Dehydrating The Bounty

We have been dehydrating our garden produce as well as what I bought from the Farmers Market lately. I love having dehydrated vegetables in my pantry. I have been doing a lot of onions with plans to do more as well as basil and all kinds of peppers. This was my progress so far:

Hard to believe the middle jar was 4.5 onions at one time! Left jar is dried peppers and the right jar is dried basil. The first step to dehydrating your vegetables to get out the dehydrator. My dehydrator is a old style kind! (Update 2015: I have a new to me dehydrator that does more!)

As you can see, the way I put these steps in order is not necessarily the way I did this. It is the way I should have done this. I get my vegetables ready by washing and drying them. Then I chop them so they are uniform size. I don't like to waste any vegetables, however, so I will put the little ends on the trays too.

I used green and red bell peppers, jalapenos, and a salsa pepper. On the trays I used parchment paper so the dried vegetables will not fall through the cracks. I spread out the chopped vegetables on the trays putting everything close together.

I put the trays into the dehydrator for 18-24 hours. My dehydrator is an old-style model and takes a little more time to dry then the newer models. After the time has passed, this is what my vegetables will look like:

These vegetables are ready to go so I can add them to soups, casseroles, and anything else they might be needed. A great idea is to make your own soup mixes with the dried vegetables and have them ready to go when you need a quick supper night! They are also a money saver because the cost of these in the store is getting crazy!

I have 4-5 onions to do as well as a bunch of carrots. I better get cracking! 

Thanks for reading,
Erica