I’ve been meaning to play around with dehydrating vegetables in the oven for quite a while now, so when my dad asked me to help him come up with some backpacking meal ideas for an upcoming trip, I got to work. It was super easy to do, and the results are good, even without a dehydrator. It’s a great way to preserve what’s in season and it’s much cheaper than buying freeze-dried stuff at an outdoor store. I’ve tried it successfully with peas, corn, carrots and tomatoes. Tomatoes are my favorite – they get pleasantly chewy and the flavor is super concentrated.
We’re excited to try all kinds of things and get creative. This is a great way to take care of all the excess vegetables from our weekly farm boxes and gardens that we’re prepping for right now.
Has anyone tried dehydrating vegetables in the oven? What are your favorite things to dry?
I’ll share some recipes where I used these dehydrated veggies in upcoming posts.
How to Dehydrate Vegetables
Yield
VariesPrep Time / Cook Time
/Activity Guide
BackpackingIngredients
- Any vegetables you want, separated onto different baking sheets
Tools
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Baking Sheets
Method
- Preheat the oven to the lowest temperature possible.
- If needed, chop veggies to a uniform size. Small is usually best so that they’re quicker to rehydrate.
- Arrange veggies in a single layer on baking sheets. Bake until they’re dehydrated. The time will vary depending on your oven temperature. Check them every so often and give them a stir.
How long does it usually take the dehydrated veggies to rehydrate in boiling water?
This may be a silly question, but how do you store the dehydrated veggies until use? Do you just put in a jar or tupperware, or do you need to refrigerate/freeze until using?
You do not need to store the veggies in the refrigerator, as the entire purpose of dehydration is to keep them from going bad.
give them a stir???
Or flip them if it’s bigger pieces
“Give them a stir” means stir them.
Some veggies (sweet corn, peas and beans among others)should be blanched in boiling water briefly before drying. This deactivates enzymes that will cause them to deteriorate, no matter how dry. Properly dried veggies will keep for weeks without refrigeration, but will keep indefinitely in the freezer, especially if packed with a vacuum sealing machine. If you’re going to go to all the trouble to dry your own, you want to keep it as fresh as you can, right?
Don’t forget the herbs! I also dry onion tops before they wilt anyway, can take half of them over time and blanch and dry – tasty in camp soup and stew. Often wasted cabbage family leaves – minus veins – good to dry too. My spring favourite: whole young stinging nettle tops – mmm; rehydrate with mash and an egg! I reuse zipper-lock bags for storage.
These are awesome suggestions, Jack. Thanks for sharing! Herbs are an often overlooked way to easily add lots of flavor backpacking.
Excellent ideas thank you
So I may be a little new to this…but is there a post on how much liquid to use for Re-Hydration of the veggies/fruits?? or is it just the liquid for whatever your cooking? (sorry if its a silly question)