Dehydrating fruits and veggies?

[AZChins]

I've had a dehydrator for years and I used to use it maybe once every six months. Lately I have been using the dehydrator like crazy because of all the extra produce I have to do something with or just throw it all out.

Anyone have any ideas? Any tricks? This is pretty new to me because I normally can or freeze everything.

I'm dehydrating some tomatoes because I only had about six and didn't want to have to cook something with them. (I canned eight quarts of tomato sauce yesterday...that was about 30 lbs of tomatoes used up there.) I have ended up with a ton of basil and other herbs that I have dried as well...those are so much better out of the dehydrator than the store bought dried stuff. Oh, and blueberries and grapes and cherries (the cherries were excellent dried.)

I haven't been putting any sugar on anything...so instead of sugary-sweet chewy everything is nicer with a slight crunch with the fruits. Blueberries ended up surprisingly not so sweet that way. The raisins I made out of the organic grapes lasted for about 20 minutes after they were done drying.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Bananas are my favorite to dehydrate. =)

 

[AZChins]

Oh yeah...I love them, too! I kinda wish that I had a bunch of bananas that I HAD to use up and just had to dehydrate them. hehehe Apples are good, too. They keep very well...

Do you treat your bananas with anything before you dry them?

 

[mishalaa]

Dip bananas and apples in diluted lemon juice to keep them from turning brown while dehydrating - other oxidizing foods as well such as eggplant.

Dehydrated strawberries are probably my favorite. Any dehydrated fruit is great on cereal, oatmeal, ice cream... You can also do your own yogurt covered fruits, yogies, or fruit roll ups if you cover the slots in the trays with wax paper.

I haven't tried veggies.

 

[eroomlorac]

Oh, man, you guys. The last thing I need is another kitchen gadget. I am addicted to kitchen gadgets. Now I'm going to have to think about getting a dehydrator. Sheesh!!

 

[AZChins]

Only buy one if you think you will use it more than once a year! Mine takes up quite a bit of space in my cabinet...if I never used it, I would probably just give it away.

When I bought mine it was something like $15...it's a fairly cheap one - it's held up really well for that price!

Last night I dried those tomatoes...they turned out really nice. I can use them in a soup when I choose to use them.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I dont put anything on my bananas when I dehydrate them.

I have 2 dehydrates. One I use for the sol purpose of making Deer Jerky because my grandfather is a huge deer hunter.
I got a second one to dehydrate other things.

All this talk of dehydrating things makes me want to go dehyrdate stuff, lol.
I was at the store the other day and they had bananas packaged up for under 1.00. I got 6 or 7 for 66 cents.

 

[Chinmama]

I just got some dried blueberries from Whole Foods and they are amazing! I don't think they have anything on them (sugar, etc.). I'm not even sure it's the same thing as a dehydrated blueberry? lol I assume so.

 

[AZChins]

Dehydrated blueberries without any sugar on them are very different. I think they're better without anything added. They're great in pancakes and in breads without the added sugar.

The italian parsley that I had a couple pounds of dried up in about four hours today. It made the laundry room smell really great.

I was thinking that maybe next week I should try dehydrating some prickly pears and see how that works out. But, I really need to buckle down and get some real work done for my delivery trip to Phoenix on Saturday...orders don't get packed up when I am goofing off playing with food!

 

[Spoof]

To keep blueberries sweet they need to be REALLY ripe. It also depends on the type of blueberry you use. ) Mine have always turned out pretty sweet, I also did a lot of elk jerky in college. YUM!

 

[mishellyshel]

i have driend banannas, they are really good with a swipe of thinned out honey.

i also have taken basil, oregano & rosemary and dehydrated them.

also a dehydrator is great for drying flowers for art projects

but my favorite is drying plum tomatos and making my own "sun dried" tomatos!