 Dried vegetables are great to have on hand for adding to soup or to mix with sour cream for a dip. When choosing vegetables to dehydrate, use fresh, mature vegetables. Keep the vegetables refrigerated until you are ready to process them. Then, just before processing, wash and dry the vegetables. Hi, I'm Julie Cascio with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. Most vegetables need to be blanched, either with steam or in boiling water, before drying to stop the enzyme activity. If enzymes are not destroyed, they will produce off flavors and the vegetables will turn brown during the drying process as well as during storage. Blanching kills some spoilage organisms and shortens the drying time of some foods. It does cause the loss of some water-soluble nutrients, but also protects vitamin C and A during storage. Equipment for drying vegetables includes vegetable peeler, knife and cutting board, large pot with lid and a basket, large bowl for ice water plunge, a timer, electric dehydrator and trays. Wash vegetables thoroughly. Dry and remove any blemishes just before processing. Peel, trim and core and slice. This of course will vary depending upon which vegetables you're using. For carrots, we're just going to peel and slice. Now the goal is to get our slices as even as possible so that the drying time is similar for all of the slices. A mandolin is a nice tool for cutting slices evenly or you can practice with your chef's knife so you can get as good as those people on television. I have a ways to go. To blanche vegetables, fill a large pot two-thirds full of water, cover and bring to a rolling boil, which I already have done. And we're going to place the vegetables in the basket. And we want to do a single layer or just a small layer, which today we're only doing one or two carrots. So that gives us a single layer. Place a cover back on the pot and then we're going to blanche according to directions for each vegetable. For carrots, we'll water blanche for two minutes. And I can hear the water come back to a boil. So we started the timer. If it takes longer than one minute for the water to come back to a boil, too many vegetables may have been added at once. You may need to adjust your heat too. Reduce the amount in the next batch if you've added too many vegetables the first time. After blanching, remove the vegetables from the boiling water and dip briefly into ice water to stop the cooking action. And pour on a tray over a bowl or over the sink and arrange them in a single layer. I'm going to put the lid on so I can get ready to do the next batch. When you have the vegetables arranged in a single layer, wipe any excess moisture from the bottom of the tray and add it to the dehydrator. The heat left in the vegetables from blanching will cause the drying process to begin more quickly. So I'm going to put a lid on and we'll plug it in in a few minutes and get the drying process started. Alternately, vegetables can be steam blanched. Again, use a deep pot with a close fitting lid. This time we'll use a wire basket placed so the steam will circulate freely around the vegetables. Water has been added to the pot and it's at a rolling boil. We'll loosely place our vegetables, we're using celery, in the basket and you don't want to do any more than two inches deep when you have a lot. Place the basket in the pot above the water. You don't want the water to touch the inside of the basket. We cover the vegetables and because we're using celery, we're going to steam blanch it for two minutes. When you're steam blanching corn, green beans and potatoes, you may add one teaspoon of sodium bisulfite per one cup of water. This will help improve the keeping quality of these vegetables. Do not add sodium bisulfite when blanching and boiling water because it will give the vegetables a sulfur taste. Some vegetables like zucchini can be thinly sliced and dried and eaten as chips. I have some zucchini sliced here. Already some are on the tray. We'll add the zucchini to the tray. You can sprinkle with some seasoning salt or garlic salt to give the chips a little bit of flavor when they're dried or you can leave them plain. Other produce to try this way are tomato, parsnip, turnip, cucumber, beet or even carrot chips. Dry strong smelling foods like onions or garlic separately. This helps prevent their flavors, their strong flavors from blending with other foods that you might be dehydrating. And of course use adequate ventilation as strong odors may linger. If you are dehydrating mushrooms, again, adequate ventilation is very necessary as many people are allergic or have reactions to the fumes that come with the spores that are put into the air during the dehydration process. When blanching is complete, we're going to dip the vegetables briefly in cold water only long enough to stop the cooking action and then we'll arrange them on a tray that we're going to dry them in single or thin layers, no more than a half inch deep. You can either dry in an oven that goes as low as 140 degrees Fahrenheit or in an electric dehydrator. We of course are using an electric dehydrator. Oops, I almost forgot to do the dipping. When these dry, the moisture will come out and as the moisture comes out of the vegetable, they get smaller. So if you can arrange them on the smaller part of the mesh, then you'll have less falling through to the bottom as they dry or even before they're dry. And then we'll add them to our dehydrator. Trays in a dehydrator should be rotated during drying as the foods nearer the heat source will often dry more rapidly. Vegetables have a low acid and sugar content that makes them more subject to spoilage. Veggies are dried until they are crisp, tough, or brittle. Some vegetables actually shatter if hit with a hammer. At this stage, they should contain about 10% moisture. Remove a small handful of food and cool for a few minutes before testing for dryness. When warm or hot, foods seem more soft, moist, and pliable than they actually are. These are the carrots that we did earlier. They've been drying for about an hour and they feel very moist and they're really pliable yet. We know they're nowhere near being done. These vegetables have been dried for eight hours. Notice that the zucchini chip is crisp, the carrots are tough, and the celery which has shrunk its loss so much moisture is also very tough. To make vegetable flakes, crush your dehydrated vegetables using a wooden mallet or a rolling pin. Powders are finer than flakes. A food mill, food processor, or blender will pulverize the dried vegetables. Common powders are made from onion, celery, and tomato. Allow your dried food to cool about 30 to 60 minutes. Then package the cooled food immediately to prevent absorption of moisture from the air in dry, sterilized glass jars or in moisture and vapor-proof freezer containers, boxes, or bags. Metal cans may also be used if food is first placed in a freezer bag. To protect from insects and reabsorption of moisture, seal the lids onto the containers. Bags may be heat sealed with a home vacuum sealer, for example, or closed with twist ties, string, or rubber bands. Label containers with the name of the product, the method of pretreatment, and drying and the date. Store in a cool, dry, dark place. Properly stored, dried vegetables keep well for 6 to 12 months. Discard all foods that develop off smells or flavors or show sign of mold. When ready to use, most vegetables need to be soaked. Cover root, stem, and seed vegetables, such as carrots, green beans, and peas, with cold water, and soak 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Or you could cover them with boiling water and the soaking time is shorter, about 20 minutes to an hour. After soaking, then simmer until tender. Dehydrated vegetables may also be added to soup or stew. Another option is to let the dehydrated vegetables sit 15 minutes in the hot liquid, strain the excess liquid, and use rehydrated as you would the fresh vegetable, though they are best used as ingredients for soups, casseroles, sauces, stuffings, and stews.