slice the carrots to desired size and thickness, remembering the required height for your jars! Prep your ingredients for each jar. I like to use a prep container to hold the premeasured garlic, pickling spice, dill, and red pepper flakes. One for each jar.
- Take the jars out of the oven, and while hot, add the pre-measured spices to each jar. Carefully stuff the jars with cut carrots. Use a jar funnel and ladle to fill each jar with brine, leaving 1/2″ head-space.
- Wipe the rim of each jar with a clean cloth and cover with a lid before screwing on rings “finger-tight”. To do this, I screw the bands on until the jar starts to turn on the counter, then back off about a 1/8th of a turn.
- Using a jar lifter, place filled jars into boiling water bath. Wait until the water starts boiling again then start a 15-minute timer.
- After boiling for 15 minutes, remove the jars from the water bath with the jar lifters, and allow the jars to cool untouched for 24 hours. Once cooled, move the pickled carrots to a cool, dark storage spot.
- Allow the flavors to meld and mix and the carrots to rest for 3-4 weeks before sampling!
Expert Tips
- I’m sure you’ll agree that the worst part about canning pickled carrots is that you have to wait to try them! My Memere says you’ve gotta wait 4-6 weeks before opening a jar. I’ve been crossing days off the calendar, but I only ever seem to make it 3-4 weeks! If you open the dill carrots too soon, the flavor will be flat and far too vinegary.
- Canning spicy dill pickled carrots isn’t hard at all. It just takes a little bit of planning and some time. It’s well worth it.
- You don’t have to add the red pepper flakes, but in my opinion, the spice just adds to the flavor flave of these carrots. Dill carrots are good, spicy dill carrots are better!
- Don’t like scrubbing or peeling carrots, do like my mom and Memere do – rinse them with the hose and then throw them into the washing machine on a cold rinse cycle. This tip is a use at your own risk situation – I love (and need) my washing machine too much to put carrots into it HAHA
- Peeling is a personal choice. If you choose to peel the carrots before canning, simply peel while you’re waiting for the water bath and brine to boil, I find a good scrub is good enough on fresh garden carrots.
- If you’ve got fresh dill, use that! It’s superior to dried dill. Simply triple the quantities. I didn’t have fresh dill handy when I made these pickled dill carrots for photos, but either way works wonderfully.
Preserving tips
- Carrots must be pressure canned UNLESS they are pickled carrots. The vinegar brine increases the acidity of the carrots making them safe for water bath canning.
- If you open the pickles and the brine is cloudy, fizzy, or smells off, toss the entire jar. Don’t play around with food safety when it comes to canning.
- To sterilize my jars, lids, and rings, I always wash them in extremely hot soapy water – then rinse, and place them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 225f until I’m ready to use them.
- I shared in my Peach Jam recipe my love for prep containers – I often use 8 oz prep containers to pre-portion the spiced for each jar. This streamlines my canning process. I simply add the portions I need for each jar to 8 oz prep containers, then pour the spices into each jar before I stuff with carrots and fill with brine. I usually fill enough for the number of jars that can fit in my canner at one time (7x500ml jars)
See What Else I’m Canning
If you tried this Dill Pickled Carrots recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Printable Recipe
Spicy, or not, Dill Pickled Carrots
Quick and easy pickled carrots recipe with dill has the tender-crisp carrot texture, strong garlic and dill flavours, mouth watering vinegar and optional spice! This recipe can be made in a water bath canner.
Ingredients
Brine:
- 6 cups water
- 6 cups white vinegar
- 1/4 cup pickling salt
In Each Jar:
- 1 garlic clove, halved
- 1/2 tbsp picking spice
- 1 tsp dried dillweed
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes – optional
- Carrots, as required
Instructions
- Prepare jars and lids by washing in hot soapy water and then place on silicone mat lined baking sheet in oven at 225f until ready to use.
- Fill water bath canner enough to cover jars and begin to heat.
- In a large pot, add brine ingredients – bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, slice carrots to desired size and prep ingredients for jars.
- Remove jars from oven and add spices, stuff with carrots, while hot, and fill with brine leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe the rim of each jar before sealing with a hot lid. Screw bands on finger tight – I usually spin them until the jar starts to turn with the lid, then back off 1/8 or so of a turn.
