I will have an abundance of spinach growing in the garden soon, probably more than I can ever eat while it is fresh. In the meantime, I bought a pound of fresh spinach at the Farmer's Market for a recipe I didn't get around to making before the spinach would have gone bad.
Dried spinach can be used in soups and stews all winter. Add it to tomato sauce, or scrambled eggs. You could pulverize it and add for nutritional value to almost any liquid, especially something like V-8 juice.
I put a piece in some water to rehydrate, just to see what it night be like texture-wise to use as leaf spinach in recipes later. I think it would be just fine; it was supple and not fragile at all. For sure I'll use it in a spinach lasagna!
I ended up with a quart jar packed pretty tight with dehydrated spinach. I might make more if I have an abundance of spinach in the garden.
I have also been dehydrating strawberries, since the local berries are in season now... and cheap. Believe it or not, that pint jar above holds what was a pound and a half of fresh berries! I cut them to just a tad over a ¼" thick; the dried berries are well under ⅛" thick. Man, did they smell delightful as they were in the dehydrator!
I don't remember if I asked you this before - what kind of dehydrator are you using? I want a ss one but they are pretty expensive. Want to be sure I'll really use if enough to make it worth the price!
ReplyDeleteSue aka Leah's Mom
A 9-tray Excalibur Dehydrator. I'm pretty satisfied with it, but need to build another solar dryer. Mine didn't make the move to here.
ReplyDeleteRe the excalibur - They have some that have the trays that are ss but very expensive. I've looked at this brand:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.canningpantry.com/stainless-steel-dehydrator.html
They have a 10 shelf and 12 shelf at a resonable cost with all ss shelves & interior but reviews are mixed.
Have you heard anything about these - or have any cautions looking at them?
And.....Please tell me about your solar dryer. Do you have plans that you used to build from? Do you have a photo of the old one? How do you circulate air? How often to you wash your windows (okay, forget the last one.)
Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. :-)
Sue aka Leah's Mom
Sue, I'm not sure of any advantage to SS since dehydrating is done at low temps. (The NSF approved Excalibur SS model is $6,000!) I don't know what plastic (incl. the trays) the regular Excalibur is made from, but even if the trays did contain BPA, they could be replaced by the mesh mats used in cheese draining.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I don't like about my Excalibur (besides using energy) is that the timer doesn't shut off automatically like it should. It was out of warranty when that started, so I just keep a close eye on drying progress.
I will post on making a solar dryer when I do make another one; they circulate air by natural convection. The first one I made was from plans in a book on solar drying I bought back in the 1970's (probably a Rodale book). I made it in the mid-1990's, before I had a digital camera... so any photo would be in a box packed away somewhere.
Thanks for sharing! I just put 4 trays of spinach in my Excalibur. I'm happy to see the pictures & know that it should come out well. I don't really like spinach after it comes out of the freezer...it's all watery & mushy! Plus I love storing in jars.
ReplyDeletePS - did you know you can vacuum seal your canning jars & that dehydrated food will last indefinitely? You can use the canister function on any vacuum seal machine. The jars seal & you will hear that "pop" sound when you open them again. And because dehydrated food is so compact, it is just a great way to store a lot of food for as long as you could need.
Thanks, hope you like it!
DeleteYes, I did know about vacuum-sealing jars. I seldom do it because I have a very dry pantry room, AND I'm always opening jars to whiff, if not to use!
Do you blanche your spinach first?
ReplyDeleteI assume one could also dehydrate any kind of leafy green in the same manner?
I am wanting to make it into a powder and just take daily. I am just confused on whether blanching is necessary or not.
No, I do not blanch, because that would essentially cook the spinach.
DeleteI do wash off any grit in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water. The vinegar will kill most bacteria on the surface.
How much raw spinach did you start out with to get one quart of dry?
ReplyDeleteStacey, I really don't remember. If I had to guess, I'D say maybe the dried spinach is about a quarter of fresh spinach in volume (not weight).
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