I’m sure your first question is, why would anyone need to dehydrate frozen vegetables? What’s wrong with keeping them in the freezer? The answer is, a homemaking prepper does both.
Dehyrating frozen vegetables saves freezer space, and just space in general. This quart jar is 2.5 pounds of frozen vegetables in dehydrated form.
Greens take up twice the space compared to vegetables like corn and carrots, because of their structure. You don’t want to smooch down greens too much because they will crumble. (You can also grind these greens into a powder.) Greens rehydrate like a champ! With the kale, I actually blanched and dehydrated. The spinach I bought frozen. Here is 2.5 pounds of spinach and kale in half gallon jars.
I like to stock up on frozen vegetables when prices are low, so buying several bags saves me money in the long run. There is lots of chatter about a possible food shortage, so why not squirrel away a bunch of vegetables just in case? I think it’s important to prepare your home for any situation.
Dehydrating frozen vegetables could not be an easier process. I simply placed the frozen vegetables out on a tray, and stuck them in the dehydrator with a setting of 135 in my Excalibur dehydrator for about 8 hours, or until hard.
One thing I recently learned is, do not put frozen vegetables in the dehydrator with items already partially dry. I had two trays of other vegetables about three-quarters done, and put frozen vegetables in as well. What happened was the moisture from the frozen veggies and heat from the dehydrator created a steam, and started rehydrating my other vegetables!
I keep greens stored in half gallon jars, but with sturdier vegetables I use vacuum seal bags. I put an oxygen absorber in the jars and bags before vacuum sealing.
The vegetables in the bags take up even less space than in jars, and then get placed in food grade bucket.
Just started filling my bucket. Waiting for oxygen absorbers to arrive before I stash away the rest!
With no light and air, these vegetables are good for years. I do keep some just in a jar in my pantry to throw in soups, including a quick bowl of Ramen. Try these nutritious, pretty pantry put-ups for every day and long term use.
Other peppers say I need moisture absorbers, how do I know which items need oxygen absorbers and which need moisture absorbers? Newbie trying to learn but finding conflicting answers.
I use moisture absorbers for longer term storage. For homemade vegetable and fruit powders I put rice in an empty tea bag and store in the jar to prevent clumping.
I live dehydrating and have an excalibur but live in the humid south. How do you get foods to keep. I usually put in freezer after dehydration.
Hi Mary! I live in the south too, and I just keep my air on when it’s hot. I also wax cheese so I need to keep the house cool. With vacuum sealing, and adding an oxygen eater, the food does just fine. Thank you for your comment!
I dehydrated some frozen veggies a year or so ago. I included cut frozen okra. I will rehydrate it, and make fried okra with it. I also did whole kernel corn, peas and mixed veggies. They were on sale for $1 for 12 or so ounces. I love dehydrating foods. I just made some jerky a week or so ago. Hubby eats it up. LOL Gotta keep him happy!
Have you rehydrated and fried your okra yet? I’m experimenting with dehydrated broccoli right now. Have you tried that? Would love your jerky recipe!
When you store dehydrated veggies in the jar, you wrote, about long term use. and I was wondering for the long term use, do you do anything special before putting it in the jar? Do you have to remove the air or anything? Thanks.
Hi! Yes, you use a vacuum sealer jar attachment to suck the air out. You can also choose to add an oxygen absorber to the jar for good measure. If you don’t have one, I’ll tell you the regular mouth size doesn’t work well, so I would for sure go with wide mouth.
So, the jars, it will last just as long? I mean, you don’t have to vacuum seal the jar or anything like that? Thank you.,
The jars have kept things just as fresh for me, but I haven’t done a formal comparison. Yes, I vacuum seal jars. I do this with fresh food too! When I bring berries, lettuce, etc . . home I vacuum seal those jars and store in the fridge. You won’t believe how fresh it keeps your food! Here is an older blog post with a picture of the jar attachment being used. https://preservedhome.com/my-new-love-half-gallon-ball-jars/
I posted on the Preserved Home Facebook page too about sealing my strawberries and vegetables. If you are on Facebook, would love to have you join us! I just started it up a few weeks ago. https://www.facebook.com/Preserved-Home-103670691294632/?modal=admin_todo_tour
When you store dehydrated veggies in the jar, you wrote, “pretty pantry put-ups for every day and long term use,” and I was wondering for the long term use, do you do anything special before putting it in the jar? Do you have to remove the air or anything? Thanks.