Vegetable Dehydration - Klarstein 10028437 Mode D'emploi

The skin of many foods naturally protects the food but it can hamper the dehydration process. During
dehydration, moisture escapes best from a cut or broken surface not through the tough skin. There-
fore, the larger the cut area, the faster and better the food will dehydrate.
For this reason thin stalked vegetables like green beans, asparagus, and rhubarb should be cut in
half the long way, or with an extreme diagonal cut to expose as much of the inner parts of the food
as possible. Fruit should be sliced across the core and not down through the core. Try to always make
thin flat cuts.
Broccoli stems should be halved or quartered depending upon diameter. Small fruits like strawberries
can be cut in half. Even smaller berries should either be cut in half or blanched slightly to break the skin.
Filling the Drying Trays
When loading the food into the trays you can use all of the tray's surface, but some airflow must be
maintained. Try to place the food in a single layer whenever possible. This is particularly important
with foods like banana slices and pineapple rings and not quite as important with beans. If some
of the pieces come out with too much moisture when you are finished, one of the reasons is that it
might have been covered by other pieces of food.
Dehydration removes the moisture and will cause the food to shrink as it dries. This allows you to
store the same amount of food in a smaller space. Chopped food should not be spread thicker than
1.2 cm.
lt may be necessary to stir the finely chopped food once or twice during dehydration to ensure even
drying of all the pieces. To do so, turn the machine off, unplug it, remove the trays, stir, then reas-
semble and restart the machine according to the instructions.
Prevent Dripping
Some foods such as very ripe tomatoes and citrus or sugared fruits may drip. Dripping from a tray
above can change the flavour of different foods on lower trays. To help lessen dripping after placing
food on drying trays and before placing them on the dehydrator base, tap the tray firmly downward
on a towel laid on the counter top a few times to remove excess moisture.

Vegetable Dehydration

Dried vegetables are every bit as flavourful and versatile as dried fruits. With dried vegetables you
can make delicious soups, stews, casseroles and more. Basically, anywhere you would use fresh ve-
getables you can use dehydrated vegetables.
Before preparing and dehydrating your chosen vegetables, always wash them in cold water. A certain
amount of coring, slicing, peeling or shredding is required. A food processor can be a handy tool
when processing vegetables taking seconds to slice up a large batch ready for the dehydrator.
Be creative when drying vegetables. Placing vegetables in diluted lemon juice or similar flavourings
for approximately 2 minutes will add a hint of flavour to such vegetables as green beans and aspa-
ragus.
Pre-treatment of Vegetables
For the most part, vegetables need little in the way of special treatment for dehydration although
there are some exceptions. Here are some preparation guidelines that will help you get the most from
your dried vegetables. A few vegetables, such as onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms
can be dried and reconstituted successfully without pre-treatment. In general if vegetables must be
steamed or blanched for freezing they must be treated for drying.
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