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Dehydrating misc vegetables
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Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:26 pm
Posts: 250
Location: WNC
Post Dehydrating misc vegetables
This is just from my personal findings. Next step will be mixing and making soup mixes.

Corn dehydrates and rehydrates great. You can get about 4 lbs of frozen corn dehydrated in a qt jar. I used frozen corn on sale. For fresh corn steam or cook first.

Celery cut into 1/4" slices dehydrates and rehydrates great for soups. Two large bunches will fill a 1/2 pint jar. No pre treatment needed

Broccoli florets dehydrate and rehydrate nicely. Stems can be a little chewy. I separate the stems for soup and the florets for broccoli cheese. Three pounds frozen florets will fit one Qt jar. The stems from the same batch will fill a little more than a 1/2 pint jar. I used frozen broccoli on sale. For fresh steam and spray with lemon juice to keep color

Hash Browns dehydrate and rehydrate great. 4 lbs of frozen Hash Browns fills a qt. jar. I used frozen bags on sale. If making your own steam first to retain color or they will turn black.

Potatoes dehydrate and rehydrate great if used as scalloped potatoes or in soup. I have not had any luck doing them like the sweet potatoes. Potatoes must be pre cooked or at least steamed completely through or they will turn black during the drying process. I found it easier to pre cook and refrigerate overnight then peel and use meat slicer to get uniform slices. Ten potatoes sliced and dried will fill a qt jar.

Sweet Potatoes dehydrate and rehydrate absolutely wonderful. I did a stand alone post on them because I was amazed at how well they turn out. Once again like the potatoes you have to pre cook them. I dried them like fruit leather, broke them into chip size and store in qt jars. Tooks 3 1/2-4 sweet potatoes to fill a qt jar.

Eleven pounds of frozen vegetables fit into 3 Qt jars. I do use oxygen absorbers in the jars. No need for electricity and they will keep for years if dried and stored properly. Some say as long as thirty years.

I will probably start vacuum sealing packages as I get more and store in buckets. If you vacuum seal wrap the bag in plastic wrap because the vegetables have sharp points when dry and may cause bag to loose its vacuum. It may be a good idea to store in mylar bags too.


Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:00 pm
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Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:31 pm
Posts: 279
Post Re: Dehydrating misc vegetables
thanks MtnGal, will be printing this out for future reference. I like to get frozen mixed vegies when they are on sale and just dump them on the trays... they dry nicely and fast! great in soups and stews.


Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:05 pm
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Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:27 pm
Posts: 70
Location: WA State
Post Re: Dehydrating misc vegetables
Have found that a 5 lb bag of frozen veggies will fit in a quart jar when dried. As a extra for keeping I put the jar in the oven with the 2 piece lid beside it and heat at 275 for about 10 min. Screw the lids on as you remove from oven and it pulls a vacuum just like canning would. The object is not to sterilize so much as to vacuum seal. Once I found this method works for vacuum sealing dried foods I don't even bother with vacuum bagging.

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Fri Dec 10, 2010 10:22 am
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Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:38 pm
Posts: 832
Location: Southeast
Post Re: Dehydrating misc vegetables
Thanks, this is wonderful!
I've been dehydrating corn for the past three days, I'm trying to keep ahead of the kids eating it, they LOVE it dehydrated.
I just freeze it in a ziploc.
I tried potatoes but they turned black, I blanched them but I didn't fully cook them.
What about things like frozen lima beans? Do they dehydrate well?

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Fri Dec 10, 2010 12:26 pm
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