- Carefully, using jar lifters, place filled jars into the boiling water bath canner and wait until the water bath returns to a boil before starting a 15-minute timer.
- Remove from water bath canner and cool untouched for 24 hours before moving to a cool, dark storage spot.
- Store for 3-4 weeks before sampling!
Recommended Equipment + Ingredients
Nutrition
Calories: 3kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Sodium: 67mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Hi There,
I am in search of a recipe to can sweet hot carrots. Yours is as close as I can find but the sweet isn’t there. I bought a jar of canned carrots at a local farm market and the ingredients are as listed: Vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, dill, jalapenos, chile peppers and pickling salt. Honestly, these carrots are to die for. I need to can them!! Please help 🙂
did you use your pressure canner? or a regular hot water bath canner?
I would love to try this recipe but instead of the red pepper flakes add some jalapenos! I think it would add a nice heat and tangyness that would be a nice contrast. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hi There,
I am in search of a recipe to can sweet hot carrots. Yours is as close as I can find but the sweet isn’t there. I bought a jar of canned carrots at a local farm market and the ingredients are as listed: Vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, dill, jalapenos, chile peppers and pickling salt. Honestly, these carrots are to die for. I need to can them!! Please help 🙂
did you use your pressure canner? or a regular hot water bath canner?
I would love to try this recipe but instead of the red pepper flakes add some jalapenos! I think it would add a nice heat and tangyness that would be a nice contrast. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Will these carrots have a crispy crunch or will they have a flimsy bite. I’ve never tried dilled carrots. I’m interested in trying out this spring.
Hi Rita, they’ve got a nice crunch! Nothing worse than a floppy pickle!
Do these last for a year once they are processed?
Hey Lindsay! Mine definitely do! They may be a little softer near the end of the year but they are still top notch! I served some from last canning season this christmas and they were still excellent!
Hi There,
I am in search of a recipe to can sweet hot carrots. Yours is as close as I can find but the sweet isn’t there. I bought a jar of canned carrots at a local farm market and the ingredients are as listed: Vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, dill, jalapenos, chile peppers and pickling salt. Honestly, these carrots are to die for. I need to can them!! Please help 🙂
Hi Norma,
Those sound amazing! I will keep my eye out for something similar – but now I am tempted to recreate that recipe!
Oh please do! They taste out of this world!! Nice heat, some sweet and the carrots were crunchy, everything just worked!!
Hi Ally. I’m concerned I used a recipe for pint jars (500mls) , that asked for 1 Tbsp. Picking spice along with dill and garlic cloves. Yesterday. ….after the water bath , one jsr didn’t seal. …so for curiosity’s sake I tasted it! I couldn’t believe how strong it tasted. ..awful! LOL This isn’t your recipe. Just concerned that the recipe asked for way too much Pickling spice. What do you think? And if so….anything I can do about it? Thank you!
HI Roxanne! The pickles aren’t ready – that’s why they taste awful. Usually, you’d leave canned pickles for a few (4-6) weeks before sampling them. Fresh out of the crock they are NOT good at all! Don’t fret, nothing is wrong – just close up your jar and put it at the back of your fridge for a few weeks. Once they are ready the flavour changes so much! I’d love to hear a follow up <3
did you use your pressure canner? or a regular hot water bath canner?
Hi Natalie, I water-bath canned these guys!
do you peel the carrots?
Tammy, I did not peel them – they were fresh garden carrots from my mom’s garden and her trick to getting them so clean is to throw them in the washing machine. Now, back in the day, Memere’s washing machine was a top load and it always worked fine. My mom has a front load and it still works great – this advice is totally buyer beware, though – I don’t think I could put carrots in my beloved washing machine! haha
What size jars for this recipe?
I used pint/ 500ml jars!
I would love to try this recipe but instead of the red pepper flakes add some jalapenos! I think it would add a nice heat and tangyness that would be a nice contrast. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
That sounds amazing, Billy! Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Is it OK to use sea salt and regular vinegar? And what are the pickling spices?
I couldn’t find the requested ingredients in my market
Thank you
HI Dee, I’m sure you can use sea salt, pickling salt is just more economical when you’re using large quantities, as in canning. You can definitely use regular vinegar, I prefer pickling vinegar because it’s got a bit more acid content in it and it gives a bit more tang. I found a small bag of pickling spices at my grocery store, they are very similar to this one I found on Amazon!