How to Dehydrate Fruits and Vegetables

How to Dehydrate Fruits and Vegetables

I started dehydrating food when I started going backpacking. I have tried so many different recipes and honestly have utterly failed so many times especially in the beginning. You see, it is a little difficult to make dehydrated food flavorful, but that didn’t keep me from eating it and then trying again :)

Definitely check out my Dehydrated recipes here if you are struggling with getting yours to be flavorful. I only post my successful recipes so you are almost guaranteed to like them.

Dehydrated fruits and vegetables are my absolute favorite. I love them for all sorts of things. The are super good for preserving your old fruit or veggies before they go bad. I also love them for easy, healthy, and lightweight backpacking snacks or hiking snacks.

These are also incredibly handy to have for on the go adventures. Whether you need them for a quick snack while working or need them for a road trip. They are healthy and delicious.

So lets get into it!

How to prep your fruit and veggies for dehydrating:

1. Pick your fruit and and veggies of choice

2. Rinse and Scrub

   • This is very important. You want to make sure to get off any dirt and nasty things from the grocery store

3. Dry

   • Once you have rinsed them just let them dry, or dry them with a towel yourself

4. Thinly slice with a knife or a mandolin

   • I prefer a Mandolin as you will want your slices to be even. This way they will dry evenly when you put them into the dehydrator

   • Slice thinly. 1/8 to a 1/4 inch thick.

   • I have linked my favorites below.

5. Optional: Dip fruit in citrus water

   • This is really only to make the fruit look pretty and keep its beautiful color. This would be for fruit that can brown such as apples or bananas.

   • Fill a bowl with equal parts of lemon juice and water. Soak the slices for 10 minutes. Remove from mixture and dry with a paper towel.

6. Season how you wish. I have multiple dehydrated recipes for you to try, but there are a few things that taste great just plain such as:

   • bananas

   • strawberries

   • mushrooms

   • apples (I still prefer my apples sweetened though)

Here are some things you will need to dehydrate your fruits and veggies:

How to Dehydrate Fruits and Vegetables with a Dehydrator:

This is the fun part and the very time consuming part. You are going to want to make sure you allow yourself enough time to dehydrate your food properly. Typically, I prep my fruit and veggies for dehydrating before I go to bed. This way I can have my dehydrator running all night which will allow enough time for them to actually dehydrate.

Dehydrating is really push button easy. All you need to do is plug it in and then turn the dial to the correct temp depending on what you are dehydrating. Then wait the appropriate amount of time and BOOM! There you have it, dehydrated fruit and veggies right at your fingertips!

Now as far as timing, that is a bit of a difficult thing to predict. It really depends on your dehydrator, the type of fruit, how ripe the fruit is, how wet the veggie is, etc. For me, I always start with 7-8 hours. This is perfect for doing while you are sleeping :)

Here are the Dehydrators that I find amazing:

Some Of My Favorite Fruits to Dehydrate:

Bananas

Apples

Strawberries

Coconut

Some Of My Favorite Veggies to Dehydrate

Zucchini

Squash

Beets

Sweet Potatoes

Red Potatoes

Cauliflower

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And there you have it my friends! How to dehydrate fruits and vegetables! The dehydrating part is pretty simple, but the flavor part is the hard part. Make sure to check out all my dehydrated recipes here.

If you have any tips or tricks on dehydrating leave a comment below. We are all learning and would love to hear what you have learned along the way!

Wishing you nothing but delicious healthy food!

Bess 

Looking for more delicious backpacking recipes or recipes for your next adventure? Check these out: