Food Dehydrating

Peppers in the dehydrator

With many of us swimming in produce and short on time food dehydrating might be a smart choice. Recently I was faced with more sweet and hot peppers than I was prepared to deal with. Freezing is fine, but my freezer is pretty full. I opted to dry them instead. For peppers it is as easy and chopping up, placing on the trays and drying. Once dried I store the peppers in air-tight containers in a cool place. You can even place them in the freezer or fridge to keep them fresh longer. The real advantage here is space.  Dried foods lose most of their volume so they take up a lot less room. Like other vegetables the peppers are dried until quite crisp- 5% moisture or less. Later they can be added to soups, stews, salsas etc, where they will absorb liquid and become tender. Or you can powder them up and use to flavor dishes. Use dried sweet peppers where you might use paprika and dried hot peppers where you might ass cayenne. They are great additions to chili, too.