One of the best at-home methods of food preservation is dehydration. Countertop food dehydrators are inexpensive, effective, easy to use, and affordable to operate. With just a little bit of prep work and about half a day in the machine, you can preserve fruits, veggies, meats, and a whole lot more.
In fact, most owners don’t have a clue when it comes to how many foods can be safely dehydrated at home. For long-term storage, delicious snacks, recipe ingredients, and a whole lot more, dehydrated foods are where it’s at. Keep reading, and you’ll find a list of every single food that you can safely dehydrate yourself.
Vegetables
Some of the very best food groups to dehydrate at home. All of your favorite veggies, and lots of others you eat less often, can be easily and safely dehydrated with a minimum of prep.
Many of them can make delicious snacks, toppings, or ingredients, like tomatoes and bell peppers. Crispy kale chips can be just the thing to replace potato chips!
Others, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms, make long-lasting ingredients in camping meals or just for keeping easy meals ready to go on short notice at home.
The trick with most veggies is to prepare them properly; thick, dense ones like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots benefit from a quick blanch prior to chopping them to size and then finally sticking them in the machine.
Also, be prepared for light-colored veggies to discolor as they dehydrate. Potatoes, mushrooms, turnips, and the like are notorious for darkening during drying. This doesn’t hurt the quality or the flavor, but if you’d rather they stay a little brighter and lighter, you can hit them with a squirt of lemon juice or ascorbic acid to prevent it.
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Tomatoes
- Peppers (bell, jalapeño, etc.)
- Zucchini
- Mushrooms
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Sweet Potatoes
- Beets
- Squash (summer and winter varieties)
- Green Beans
- Peas
- Eggplant
- Cabbage
- Celery
Legumes
Dried beans are a long-lasting pantry staple eaten around the world, and with good reason. They are cheap, highly nutritious, packed with protein, and available in bulk pretty much everywhere. The only downside? They take a long time to prepare!
But if you’ve got a food dehydrator, you can have all of the benefits with none of the drawbacks. Precooked legumes of all kinds can be subsequently drained and then redried in your food dehydrator. This makes them far quicker and easier to rehydrate and heat up afterward.
Truly, these are the perfect option for quick-cook meals, easy sides, camping, preparedness, and a whole lot more.
Your homemade “re-dehydrated” beans are also way healthier and lighter compared to the canned stuff. If beans are a mainstay at your house, you’ve got to try this approach for yourself!
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Black Beans
- Kidney Beans
- Pinto Beans
- And more!
Fruit
One of the top reasons people invest in a food dehydrator in the first place: to enjoy delicious dried fruit!
More than any other category on this list, dried fruit makes for delicious snacks. Arguably too delicious! It’s easy to blow through a huge quantity of fruit when it’s this flavorful. From soft and chewy apples, pears, and mangoes to crisp and flaky strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and kiwis, there’s something for everyone to love.
As you might imagine, dried fruit is also the perfect inclusion for trail mix, road trip snacks, and a lot more. And don’t forget that it can be reconstituted, too, for making syrups, pie fillings, and so forth. Considering how quickly fresh fruit spoils, dehydration is one of the best and easiest ways to keep it edible for months.
- Apples
- Bananas
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Pears
- Pineapple
- Peaches
- Mango
- Kiwi
- Grapes (raisins)
- Cranberries
- Apricots
- Cherries
- Oranges (slices or zest)
- Lemons (slices or zest)
- Figs
- Dates
- Watermelon (for fruit leather, see below)
Meat
If the prices at my local grocery store are anything to go by, beef jerky could soon become the commodity that’s backing our currency! Grim jokes aside, beef jerky is super expensive when bought over the counter, but you can make stuff that will blow the big brands out of the water—and do it for a fraction of the cost—at home with your dehydrator.
Nearly all common meats can be turned into delicious jerky, not just beef: chicken, turkey, pork, and even game like venison, duck, and rabbit all work wonderfully. But beyond jerky, you can dry it out as cubes or shredded to make easy and long-lasting soup mixes or simply to preserve it at room temperature for a long time.
Dehydrating a leftover stockpile of meat is a great move for saving precious room in the freezer and fridge, and it’s ideal for getting ready for both fall and winter; cold weather means a lot more soup will be on the menu, and dehydrated meat on hand will save you a ton of time during preparation.
- Beef
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Pork
- Fish (salmon, tuna, etc.)
- Venison
- Duck
- Rabbit
- Boullion (for soup and stock)
Herbs
Growing your own herbs and drying them out yourself for everyday use is one of the easiest, but best, things you can do to take your cooking to the next level. Homegrown herbs are invariably more flavorful and healthier than the big-brand bottles you buy at the grocery store.
It’s good news, then, that all of them are incredibly easy to dehydrate in very little time. Once you harvest your favorite herbs, there’s nothing else to do but give them a quick rinse, pat them dry, and pop them in the dehydrator for a few hours.
