Dehydrators work slowly removing the natural moisture from foods but leave them more intensely flavored than when they were fresh. With such benefit, no wonder why food dehydrators are normally kept busy during months when fresh fruits and vegetables are in great amount of supply. Actually there are number of other ways you can use your food dehydrator to its fullest potential. You will be surprised on how many kinds of things you can actually make with a single unit.
Raw Foods
Food dehydrator is normally used to dehydrate foods instead of cooking them. People who are in raw foods diet use this machine to uncook a number of healthy foods and add variety to their diet menu, such as flax seed crackers. To make it, you only need to mix the raw flax seeds, with water and seasonings, then shape the mixture into crackers. Next, dry the crackers with your dehydrator until they are crisp, and turn them once to ensure they are evenly dried. Another menu is a raw food pizza crust, which can be made by mixing flax seeds with ground nuts, seasonings and water. The mixture then shaped into a pizza crust and dried in food dehydrator. Next, add tomato sauce and other toppings, then served. The pizza can also be warmed in the dehydrator without actually cooking it above the 115 degree Fahrenheit the recommended temperature limit for raw food diet.
Herbs
To dry herbs, place the freshly harvested herbs from your garden in the dehydrator. Drying your own herbs means saving money and at the same time you can control the quality of the herbs you are using. Once they are cleaned and dried, the fresh herbs can be placed in the dehydrator whole while then the usable parts can be stored in glass containers or plastic bags until you use them.
Revive Old Snack Foods
In case you have moist potato chips or crackers, or even leftover popcorn, you can place them in your food dehydrator to make them crisp again.
Pasta
Dried homemade pasta is also a good idea to save your time preparing the meal. Simply place the fresh pasta in your dehydrator instead of taking up counter space in your kitchen to lay or hang out the noodles.
Bagel Chips
Slice the bagels thinly and season them with savory flavors like garlic, onion powder, chili powder, salt and pepper. If you want, you can make them sweet with sugar and cinnamon as well. Dry the seasoned slices in the dehydrator and let them turn to crisp. Once you are done, you will have plenty of homemade bagel chips for snacking and dipping.
Crouton and Bread Crumbs
Making your own croutons or bread crumbs from leftover bread is a good idea to save money. To make crumbs, dry whole slices in dehydrator and then grind them with food processor. You can later store the crumbs in an airtight container. While to make croutons, you need to season the cubes of breads then placing them in the dehydrator until they turn crunchy, once they are done you can store them in an airtight container.
Seasonings
Similar to herbs you can also make dried seasonings using your food dehydrator. Simply slices the celery, onion or garlic thinly then place them on the tray of your dehydrator and dry them. When its dried, chop them or grind with food processor. Add some salt to taste, then place them in an airtight glass or plastic containers.
Dried Flowers
For craft projects, you can use your dehydrator to dry flower blossoms from your garden or make potpourri.
You can rely on Excalibur 3900 to do all the food-drying work, as it has 9 trays which you can use altogether to dry different kinds of food at the same time.
No related posts.