Dehydration

Can anyone tell me what the purpose of dehydrating food is? I know one can already buy dried/dehydrated berries and fruits etc but then they are often soaked so what is the actual purpose of dehydrating them yourself and when yo do it, do you then have to rehydrated them to eat them?

Comments

  • 1sweetpea1sweetpea Raw Newbie

    Hey, alabastardragon! I’ve made flatbreads, crackers, raw granola, dehydrated fruits and falafel balls with my dehydrator. I’ve also used it to make raw soups a bit warmer. I don’t do desserts, but I’m sure others will tell you they make all kinds of cakes, cookies, pies, fruit leathers and bars in the dehydrator. I have not bothered to dehydrate anything for the purpose of rehydration at a later time, with the exception of tomatoes. My dehydrated grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes taste so intensely sweet when rehydrated, that they seem totally different from fresh tomatoes to me. I love them almost as much as fresh.

    I don’t use my dehydrator that much because, for the most part, I really appreciate foods at their freshest and highest in water contents. Dehydrating changes that composition and makes everything more dense. This is desirable when making wet batters that need to be dried to the point of being a chewy or crunchy consistency, but to me, this drying often makes things a bit harder for me to digest. It’s personal preference, really. Do you like everything juicy and high in water, or a bit more like cooked food, that has a low water content and gives you that full belly feeling?

  • beanybeeganbeanybeegan Raw Newbie

    Most of dehydrated fruit you buy in the store is dried at to high a temperature. Besides the items mentioned above I also dry presoaked nuts also, tomato leather for sauce later on. I dry foods from my garden to be used for soups later in the year.

  • I hate having the full belly feeling. I get that when I drink too much water or if I ever drink anything fizzy which I try to avoid. So are you saying that I would not get that feeling if I ate dehydrated food or fresh food?

  • drying your fruits was a way to store them for long periods when you were unable to get fresh fruits and veggies like we do now all year long and out of season.

    Dehydrating now for me is a way to get a “cooked” food feeling while still preserving some enzymes. sometimes I crave fresh fruits and vegetables in their natural form. But when I have cooked food cravings, dehydrated foods often save me.

  • Dehyrated foods is fun and you can make cool things with it, but try not to eat too much dehydrated foods it is not healthy for a lot of reasons…moderation is key…

  • rawforhealthrawforhealth Raw Newbie

    I was going to ask a similiar question..

    so..dehydrating is to keep it fresh basically and for making things like breads, cakes, crackers??? When soaking nuts, can you use a dehydrator to dry them?? i soaked and sprouted almonds and they went rancid after a few days, even after drying them as much as i could.

  • Which would you say is the best dehydrator to get? Which brands are best?

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