I was dehydrating lots of vegetables from my garden. Each one was placed in a repurposed glass jar in my pantry. Then I decided to assemble various dry veggies, add some seasoning and make dehydrated salsa in a jar as a gift. The gift recipients LOVED IT!
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Dehydrating Garden Vegetables
So, y’all know I’ve been virtually a dehydrating fool since I got my * Excalibur Dehydrator . So much fun!
I love that my healthy garden vegetables take up so little space when dehydrated and no additional energy is needed for them to stay preserved.
Recently I diced fresh tomatoes from my garden and dried them. I’ll use these tomatoes the same way I’d use canned diced tomatoes, a common item on my grocery list.
But as I bundled up those pretty red dehydrated diced tomato jewels into a glass jar I got to wondering – wouldn’t it be cool if I could make salsa where all you do is add the boiling water, stir, rehydrate and eat?
I sat out to experiment.
Dehydrated Vegetables From The Garden
I love to have all those dehydrated veggies in my pantry, their pretty sparkling glass jars lined up smartly on the shelves.
I’ve been using those dehydrated goodies in my simmering soups when I make endless-soup lunches for RancherMan & me. And of course I also often rehydrate and use them in dishes I’m cooking.
But now I’m thinking about dehydrated salsa. That would be SO COOL!
I already have all the veggies that I’d normally mix into my fresh homemade salsa dehydrated:
Dehydrated Diced tomatoes
Minced garlic, Dehydrated
Cilantro, Dehydrated
Dehydrated Bell Pepper
Onion, Dehydrated
These have all been dehydrated over the last several months from ripe veggies straight from my garden.
That’s a whole lot of garden goodness right there!
Combining Dehydrated Ingredients
So I started experimenting with the proportions. Into a pint canning jar I added the following dehydrated garden vegetables:
1 cup of dehydrated chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons of dehydrated chopped onion
½ tablespoon of dehydrated chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons dehydrated bell pepper
¼ teaspoon of dehydrated garlic
Hummm… that looks about right. Then I added two tablespoons of my own homemade dry salsa mix. that I use when I’m making Fresh Garden Salsa.
Rehydrating My Dehydrated Salsa
Now for the test run. I heated a cup of water to almost boiling and poured it into my jar of dehydrated ingredients.
I added 1/4 teaspoon of vinegar and stirred it all together, making sure to push all dehydrated bits down into the water.
Then I placed the top back on the jar loosely so it would kind of steam inside the jar and rehydrate everything.
I typically wait about 15 minutes when I’m rehydrating veggies. But since this was a larger quantity than I usually rehydrate at one time I just let the liquid cool in the jar. All in all probably about 30-45 minutes before I tasted it.
Oh yeah – this is great. I’m about to dehydrate some of my hot, hot, HOT jalapeno peppers from the garden and I’ll zap the heat in my salsa a little higher with the next batch. I like my salsa SPICY!
In the meantime these jars would be a GREAT Homemade Christmas Gift Idea, don’t ya think?
Here’s what I bundled inside each pint canning jar. (The recipe to make a jar of my dry salsa mix is included in the recipe below too!)
Dehydrated Salsa In A Jar Recipe
When the garden is going well, dehydrate those garden goodies and make this awesome dehydrated salsa in a jar. Great gift idea too! #TexasHomesteader
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Diced Dehydrated Tomatoes
- 2 Tablespoons Chopped Dehydrated Onions
- 2 teaspoons Chopped Dehydrated Bell Pepper
- 1/2 Tablespoon Chopped Dehydrated Cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon Chopped Dehydrated Garlic
- Dehydrated Jalapeno Peppers To Taste
- 2 Tablespoons dry salsa mix (recipe below)
Instructions
Directions:
-
In pint jar, add all dehydrated veggies. Add 2 Tablespoons of dry salsa mix and seal jar to store.
-
To Rehydrate - pour 1 cup very hot water into jar with veggies, add 1/2 teaspoon vinegar and stir. Replace the lid and allow the liquid to cool.
When all veggies are thoroughly rehydrated remove lid, stir salsa and ENJOY!
Recipe Notes
Dry Salsa Mix
- ½ cup Dried Minced Onion
- ¼ cup Crushed Dried Red Pepper
- 3 Tablespoons Dried Cilantro Flakes
- 2 Tablespoons Dried Minced Garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Non-Iodized salt
- 1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Dried Parsley Flakes
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
Mix all ingredients together & store in a tightly-lidded jar. Add 2 Tablespoons of dry salsa mix in each jar of dehydrated salsa.
