Dried Veggies in the Desert

Vegetables before drying

Canned vegetables are heavy and take up space. Fresh vegetables go bad in a few days, except for potatoes, carrots, onions, yams and such. So I decided to try dehydrating several different kinds of veggies. The first step is cutting them all the same size. I’ve got carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, string beans, cherry tomatoes and zucchini.

If I didn’t have power, I could still dry the veggies. I live in the Southwest desert so I could just put them on a clean window screen, cover with a cloth and leave outside. I could also put them in the car and leave the car in the sun. Seriously, the temperature gets to 140 Degrees Fahrenheit in 90 minutes when the outside temp is only 90 F.

But since I do have power, I used my dehydrator. I wash and peeled the veggies, except for the string beans and tomatoes. Potatoes oxide when exposed to air and turn a nasty brownish black. To keep them cream colored I threw them in a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds.

So we’ll see how long they take to dry and how much they shrink. Then I’ll experiment with using the veggies in soup or other dishes.

Dee

Dee Power July 17, 2014 Fabulous Fun Food Comments Off on Dried Veggies in the Desert

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Dried Veggies in the Desert

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