Hello. i was just wondering if dehyderating veggies would work the same way as buying freeze dried ones. Will they expand once water is added? Also does anyone know how to dehyderate them. I am thinking grean beans and corn. Any suggestions let me know.
Thanks.

They expand to like new.

The easiest way to dehydrate them is to buy frozen veggies and dump them onto a dehydrator tray (with a fruit leather sheet for smaller items like corn). Turn the dehydrator on. Pour them into a plastic bag when dry. Seal.

Thanks Bannock. Anyone else have any advice. Please let me know.
Thanks,

I've dehydrated corn, peas and green beans. I "parboiled" them as per instructions I found on the internet but I don't know if it's truly necessary (Bannock, what do you think?) They all came out very good. The green beans were "wrinkled" but they "unwrinkled" when we soaked and cooked them. Tasted just like home!

The "parboiling" is called "blanching". It needs to be done if you are using fresh vegetables. It needs to be done if you are freezing veggies as well. That's why when dehydrating frozen vegetables you don't need to do that step, it's already been done. Blanching stops the enzymes that cause veggies and fruits to ripen.

Canned veggies don't need to be blanched either, but that's because they have already been cooked during the canning process. Canned veggies tend not to dehydrate as well. Exceptions to that are canned beans, like pork-n-beans or chili beans, not green beans. Canned chili beans dehydrate very well.

Can they be thrown on a tray frozen or should they be thawed or doesn't it matter????

Thanks, Bannock I'll skip the blanching with frozen veggies from now on.

I froze fresh sweet corn on the cob one time in summer (didn't blanch, didn't know I was supposed to) and we had wonderful sweet corn all winter so I've always doubted the need... but corn seems to be bullet proof, it doesn't really matter what you do to it.

"Can they be thrown on a tray frozen or should they be thawed or doesn't it matter???? "

Doesn't matter, though you want them spread out nicely, ie, all pieces separated. So if there are frozen "clumps" you want to break them up and spread them out.

Quick note on blanching. You should look up times for the various vegetables (probably on the internet). Basically you immerse the veggies in boiling water for a couple minutes (not very long) and then immerse them into ice water. The boiling water stops the enzyme process and the ice water stops them from cooking. Then you drain, and pat dry. then you can either dehydrate or freeze.

It depends on how the veggies are cut, too. Whole green beans is a different time compared to french cut, etc.

A few thoughts on dehrydating various veggies:

Corn: don’t do it anymore – they are hard as little rocks and take a long time to rehydrate.

Peas: even worse than corn – turn into BBs.

Tomatoes: roma or plum tomatoes are the best – they are meatier and more dense (less seeds and juicy spots, so less waste in the final product). You can leave skin on or remove, not much difference in the dehydration. I cut them cross-ways – so I have ¼-1/2 inch disks. Don’t overdry them, they’ll turn dark brown and black when overdone. They should be pliable/bendy when done, not brittle.

Broccoli: cut florets into small-bite-sizes, blanche, and dehydrate. These will be hard and fragile when done.

Cauliflower: roughly the same as broccoli.

Peppers: similar to tomatoes. Can be skinned or leave skin on. If you leave the skin on, place the skin side down on the dehydrator tray. Strips, bite sized, doesn’t really matter as long as there is ample surface area exposed for drying. Don’t overdry these either – they will also turn black and get brittle. You want them dry, but not rocks.

Mushrooms: easy. Slice ¼ inch thick and dry as is. Won’t take long to dry, rehydrates so-so – Won’t come all the way back - a little chewy.

Beans – baked, pinto, navy, whatever – I use canned. Rinse, spread out on tray using the fruit roll up sheets, and dry until hard. They rehydrate well.

Tomato sauce: spread across fruit roll up sheets and dry until leathery. Don’t dry until brittle/hard – that’s too far.

Fruits is a whole other chapter, but very similar to the process above, but don’t need blanched.

hmmmm... my corn, green beans and peas were excellent. We were able to soak a long time, though (maybe that's the difference). The corn, in fact was amazing. Everybody thought it was identical to fresh/frozen as cooked at home.