I have 15 foods you should be dehydrating, my friends. If you’d like to save more money and stop wasting so much food because it goes bad within a few days, you should consider starting a dehydrating program for some of the foods you’re buying. If you have a food dehydrator and know how to use it, you can begin preserving some of the foods you’ve purchased, making them last much longer than before.
Food preservation is an integral part of an emergency preparation plan. If you’re unsure which foods to start with, check out this list of the 15 foods you should consider dehydrating. It will give you some good information as you move forward with this great way to store food items for future use.
If you’ve been reading my blog posts over the years, you know I do a lot of food preservation projects. I’ve canned fruits and veggies all my married life and have included my kids in the work from a very young age. It can be educational and fun at the same time. Make dehydrating a family activity and reap the financial and preparedness blessings.
15 Foods You Should Be Dehydrating
1. Bananas
Bananas are one of the best fruits for dehydration. When doing so, you can prepare healthy banana chips, a sweet and crunchy chip that tastes great. They are delicious, and the banana chips are good for you. They’re an excellent source of vitamins, potassium, magnesium, and iron. So, if you want to ensure your bananas don’t go bad, dehydrate them! In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Bananas
2. Apples
When you dehydrate apples, they retain their nutritional value and last much longer. Apple chips are the perfect alternative to traditional potato chips, which often contain lots of oil, carbohydrates, and unhealthy ingredients like salt.
When you want to save your older apples, slice them into pieces and dehydrate them before they can go bad. That way, you can enjoy fresh fruit chips that provide fatty acids, vitamins, and antioxidants. In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Apples
3. Zucchini
Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables to dehydrate. You can slice or chop them and place them in your dehydrator. These are perfect to add to soups, eat as a snack, or add to salads. In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Zucchini-Sliced & Cubed, this year’s garden was very prolific when it came to zucchinis, so we dehydrated a bunch and gave our neighbors zucchini they could enjoy.
We’ve made zucchini bread and muffins and given away a lot since we couldn’t eat them all. This week, we dehydrated what we picked over the past few days. We filled my dehydrator. Having them available whenever we want a snack or an addition to our fresh salads this summer will be great.
4. Tomatoes
Dried tomatoes are the perfect additions to salads, soups, and stews. Don’t let your tomatoes go bad! Slice them into thin pieces, pop them in the food dehydrator, and then wait for them to get as crispy as you’d like. You might even want to eat them as a healthy alternative to chips!
In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Tomatoes, just like our zucchini plants, our tomatoes did very well this year. We’ve been keeping our dehydrator unit super busy the past few weeks. We love having options for future meal preparations, and our neighbors have loved having us share with them.
5. Ground Beef
You may have noticed that beef jerky isn’t cheap. Why buy it at the store when you can preserve beef at home by dehydrating it and turning it into beef jerky? It’s a great way to reduce waste and ensure you have delicious, flavorful meat available whenever you want it, even when you’re on the go.
In case you missed this post, Making Hamburger Jerky, I’ve noticed that ground beef, along with most beef options, is more expensive these days. Who knows what the future holds cost-wise? Dehydrate some meat and hedge against a rise in prices!
To be safe, just make sure the meat has a minimum 93% ground beef-to-fat ratio. The 85% hamburger at some stores will not be safe to use because it has too much fat. Because it doesn’t have preservatives, please keep it in the refrigerator or freezer in airtight containers.
6. Kale
Season the kale with your favorite spices before adding it to the food dehydrator to prepare healthy kale chips. These chips taste amazing on their own, but you might also want to use them in salads to give them more flavor. It all depends on what you like!
Kale is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, so it’s good to have it available when you want to put it to use. In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Kale and Make Kale Chips
7. Lemons
In case you missed this post, Dehydrating Lemons and Making Lemon Powder, we love lemons in our cold water drinks. They just make them fresh and flavorful. Your dehydrated lemon chips can flavor drinks of all kinds in no time. Give them a try.
8. Green Onions
In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Green Onions & Make Powder Green Onion is a super addition to many recipes. We like them as a topping on salads, in soups, and mixed with sandwich fixings like tuna. You may think they lose their flavor when dehydrated. You’ll be surprised how they spring back in shape and flavor when added to almost any liquid mixture like dips.
