by Texas Homesteader ~
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OK by now y’all know I’m a dehydrating fool! I bought my dream appliance, an *Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator and I think I’m in love!
I’ve put that thing through the paces, dehydrating all kinds of fruits and veggies. And I’ve even made Italian-flavored tomato leather to just roll out and plop on my homemade French-Bread Pizza. No rehydration needed! I think it’s safe to say I’ve been bitten by the dehydrating bug.
I use many dehydrated veggies in my wintertime simmering Endless Soup. And I use most of my dehydrated fruits as replacement for raisins in my Homemade Pumpkin Granola.
But I’ve also been dehydrating veggies to grind and use for my own homemade powdered seasoning. I hate to pull out a large dehydrator to dehydrate such small portions, and it almost seems even my other small household model is a bit much.
Check out today’s Homestead Hack. I’ve found a way to quickly dehydrate small amounts of food for FREE!
Veggie Trimmings Don’t Go To Waste
Recently RancherMan & I were making a spicy dish for a family gathering. Now usually I leave the jalapeno membranes and seeds in whatever I’m cooking for us ’cause we like it spicy!
But this time we were preparing a dish to share with others who might not have the same tolerance for such spiciness.
So we were removing the seeds and membranes as well as the tougher ends & outsides of an onion. As I set the scraps aside to continue preparing my dish I thought: “Hummmm… if I dehydrated those and ground them, could I use them in place of the purchased powdered seasoning that I just ran out of?”
Well yeah, sure, that sounds great. But do I really want to pull out my small electric dehydrator just for these few pieces?
There must be an easier way.
Use Whatcha Got!
Then I had a light-bulb moment. I had just finished baking a couple of loaves of my Homemade KitchenAid Bread and the oven was still hot. I wonder if I can use the residual heat to dehydrate these scraps.
So I put the jalapeno & onion pieces on my small cast iron comal and set it in the still-hot but turned off oven. Then I just left it there overnight. I’ll use residual heat to dehydrate the scraps
Grind Dried Veggies Into Powder
When I pulled them out of the cold oven the next morning they were all perfectly dry! So I popped them into my coffee grinder that I keep specifically for this purpose and ground them up.
The resulting powder is stored in a labeled spice shaker bottle.
You don’t get any more “FREE” than a turned-off oven using residual heat to dehydrate veggie pieces that would have been discarded!
~TxH~
Other Kitchen Hacks
- Paper Napkins In A Paperless Kitchen
- Easy Reminder For Kitchen Stove
- Make Your Slow Cooker More Efficient
- No Cooking Fat Down The Drain
- Labeling A Glass Jar
- Cleaning A Narrow-Neck Jar
- Keep That Broccoli Fresh
- Sneaking Healthy Vegetables Into Their Diet
- Don’t Waste Onion Trimmings
- What Do The Dates On Food Packages Actually Mean?
- Heat-Free Way to Peel Tomatoes
- Peel A Whole Head Of Garlic Cloves In Seconds
- Cleaner Vegetable Chopping
- Quick Baking Measurement Reminder System
- Easily Separating Cream From Milk
- Using Frozen Water Bottles In The Kitchen
- Don’t Waste It – Free Vegetable Broth
- Easier Deviled Eggs – No Mess!
- MYO Crispy Taco Shells CHEAP
- Tame Kitchen Appliance Cords
- Save Your Fingernails When Cleaning
- Expand Your Muffin Tin Capacity With Canning-Jar Rings
- Use ALL Of Your Spray Cleaner
- Quick Coffee Stain Cleaning
- Repurposing Mesh Bags For Scrubbers
- Cute Windowsill Container For Herb Cuttings
- Less Mess When Measuring Honey
- How To Tell If Your Baking Powder Is Still Good
- Easily Opening Those Stubborn Jars
- Instant Pot Boiled Eggs WITHOUT The Shells
- Saute & Freeze Onions For Kitchen Convenience
- Roasting Peppers Quickly On Gas Stove Top
- …and many MORE!
See All Homestead Hacks
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Now that’s a great way to utilize energy that would otherwise just be wasted! Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner Link up! And Happy Thanksgiving!
Great ideas! I’ve had the best success dehydrating onions and mushrooms! If you haven’t seen them, there are some awesome videos on youtube.com about dehydrating. Thanks for sharing! Blessings, Janet
I keep reading about dehydrating! I think it’s time to get one…but in the meantime, this is a great tip!
Even if you have a dehydrator, Deborah, sometimes the veggies needing to be dehydrated are so small it doesn’t make sense to pull it out & plug it in. In times like these this homestead hack makes the difference between it not being worth it so you just throw veggie scraps away and dehydrating and using them to replace an item you used to have to buy. It’s worked so well for me! ~TxH~
I’ve definitely taken advantage of a still-warm oven to crisp things up before, but I hadn’t thought about leaving something in overnight and grinding it up as a spice – brilliant! Hope you have a fantastic week!
That’s a great idea!! (Ps I love it spicy too!) Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday! Hope to see you again this week! Pinned!
Sorry to be such a downer, but why not just say skillet or griddle instead of such a word as ‘comal’?? I don’t appreciate having to do a search on a word from a post like this. At least, add in the familiar word as well as such a fancy one.
Nice post and GREAT idea, though.
I don’t have an excalibur, and would like a better dehydrator than my cheapie, but doing this in an already powered off appliance is a wonderful idea and great way to save money!
My bad, Carol. Guess I thought the picture would be a dead giveaway. (I’ll adjust the verbiage in the post.) But yeah, gotta agree with ya – dehydrating in a powered-off appliance really is a great way to save money.
Do you can stew meat for your soups or a quick meals. i love canned meat and used to do it a lot now have started again. can’t wait to make some endless soup. colder weather is on it’s way.Thanks for sharing!
I’ve not canned meat in a long time Teresa, usually my cooked meat for quick additions to soup are in the freezer. This winter I plan to can my broth instead of freezing though, so perhaps I’ll foray into canned meat as well.
You are having so much fun with that dehydration machine, its really a funny post! I enjoyed reading it.
Maria
You go girl! Love this! It’s one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments. Have a great week, Patti
Great idea, thanks for sharing! 🙂