If a recipe calls for 4 cups of chopped carrots, how many pounds of carrots do you need to buy? What about other amounts?
Here are the roundabout figures you need so that you do not end up buying too many, or too few, carrots.
The table includes the approximate yields in chopped cups for different weight amounts of carrots and also the approximate number of large carrots this equals. The purpose of this information is to serve as a buying guide, not to replace actual measurements!
Although this is not likely to be a regular occurrence, you might want to know how to estimate how much a certain amount of shredded carrot would equal to in cups of sliced or diced. Yes, these amounts would be different. Following the table are some approximate conversions.
| Carrot Wt. | Approx. Yield in Cups Sliced/Diced | Approx. # Lg Carrots |
|---|---|---|
| 1 pound | 2.5 cups | 4 to 6 |
| 1/2 pound | 1/2 cups | 2 to 3 |
| 1/4 pound | 1/4 cup | 1 to 1 1/2 |
If all you have is a bag of baby carrots, just know that the typical bag of those is 16 ounces, or one pound. So that will yield about 2.5 cups chopped/diced carrots. Keep in mind that, although there is a such thing as “baby carrots” which are a small, early yielding carrot that is sweeter in taste, the baby carrots they sell in bags are not young carrots, but rather “baby cut” carrots. These, at one time, were misshapen whole carrots that were smoothed and then industrially trimmed into the uniform little “baby” shapes. Now, however, carrots are grown specifically for the purpose.
Conversion of Cups Sliced or Diced to Cups Shredded
- 3/4 cups sliced/diced = 1 cups shredded
- 1.5 cups sliced/diced = 2 cups shredded
- 9 ounces Sliced/diced = 1.5 cups
- 3 cups sliced/diced = 4 cups shredded
Solution: Divide the diced amount by 0.75 to get the approximate shredded value. Multiply the shredded amount by 0.75 to get the approximate diced value.
For odd cup amounts, such as 1.1 cups, convert to ounces. 1 Ounce = 0.125 Cup (US). So, for example, how may ounces is 1.4 cups? Divide 1.4 by 0.125. The answer is 11 ounces (rounded down a bit). Remember that an ounce is actually a fluid volume measurement. Therefore, converting solid weight to cups cannot be expected to be precise. These are only rough guidelines. A recipe which calls for an amount of solid ingredient in weight is actually being much more precise than one calling for a volume measurement. It is out of habit in the U.S. to use cups, etc. And, since we aren’t baking here (unless you’re making a carrot cake?), it should be close enough.