~TxH~
Links In This Post:
- Dehydrated Diced Tomatoes
- How To Dehydrate Bell Peppers
- Preserve The Harvest: Dehydrating Onions
- Simple Dry Salsa Mix
- Fresh Garden Salsa
- Homemade Gifts They’ll Actually Love
Other Dehydrating Posts
Garden Vegetables
- Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Fresh Carrots
- Cubed Tomatoes Dehydrated For Winter Cooking
- Preserving Produce: Dehydrating Celery
- Dehydrating Fresh Pumpkin For Easy Storage
- Dehydrating Spinach To Enjoy All Year Long
- Using A Dehydrator To Preserve Fresh Onions
- Dehydrating & Storing Cabbage
- Dehydrating Shredded Potatoes For Hash Browns
- Bell Pepper Dehydration
Fruits & Berries
Herbs
Other
- Simple Homemade Jerky Strips & Snack Sticks
- Easy Egg-Free Cotton Candy Meringue Cookies
- Dehydrating Tomato Sauce Into Leather For Pizza
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We love our salsa around here but we’ve never done it like this, what a great idea! I see many jars of dehydrated salsa in my future, Thanks for sharing.
Dehydrated salsa – so cool! I have never thought about trying to make something like this before. I love the idea. I need an Excalibur dehydrator! Thanks for sharing your recipe at the #HomeMattersParty
I love dehydrating things. Yay for another great recipe.
What a GREAT idea!! Sharing to pass the word – stopping by from Cooking on a Budget’s Link Party!!
This would be a perfect holiday gift! I wouldn’t have thought about making something like this, but it is an awesome idea. Thanks for sharing!
I love this idea!
Great way to preserve some of the veggies you can’t eat in time!
Thanks
Michelle
Oh my goodness! This is so cool! I never would have thought of doing something like this, yet it is such a great idea. You should package this up and sell it! Thank you so much for sharing.
I dried peppers and tomatoes this year, but it never crossed my mind to mix up dehydrated salsa. Love this idea and pinned it to do soon!
Would make a neat gift idea! I’ve made regular salsa, but never dehydrated. I mainly use my dehydrator for apples.
What a great idea! I dehydrate all the time, especially this time of year…I need to try this!
Thanks for the idea!
Blessings, Amy
This looks great! I am thinking about making it to take on the trail hiking this summer so that I can make a great taco salad out of dehydrated ingredients.
How many cups of salsa does this recipe make once it’s been rehydrated? I want to end up with 3/4 of a cup rehydrated and I want to adapt the amounts in the recipe accordingly. Thanks for your help!
Hummm… I didn’t measure the salsa after it was rehydrated, but it seems it was just over a cup. I’ll have to check that out next time I make this to be sure – the garden is currently going great with all these ingredients so I could very well whip up another batch of these – so convenient to have in the pantry and they made fun Christmas gifts too! ~TxH~
I love this idea! Thanks for the inspiration. Pinned!
Very clever, didn’t know that you could dehydrate salsa. I want to try this, I Love salsa, and the hotter the better. I have had a dehydrator for years but have really only made jerky, oh and I have dried herbs but that’s about it. Tried banana chips but they didn’t turnout. I would love to learn how to dry veggies. Booking marking so I can come back later when I’m on my laptop. Thanks for sharing your recipe on The Chicken Chick Clever Blog Hop.
I love this idea!! I don’t use my dehydrator nearly enough!! 😀
This is a brilliant idea! I love making salsa. A dehydrator has been on my list for a while, maybe I will get lucky this Christmas!
This is a really neat idea. I don’t have a dehydrator yet, but I want to get one and be a hydrating fool too. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this idea. Sounds like the easiest way to make salsa that I’ve read.
What a great idea! I have a dehydrator, and haven’t used it yet this year, because we have just moved, and too much other stuff going on. However, now I’m inspired. I need to crank that baby up and get to dehydrating! This is a great idea for Christmas gifts too! A winner for sure!
Now pass the chips and we can all have a taste :}
Was just wondering and thought about this earlier this morning. Yes, you where on my mind early this morning. I was thinking about marshmallows of all things and was wondering if you have ever dehydrated marshmallows before to use in hot chocolate, trail mix, etc?