Once they come out, pulsing them a few times in a grinder or crushing them with a mortar and pestle makes them ready to bottle and enjoy.
- Basil
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Oregano
- Mint
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Sage
- Dill
- Tarragon
Whole Grains (pre-cooked)
Like legumes above, everyone is already familiar with dry, bulk grains as a staple. And while you don’t need a dehydrator to store them safely as is, you can make things easier on yourself in the future by cooking your favorite grains and then drying them out again.
This makes them a lot easier to rehydrate and heat up when you need a simple, hearty, and nutritious meal. Nearly any grain, be it actual cereals or grain analogs like quinoa, can be safely prepared in this way.
They’re surprisingly versatile, too! They are just as much at home for lazy Sunday breakfasts as they are for making easy-packing rations for camping or disaster preparedness.
- Corn
- Quinoa
- Rice
- Barley
- Wheat Berries
- Millet
Fresh Pasta
I refer to fresh pastas as the best-kept secret in at-home dehydration. It’s almost comical when you think about it: most of us start making fresh pasta because it’s so much better than the store-bought stuff; why would we turn around and then dry it out?
Simply enough, to make our quick meals even better! It’s true that your home-dried pasta won’t taste quite as awesome as it would when it was freshly rolled and pressed, but it’s still light-years ahead of the rock-hard stuff in the cardboard boxes that cram grocery store shelves.
Dehydrating pasta is also a great way to pre-portion it out so you’ll have an easier time with portion control or staying ready for unexpected guests. Some dried pasta and home-canned sauce close at hand, and you’re basically done with dinner.
- Spaghetti
- Fettuccine
- Lasagna Sheets
- Macaroni
Dairy
Another great and surprisingly versatile use for your dehydrator! While it’s true that some dairy foods aren’t workable with at-home dehydration, that isn’t the case for milk, yogurt and even ice cream! As long as it’s carefully portioned or laid out in a thin sheet, it dehydrates wonderfully and safely.
Most dairy foods takes on a nice crispy, flaky texture that is downright cravable, especially yogurt, and the process makes dairy both long-lasting at room temperature and a wonderful snack. Yogurt drops are awesome when your sweet tooth is raging and you’re on a diet. It also makes a fine addition to your usual trail mix.
Fruit Puree
Have you ever had a fruit roll-up before? Or Fruit by the Foot? Something like that? If you have—or if you have kids of your own—you already know what this stuff’s about. But what would you say if I told you it was possible to make your own that is both far healthier and far cheaper than the questionable stuff from the store?
It’s true, and surprisingly enough, it’s been around for a very long time. It’s called fruit leather. “Leather” might not sound appealing, but it’s a good name for the finished product: fruit leather has highly concentrated flavor and nutrition and an irresistible chewy texture that makes it downright addictive. You’ve been warned!
It takes a little more prep than fruit does normally since you’ll need to puree it and ensure uniform thickness prior to drying, but it’s really not hard.
- Apple Puree
- Mixed Berry Puree
- Mango Puree
- Peach Puree
Sauces
Bound to be yet another surprise for some readers: it is entirely possible to dehydrate various sauces you use every day. “Why not just store them in the fridge?” I hear you ask. Well, you can of course do that, but dehydration gives you more options for storage.
Dehydrated sauce is easy to reconstitute quickly, keeps for months on end in your pantry after processing, and is much lighter and easier to carry compared to a bulky glass or plastic jar or bottle.
All are important considerations!
- Tomato Sauce
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Pizza Sauce
- BBQ Sauce
- Hot Sauce
Honey & Syrups
More clever fodder for the dehydrator: honey and various syrups can be dried and either crystallized or turned into powder to make them useful ingredients or sugar substitutes.
Honey keeps for a very long time when liquid at room temperature, but maple syrup requires refrigeration, and fruit syrups can spoil quickly in the same conditions. Extend the shelf life of both by dehydrating.
- Honey (to make honey powder)
- Maple Syrup (to make maple sugar)
- Fruit Syrups
Pet Food
Last but not least, you can use your dehydrator to make dried kibble or treats for your favorite furry friend, be they dog or cat. You can grind, cube, or shred various wholesome, healthy ingredients for subsequent dehydration and reconstitution, or some ingredients can be eaten as dried kibble.
This is a whole category of foods unto itself, but some worthwhile examples are below:
- Chicken
- Beef Liver
- Eggs
- Sweet Potatoes
- Carrots
- Apples
Tim is a farm boy with vast experience on homesteads, and with survival and prepping. He lives a self-reliant lifestyle along with his aging mother in a quiet and very conservative little town in Ohio. He teaches folks about security, prepping and self-sufficiency not just through his witty writing, but also in person.
Find out more about Tim and the rest of the crew here.