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Learning how to dehydrate food



Good afternoon!

Many people would like to learn how to dehydrate their food so they can preserve it. Others would love to learn some dehydrated raw food recipes.
I am posting here some bits from my book, "Back to Basics", where an entire chapter is devoted to dehydrating.

Happy reading!


How do you use dehydrators?

It’s quite simple; there are detailed instruction books, but anyway just slice fruit or veggies to achieve slices of 2 mm, spread them evenly on the tray and keep going until all the food is sliced and ready to be dehydrated. Then plug in/turn on and set the temperature to medium (for most foods), low for herbs and high for meat. That’s it. It’s easier to set the dehydrator before going to bed and when you wake up everything is ready. 


Create your very own “ready meals” cheaply


Regarding soups, you can prepare a soup roll up, make it really dry and brittle, then put it in a good blender to powder it and then store it. If you are good at cooking you can create your very own range of foods, pack them, label them and give them as a gift.


You can use these clever machines to save up food when you have made too much and throwing it away doesn’t make sense. Simply spread it on the tray and leave it until dry, then pack it and seal it. This works for rice, pasta, couscous, soup, vegetables etc. Instead of buying frozen ready meals you can choose your ingredients and quantities and be creative.

Dehydrate your own herbs and spices

If you have a garden or a few pots on the windowsill, and too much parsley or mint etc. you can dehydrate the herbs on a low temperature and save them in dark painted glass containers for later use. Garlic and onions can be dehydrated, ground in the blender and then stored.

Crisp up foods that were becoming a bit soggy or floppy

If you have any cereals, corn tortillas, bread croutons or crisps that were losing their crispiness, you can always pop them on a tray while the dehydrator is going for something else, and they will be nice and crisp again in no time!



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