Ya know Colleen, I’ve never dehydrated marshmallows before. I enjoy my hot cocoa without marshmallows and I much prefer dried fruit to contribute the added sweetness in my trail mix. But I’m thinking it can’t be too hard to do. I remember how much I loved the dried marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal as a child – I’m seeing now that (probably as an advertising thing) they’re making a limited amount of boxes with nothing BUT marshmallows. Now there’s something I can get on board with – LOL!
What a great idea. I love salsa and friends/family would love to get some of this. It looks great. I wish I had a dehydrator and garden (small apartment living limits space). I’ll have to mention this to my Dad he has a garden every year and loves making salsa.
Mind blown. Seriously, I can not wait to dehydrate more next year and make this. Wow. I love it!! Thanks for linking up to Motivation Monday!
Now this is interesting – I’ll have to share this with my daughter,
I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
Kathy
What a great idea! I love my Excalibur too! I can’t imagine harvest without it. I will be trying this next year. Thanks for sharing your wonderful idea and recipe. Yes, it would make a wonderful gift.
Tammy, that is SUCH a good idea! We use our dehydrator all the time and love that it is a super easy way to use up and preserve the abundance from the garden. And I could eat fresh salsa all year?? Yes, please! Thanks so much for sharing, and your post was most viewed and is featured in tonight’s What’d You Do This Weekend! Pinned 🙂
What a great idea for making salsa. My husband just bought a dehydrator a couple of weeks ago so we could dehydrate all of the different peppers we grew this year. I have also experimented with it with some fruits. I am going to try your recipe soon. Thanks.
Hello cute lady! This looks so cool and I bet it tastes amazing. Pinned. We couldn’t think of anyone better to party with. We hope to see you tomorrow at 7 pm.
Happy Sunday! Lou Lou Girls
You make me long to have a dehydrator again.
I could live solely alone off of salsa! I think i’ll keep this for later! Thanks for sharing. Happy Wednesday!
What a cool idea! I’d never even thought of that! PInning 🙂
This is such a fantastic idea! Your rehydrated salsa looks perfect, and it just makes so much sense to dehydrate and save tons of storage space. I have an Excalibur too, and just love it! I’ve never thought about making mixes though. Thanks for the inspiration, and for linking up with us at Wake Up Wednesday!
I have a friend who wants to know how to dry her tomatoes and other veggies to make soup in the winter. she asked if I knew how long does it take to dry all of them. I told her I would find out. so if you can help me, she would be so happy. thanks, jana
It’s hard to say Jana, there are many variables such as the power of your dehydrator, thickness you cut the fruit and even the humidity in the air. My Excalibur book says to cut tomatoes into 1/4″ slices and dry at 155 degrees until leathery or brittle (anywhere from 8 – 12 hrs depending upon your humidity – about 10-11 hrs here in humid NE Texas) Hope that helps at least a little. ~TxH~
Wow, what a great idea! This year I filled my freezer with tomatoes and green peppers from my garden to use in making salsa for Christmas gifts this year (went over really big with the family last year). This will take up less space and I can use my freezer for other stuff (like pizza). Thanks!
What a great idea! I love gift in a jar ideas, this is lovely, of course I would have to own a dehydrator first. Pinning for the day I get one! Visiting from Treasure Box Tuesday, thanks for sharing!
What a great idea! And yes, this would make a wonderful gift! Thanks for the inspiration.
That is so cool and pretty too.
This is the BEST idea of the year for me!! Wow, would have never thought of this! Thank you so much! I truly appreciate your time and effort it takes to share with us what you do and how to create wonderful nutritious food (right from the garden!)!
Thanks Villarosa, I felt ever so clever. LOL Your comment is so very sweet. I think dehydrated salsa will be the perfect gift idea and like you said – straight from the garden! ~TxH~
The perfect gift basket item for sure.
We’re still getting rain. We did get just a tad over 1 inch last Monday whren that storm moved through.
Yes Colleen, it will be a perfect gift idea. We got about 1.5″ of rain from last night’s storm, about the same as when the last one rolled through a few days ago. Love it – we threw rye seed/fertilizer just before the first round of storms so we’re getting lots of moisture. ~TxH~
Such a clever idea that it would also make for a great selling product