Using dehydrated foods

[Traderdell]

Considering a dehydrator as we freeze pounds of peppers, onions and such. As you all know it takes up a lot of freezer space. If we were to dehydrate the peppers would we use them as we do the frozen. In other words just grab a handful and throw them into soups, stews or our fried potatoes?

Thanks for responses,
Gregg
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[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by Traderdell

Considering a dehydrator as we freeze pounds of peppers, onions and such. As you all know it takes up a lot of freezer space. If we were to dehydrate the peppers would we use them as we do the frozen. In other words just grab a handful and throw them into soups, stews or our fried potatoes?

Thanks for responses,
Gregg
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How does that freezing work out for you? I know it is a space hog, but do you also have to blanch everything before freezing? I hear that just freezing without blanching causes ensyme changes that affect taste and nutrition.

I froze some peaches and when they tawed, they tasted horrible.

[Traderdell]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

How does that freezing work out for you? I know it is a space hog, but do you also have to blanch everything before freezing? I hear that just freezing without blanching causes ensyme changes that affect taste and nutrition.

I froze some peaches and when they tawed, they tasted horrible.

It works just fine for what we use them for. We do not blanch, just clean and freeze.

[WisJim]

We dry lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, string beans, zuccini, raspberries, strawberries, and probably other stuff I don't recall. Most of it just gets tossed in the kettle of soup or stew or sauce. Some things, sometimes, we soak in hot water first, but that is only if they are going to be cooked for a short time in something fairly dry. I would soak peppers before adding to fried potatoes, for example. We normally store our onions braided in strings in the dry root cellar, so only dry onions or garlic if we have lots of it, or it starts to sprout in late winter or early spring.

We also freeze some peppers, most of our berries, and have frozen peaches which tasted fine when thawed (we use them in crepes with whipped cream for breakfast).

[turtlehead]

Dehydrated peppers, potatoes, carrots, onions, etc. work great in soups.

For pizza, omelettes, or with fried potatoes I use frozen peppers.

I keep telling myself I'll rehydrate some peppers and try the rehydrated ones in fried potatoes, omelettes, etc. but so far I just grab the frozen ones because I fail to plan ahead