9. Cucumbers
In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Cucumbers and Make Powder I’m more of a fan of cucumbers than Mark. I’d put them on many of my meal options if they were available. That’s why we dehydrated a whole bunch this month. I’ll be enjoying cucumbers and their tart flavor all winter long.
10. Cherries
Fresh cherries last much longer after going through the dehydration process. You can still use them in smoothies, add them as toppings to milkshakes and ice cream, and eat them as fruit-flavored snacks. Dried cherries are better for you than candy, and they taste great! In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Cherries
11. Mango
Lower your cholesterol and keep your blood sugar at the perfect level with dehydrated mango slices. Once you’ve sliced or chopped the mango into pieces, dehydrate them and enjoy using them in meal plans! Mango is an excellent source of antioxidants and vitamins.
Mango is refreshing, tasty, and can leave you feeling full, which is another option when using healthy food to assist with weight loss. Dehydrated mango is an excellent alternative to candy! In case you missed this post, How to Dehydrate Mango
12. Frozen Vegetables
When you dehydrate frozen vegetables, you can expect to drastically increase their shelf life. Once they’ve gone through the process, you can still cook with them, adding them to stews, rice, and other flavorful foods you’re preparing. We most often put dehydrated vegetables in our soups and stews.
And don’t forget you can use these for chicken pot pie recipes. They add so much flavor to all the recipes that include them. Plus, you aren’t using up your freezer space. How to Dehydrate Frozen Vegetables. As your mom used to say, “Have you eaten your veggies today?”
13. Celery
You can dehydrate celery to keep it fresh. It extends the life of the celery, making it possible to avoid wasting it if you haven’t used it fast enough. Once dehydrated, using the celery in soups and other recipes that call for chopped celery is OK! It’s best used in baked casseroles, soups, or stews. How to Dehydrate Celery + Celery Powder
14. Pineapple
Pineapple is by far my family’s favorite dehydrated fruit. My grandkids always ask if I have a jar available for snacking when they visit. Pineapple is one of the easiest fruits to dehydrate and is healthy for you, too. How to Dehydrate Pineapple
15. Watermelon
I recently wrote a post about how to pick a sweet-tasting watermelon. We’ve been eating watermelon slices all week with our dinner. We decided to take the leftover watermelon pieces and dehydrate them. I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t take as long as I initially thought they would.
Now we have watermelon, which we can add to ice cream and other treats all winter. In case you missed this post, How to Tell If a Watermelon Is Sweet or this post, How to Dehydrate Watermelon
What are some other food items I should consider dehydrating?
The 15 items listed above are some of our favorites. As you might imagine, we’ve dehydrated a wide variety of both fruits and veggies. Here are others that make good options when you’re putting your food preservation and storage plans together:
- Broccoli
- Bell Peppers
- Carrots
- Corn
- Peaches
- Pears
- Green Beans
- Sweet Potatoes
Can I make other things in my dehydrator rather than many kinds of chips?
Yes, you can. One of our favorite things when the kids were young was making fruit leather. It’s pretty simple. Put the fruit in your blender or food processor and puree it. Cover your dehydrator trays with parchment paper so the puree doesn’t seep through. Spread the puree so it’s about 1/8 inch thick.
Place the tray in the dehydrator and turn it on. My experience, depending on how pliable you want the fruit leather to be, is to run the dehydrator for about 6 hours. You should check the temperature and time settings for your particular unit.
How do I store the dehydrated fruits and veggies once the dried food is ready?
You should always store dehydrated foods in airtight containers. This will protect the food from mold, bacteria, moisture, and other issues. I use my special attachment for my Food Saver to vacuum seal the mason jars I like to use. If you click the links for the instructions for each of the above items, it should provide the information you need for successful results.
Final Word
If you’re not dehydrating these foods already, it’s a good time to start. Use that food dehydrator you have in your closet or garage. It’s a great appliance to have when you’d like to reduce food waste and save more money. These are only some of the many ingredients you can add to your dehydrator and save to extend their shelf life.
Dehydrated foods are great since you can eat them later when they’re more than likely out of season or more expensive. Plan and put the machine and the resulting food options to use all year. Let me know what foods you like to dehydrate. I’d love to hear from you and my other readers. May God bless this world, Linda
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