Using Dehydrated Veggies

[Genoa]

I was inspired to start this thread after reading the''Food Storage Day'' post. I almost posted there, but thought I should start a new one.

 

I bought a selection of Harmony House dehydrated veggies and am trying to incorporate them in more of our meals. I've always tended to cook wtih fresh ingredients as much as possible, but I really want to learn how to substitute the dehydrated. I'm hoping for suggestions, tips, and recipes that others have developed.

 

It's easy to use some of the veggies in soup---I like the convenience of the dehydrated potatoes and I love having dried cabbage on hand to add to soups. Adding some spinach to some chicken soup I made looked good, but didnt taste very good. It was too bitter. I like to make a spinach quiche, to which I add about 6-8 oz. of fresh spinach, chopped. Could I substitute dehydrated spinach? I assume I'd need to rehydrate it first, but I'm not sure how much to use. I'm worried, after my soup experience, that it will be too bitter. Has anyone used spinach successfully, and do you find it to be more bitter than fresh spinach?

 

I also make a meal with fresh broccoli, mixed with a can of mushroom soup and spread over cooked chicken---then everythint is topped with cheese and cooked in the oven until heated through. Again, I'm thinking of trying the dehydrated broccoli, but (like the spinach) it is so small--more like flakes than small pieces of broccoli. I'm worried it will also overpower the other ingredients. Any suggestions?

 

I just had a thought--maybe I could try making a crustless, single-serving spinach quiche just to see how it works and then take it from there. I could probably make a really small amount of the chicken-broccoli dish, as well, and see if I can figure out how to adapt it to work.

 

I really want to start incorporating this more in my day-to-day cooking, but I'm afraid of wasting a lot of quality ingredients and ending up with a bad outcome.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you have any favorite ways you use the dehydrated foods (not just veggies---I have fruit, too), I'd love to hear how you do it. I'm especialy interested in things besides soup, as it's pretty easy to thrown stuff in a soup but it's hard for me to figure out how much to rehydrate and how to use it in other recipes. Of course, I love soup, so any good soup recipes would be great, too.

 

My husband's work hours have been cut, so I'm trying to find ways to stretch our food storage even more than in the past, yet still eat a healthy diet. Also, using the dehydrated foods is good because it cuts down on trips to the store, which saves grocery money and gas money.

[vigilant20]

I've had great success using my dehydrated ingredients. They just need a good soak before hand. If you are short on time give them a quick boil too. I always boil carrots because they tend to take strangely long to cook. I dry everything myself so I can guesstimate based on about how much they shrunk when dehydrated (mushrooms not a lot, celery a lot!). It's just one of those things you have to experiment with I guess, unless yours happen to have ratios on the cans.

 

I also do dry mixes of meals. Omlettes and soups work real well with powdered eggs and bullion. The Dehydrator Bible has a bunch of good ones, and hiking sites tend to have some recipes.

[CrabGrassAcres]

I don't think the dry spinach is more bitter than fresh. Sometimes adding a little milk to a dish makes it less bitter. You can also soak it and drain the water off before adding it to the dish. Most of the dry veggies need to sit in water for 30 min then be cooked as if they were raw. You can also put the dry veggies in a blender and make powder. That works well for quick cream of ____ soup.

 

I use lots of dry veggies for the convenience.

 

Try putting a lot less of the dry veggies than you think you need into a cup and pour cool water over it. See how much you have in the cup in 30 min. Rough rule of thumb is that it rehydrates to 4 times the dry weight, but this can vary.

[Genoa]

Sorry I haven't responded before now. Some family issues came up that had to be addressed. Thank you for your advice. I'll keep experimenting.

[bibliomane]

I've used up a gallon of the HH dehydrated spinach. It was ok, but I'll not be getting it again. The best results for it were to rehydrate and cook it in boiling water first. Then I used it in quiche, those greek triangles that I can never spell, and as spinach nuggets. The spinach nuggets turned out the best.

 

Spinach Nuggets

32oz frozen chopped spinach cooked, drained (rehydrated cooked, a pints a pound, so about 4c rehydrated)

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs (leftover bread cut in cubes and frozen--thaw and chop & sesson )

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 stick to 1.5 stick butter

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, or to taste

1/4 cup finely minced onion (rehydrated with the spinach)

Combine all, make balls, place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until firm. Serve warm with marinara or honey mustard. Use as a side dish, starter, or in place of 'chicken nuggets.'

 

We use HH veggies several times a week. Except for soup, I ALWAYS soak them overnight. I use the rehydration chart in "Cooking with home storage" and rehydrate how much I need to cook with. I've found that simply rehydrating them, then using them as usual works quite well most of the time. The only time I don't rehydrate them first is when I need to saute them for rice or pesto.

 

Rice w/ veggies:

Saute 1/2 to 1 c dehydrated veggies in oil. Season to taste. Add 1c rice and 3 to 3 1/2 c water. Microwave 10m, stir, microwave another 10m. You can make Mexican rice, yellow rice with peas, mushroom & onion rice, Italian rice, Indian rice...the possabilities are endless. You can also stir in cooked meat, beans, or canned fruit after the rice is done.

 

Cheryl

[TurtleMama]

Genoa,

 

The main thing that I've learned with using deydrated veggies is to rehydrate them before using them in a recipe. When they are rehydrated, you can use them just as if they were fresh -- same measurements, recipes, applications, etc.

 

You can rehydrate them in either cold or hot water. Of course, the hotter the water, the faster they fully rehydrate. I typically add boiling water and the veggie, depending on its inherent density, takes around 20-30 minutes to be ready to use.

 

I love using my dehydrated onion, carrots and celery -- my three faves. The spinach is okay -- not as good as fresh or frozen, but in a survival situation, I think it would taste close enough to fresh that we'd be very happy to have it! If you need any recipes for dehydrated veggies/fruits, please feel free to PM me and let me know. I have some tasty ones. They usually include whole grains or rice -- perfect for using up your food storage supplies!