Food dehydrator vegetation ideas ?

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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Did your unit not come with a booklet of recipes and suggestions? Google "American Harvest." You might find their booklet online, as came with my dehydrator.

Depressing to be making supper and nibbling on the Roma tomato halves. All of a sudden, I realize that I've just eaten a dozen tomatoes!

Watch for bulk food sales, you could even dry watermelon if you had a mind to. Jot down some notes from jerky websites, some really good seasoning mixes.
 
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nigelp

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Jul 4, 2006
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newforestnavigation.co.uk
I cook a lentil ragu and dehydrate it. I add hot water a leave it for short time and then stir through cooked pasta and put back on heat if required. I add olives or mine when I heat it to add some flavour. https://www.copymethat.com/r/t5mXMYnaf/mushroom-and-lentil-ragu-hairy-bikers/

I also make a vegetable chilli at home with or without Quorn mince. That should dry ok also. Not tried it yet.

I also dehydrate Dal - that works very well indeed. Super easy to cook and dries to nice powder. I’ve added just enough hot water to it so it’s more of paste and spread onto wraps etc as a lunchtime snack.

I spread a portion out on a dehydrator shelf on either baking paper or the oven liner sheets cut to size. Usually dry at 50°c for about 12 hours or so.

I have also dried quarter bananas to a soft texture and then had those with custard.
 

Scots_Charles_River

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Dec 12, 2006
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I think you can dry any food you normally cook at home. Just watch the fat content - the advantage of vegetarian meals is that the meat fat content is what often makes it go bad more quickly. I bag the meals up and put them in the freezer.
Yes any food that is 'wet' can be dehydrated. I am looking for recipes so a bit of food with spices etc and time and heat. So far, cucumbers and banana chips, both tasted amazing eating on the morning commute !
 

Toddy

Mod
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Jan 21, 2005
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S. Lanarkshire
Pears are the ultimate sweet deliciousness :D

Make sure they're ripe, peel and core and slice and they dry out almost like toffee :)

I made silicon liners for my trays and anything Indian or Thai in a sauce/gravy dehydrates well I find. Sometimes the curry's can be a bit 'oily' on the surface from the cooking, but it seems to work fine. I admit that I don't keep them long though.

Dried seaweed saves you a fortune, and cabbage and other brassicas dry well too.
Great for soups or just snacking.

If you have a juicer, then pulp up freshly washed seaweed with whatever spices you prefer, spread it out like making paper, on silicon sheets and dry them.
They cut up easily with a pair of scissors and make tasty crisps/snacks. Like the expensive
Itsu seaweed thins. You can use cabbage or lettuce or kale instead.
Surprisingly raw brussel sprouts grated up are sweet and not at all like the cooked version. Really nice though. They dry well into little green slivers that are really nice added to a miso soup base veggie stew.

Mushy peas spread out on sheets dry well too. I add a bit of salt and pepper, and they end up like green pea crisps :) They soak out well though again if you need them in soup or stew or curry though.

M
 

nigelp

Native
Jul 4, 2006
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New Forest
newforestnavigation.co.uk
Yes any food that is 'wet' can be dehydrated. I am looking for recipes so a bit of food with spices etc and time and heat. So far, cucumbers and banana chips, both tasted amazing eating on the morning commute !
A lot of the Hairy Bikers recipes from their vegetarian books are great and ideal for dehydration. They have recipes for some great curries, vegtaeien chilli and also a tasty Dal that dehydrates very well.
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
38,979
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S. Lanarkshire
Meant to say earlier. Apples make brilliant fruit crisps. Never mind the hassle of cleaning off the apple ring maker thingie, just peel an apple (take the flower end bit out first so you don't have wee black specks on everything) and then just slice it up like making crisps. They dry beautifully, I usually dip mine in lemon juice before I put them in the dehydrator but it's not necessary. A bag of them in a pocket is a excellent tasty snack when out for a walk :)
I did 20kgs of apples last month, and ended up with four large double sealed bagfuls of the crisps. We've eaten our way through one already :rolleyes:

M
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
There's no fruit of any sort in bison pemmican in western Canada. It is damp and sweet and promotes mold.

The Hudson's Bay fur trading Company keeps their meticulous records in their home office in London, UK. They record the following for their fur trading post known as Rocky Mountain House: The annual quota was 44,000 lbs, done up in 60 or 90 lb bison hide bags for the actual field working field traders (about 2 lbs per man per day.). The meat was smoke dried, pounded into fiber and mixed with about 50% rendered fat (backstrap fat is the best.) They did up the entire quota in nine (9) days work.

Following the instructions if Cree elder women, I made up some bison pemmican for burgoo with root vegetables, as noted in the HBC records.

I don't recall ever being so hungry that I looked forward to bison pemmican burgoo.
 
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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
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Vantaa, Finland
I don't recall ever being so hungry that I looked forward to bison pemmican burgoo.
But it keeps you going!? If nothing else is put into it in a few days the eater is in ketosis that is the alternative metabolic pathway for humans. Feels kind of funny the first time but I guess one can get used to it. It provides apparently the way to carry the least weight for energy. US special forces have trialled that for some time and the story goes that they have some medication to fast induce the state. (I don't know how seriously but I know that some research has been done.)

How about spicing the poor pemmican to make it more palatable? Some spices do act as preservatives too.
 

Jared

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Sep 8, 2005
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But it keeps you going!? If nothing else is put into it in a few days the eater is in ketosis that is the alternative metabolic pathway for humans. Feels kind of funny the first time but I guess one can get used to it. It provides apparently the way to carry the least weight for energy. US special forces have trialled that for some time and the story goes that they have some medication to fast induce the state. (I don't know how seriously but I know that some research has been done.)

How about spicing the poor pemmican to make it more palatable? Some spices do act as preservatives too.
There are go and no-go pills used be the US Air Force and SF. Not heard of diet related though.

 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,129
1,650
Vantaa, Finland
There are go and no-go pills used be the US Air Force and SF.
The go ones have traditionally been metaphetamine. From WW2 results it kind of works but ...........

Ketogenic diet does not give you superpowers or stimulant effects, instead the idea is to minimize the amount of food carried. For a lot of people it also gives the ability to use internal fat much more efficiently than usual. Cool weather and aerobic exercise tends to kick ketosis going in me after a few days, especially if I don't consume large amounts of carbohydrates. Kind of funny feeling being able to just go and go without eating, one does tend to get more thirsty than maybe usual. Then comes the realization what is going one and one had better start eating again. :)
 

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