How to Use a Food Dehydrator
Dehydrated food can make a tasty and convenient snack. It is also an instrumental tool in the kitchens of many people who are following a raw food diet. The idea is the food is lightly heated over a long period of time. During this process, it shrivels up and looses its moisture content but not at the expense of its nutrients. The actual process is a snap, but there is a lot of prep work involved.
Instructions
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Buy fruits and vegetables in bulk. Being that everything shrinks, it takes a lot to make a little.
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2
Slice or chop a big amount of fruit or vegetables. Make sure to core everything. Use a slicer to make this process easier. The use of a good slicer will save you a lot of time, energy and frustration. One such machine is called a Mandolin Slicer (see Resources). This machine is especially good at cutting thin strips to make veggie chips out of cucumbers or zucchini.
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3
Place the fruit and vegetables on the rack. Dehydrators come with trays to place the ingredients on. Lay the sliced fruits and vegetables across the whole tray so they are lying flat.
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Put the trays in and turn it on. It is usually an overnight process.
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5
Make fruit roll-ups. Some dehydrators come with roll-up sheets. You use these to make fruit roll-ups and different types of crackers like flax crackers. Blend all the ingredients, pour them into the sheet and turn on the machine.
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6
Make beef jerky. You can actually make this out of beef, turkey or chicken. Mix ground meat in a bowl with some of your favorite spices and sauces. Form it into 1/4-inch thick strips then put it on the trays and start it up.
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Tips & Warnings
Some of the most popular dehydrated fruits and vegetables are apples, bananas, apricots, cherries, mangoes, tomatoes and papaya. All dehydrators come with instruction manuals that will tell you how long it takes to do various fruits, vegetables and other foods.
