Find a great sale on frozen vegetables, but there’s no room in the freezer? No worries! Dehydrating frozen vegetables is a simple prep skill to master.
Why You Should Dehydrate Frozen Vegetables
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- Unless you have a really big garden, dehydrating frozen vegetables is much cheaper than buying fresh, and you can dehydrate frozen vegetables year round.
- Dehydrating frozen vegetables requires no washing, peeling, slicing, chopping, or blanching, saving you a lot of time.
- Needs less room (much less!) for storage!
*this post contains affiliate links
Which Dehydrator Should You Choose?
I use *this post contains affiliate links an Excalibur Dehydrator, and love it. I also own a Nesco dehydrator, which is much cheaper and works well for dehydrating frozen vegetables. You can quickly and easily recoup the cost of both of these dehydrators in just a few months of dehydrating your own fruits and veggies.
How To Dehydrate Frozen Vegetables
Simply spread out the mixed veggies on the dehydrator trays. I didn’t worry that the pieces were touching, I knew they would shrink as they dried and it wouldn’t be an issue. As a matter of fact, my one POUND bag of veggies shrunk down to 3/4 of a cup!
I dehydrated these @125 degrees and they took about 10 hours. Please look at your dehydrator model to see what temperature is correct for your machine. The time to dehydrate will always depend on the humidity in the room where you are dehydrating.
Pro Tip: Want to learn more about dehydrating foods? Hands down, the best book on the market is Tammy Gangloff’s The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook. In this book, Tammy covers it all from how to dehydrate foods, to recipes that only need water added!
How To Store Dehydrated Frozen Vegetables
Now that you have a batch of inexpensive dehydrated frozen vegetables, you’ll need to store them properly. Here’s where a Food Saver comes in so handy!
My favorite way to store my dehydrated vegetables is to pour them into a wide mouth canning jar, and using the mason jar sealer accessory, vacuum seal the jar. You won’t need a ring for this, the vacuum sealing will securely keep the lid on.
How To Use Dehydrated Frozen Vegetables
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- Add a handful or two to soups or stews. Perfect for crockpot cooks!
- Add some to a blender and turn them into a veggie powder. This powder can then be added
- to all sorts of things you’d like to up the nutritional value of.
- Smoothies!
- Use for camping and hiking trips.
No Time For Dehydrating Frozen Vegetables? No Problem!
LOVE the idea of having veggies and fruits in your long term food storage as a hedge against inflation and emergencies? But don’t have time to dehydrate your own? Thrive carries a wide variety of sfreeze dried food for this very reason! Check them out!
So, which frozen vegetable will you be dehydrating first?
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My friend gave me a jar of dehydrated okra and that is amazing in soups. I even made some gumbo with it. Mmm! Neither one of us can grow/harvest/preserve okra, due to the tiny spines, but we truly love eating it, cooked. She knew the gift we’d love most! 🙂
I just did a huge batch of dehydrated okra. 😉👍
That’s TERRIFIC, Scout!
How did you prepare it for dehyrating?
I don’t think I’ve ever considered dehydrating frozen vegetables. I’m going to give it a try and see how it goes. It seems so obvious now that I think about it!