Last night, I finally finished my green pepper project. I took out my bag of green peppers and put them in the dehydrator last night. (I had some of them thawed already in the fridge, so I took the rest of the bag out of the freezer and ran them under hot water to thaw them out, just because I was impatient).
They dried up beautifully! I put them all into a quart jar and it only filled half of a jar! Then I vacuum sealed it.
Ta da! All those green peppers that were taking up space in my freezer are now in a jar sitting on my shelf ready to be used in any recipe that I need them for.Just a note--normally you have to blanch veggies before you dehydrate them. When you freeze them (or even buy frozen veggies on great sales) they no longer need to be blanched before you dehydrate them (sorry, I don't have the scientific info on that). The part of the vegetable that gets broken down during blanching also gets broken down when they are frozen.
**I just found another brilliant idea and am going to try it and post it. Stay tuned! :)
how much was your dehydrator? and were did you get it?
ReplyDeleteI have a nine tray Excaliber and love it. I got in on ebay a few years ago. It was probably about $200. I had to think of it as an investment and it has been a great one! Thanks for the question, I'll try to a more detailed blog post about it.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how long they would last unsealed? I don't have a way to seal them
ReplyDeleteOh yes, and could you shar more about dehydrating
ReplyDeleteCarol, if you store your dehydrated food in an airtight container (preferably glass) I would give them up to a year at most. Thanks for your interest, I usually slow on my dehydrating in the winter, but there is still lots that I can do. I will get working on that! :)
ReplyDeleteI love bell peppers and use them in tons of meals what do you your dehydated peppers for besides soups? Do you rehydrate them? Are they good afeter you do? oh I just found your blog and Love it!!
ReplyDeleteI meant my last comment to be a reply to you. . . oops. Anyway, thanks!
DeleteI use my peppers mainly for lasagna. I usually just throw them into my sauce and let them re-hydrate there. I'm not a huge pepper person, but when there are ample leftover from the garden I love to have them preserved and on hand so I don't have to buy one at the store.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks so much I didn't know freezing would eliminate the need for blanching! I hate blanching first. From now on I'll just freeze first. =)
ReplyDelete