Dehydrating Vegetables

Do you ever buy a bag of potatoes, only to toss half of them away because they got mushy? Maybe your onions starting sprouting well before you could go through the whole bag? I hate when that happens. An easy solution could be to dehydrate them.

I have dehydrating on my mind this week. I found myself with some extra produce and I didn’t want it to go to waste. I also started a challenge to not spend any money on food for the next month. That made not wasting food more important than ever.

I started by dehydrating 2 large stalks of celery. I just washed them well, chopped them up and placed them on the dehydrator trays. They filled my dehydrator, but once dried, I had little more than a cup. I case you were wondering- an entire bunch of celery is a stalk- one individual piece of celery is called a rib. I can use my celery is soups, sauces and stews. I can also powder it up and use it in salad dressings, marinades, rubs and dips.

After dehydrating celery, I decided to dry some carrots. Unlike the celery, carrots needed to be blanched before dehydrating. That helps the carrots to hold their color better and gives you a better finished product. I peeled and sliced the carrots. Then I steamed them for about 6 minutes. Once cool enough to handle I placed the carrots in the dehydrator. Left them in over night and woke up to crispy carrot slices. These can also be added to soups, when making stock, stews, etc.

I preserve a lot of food by dehydrating it. Once you get over the initial investment in a dehydrator, the cost to dry food and to store dried food is pretty minimal. I got a very nice dehydrator for $30. Not a big investment at all.

Dried fruits are probably the most common home dried foods. Apples, grapes, pineapple, strawberries and cherries are among my favorites. But the dried vegetables are so useful and versatile, I enjoy them as much as dried fruits. I think you will, too.

Drying Vegetables

Most vegetables should be dried at the lower range if you have an adjustable thermometer on your dehydrator-around 125-degrees. Important to know with vegetables, is that some of them need to be blanched first. Blanching is just steaming the vegetables for a few minutes and draining, if needed, before drying. Blanching kills certain enzymes, prevents browning and assures a better end product.

Vegetables that need blanching include green beans, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, greens, winter squash, corn and beets; this is not a complete list, but a good start.

Vegetables that do not require blanching include onions, celery, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, zucchini, cucumbers and garlic and also herbs.

Broccoli and cauliflower do not dehydrate well.

Tomatoes are probably the best vegetable to dry for the home gardener and cook. They are so easy to make and so tasty. Just cut plum tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds. Lightly spray the trays with non-stick spray and place the tomatoes cut side up for the first 12 hours. Turn them over after that until they are dried. I like them pretty crispy, so I dry them thoroughly. Still, just to be safe, I keep them in the freezer to keep their color and flavor longer. After a year tomatoes will darken if stored at room temperature. Larger tomatoes can also be dried. Just cut them in slices and squeeze out the seeds. Cherry tomatoes are just cut in half and squeezed to get out the seeds. With small cherry tomatoes I just make a cut large enough to get out the seeds and leave them whole.

How do you use them?

Veggie chips-zucchini and cucumber slices can be used instead of chips in dip.

Powders- Tomatoes, celery, onion, pumpkin and garlic can all be powdered and used to flavor soups, stews sauces, cheeses, dips and more. I add powdered veggies to pasta dough. Mushroom powder is one of my favorite ingredients.

Reconstituted as fresh- potatoes in casseroles are wonderful. Corn, onions and carrots all re-hydrate exceptionally well.

Dips- Peppers, onion and celery all add great flavor.

To thicken sauces- Shredded zucchini, peppers, onions, celery and tomatoes all work well this way. If you want a lower carb or gluten free alternative to thicken a sauce, dehydrated veggies, especially in powder form, work great.

Soups and Stews- almost any dried vegetable is used this way. Easy to just let them simmer together until tender and all their flavors will enrich your stock

Chowders- Corn and potatoes are great in these dishes

Dried vegetables are best stored in a cool, dry place- I often freeze or refrigerate them for best shelf life.

Vegetables in photo: Starting left with bright green and going clockwise: Celery, potatoes, red peppers, mushrooms, carrots, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes. In the center- mixed sweet peppers.