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40 Uses for a Dehydrator

Some of you have caught on to the fact that I own a dehydrator. You’ve emailed to ask me what kind it is and what I recommend – you’ve also asked me, “What am I supposed to do with it?” Today I’m going to look at that for ya…and at the end, Cultures For Health is going to let me GIVE AWAY one just like mine to one of you. 🙂 I love blessing y’all.

Before getting a dehydrator, I read around to see what I would like…that’s customary when Barry and I decide on a large appliance purchase…it quickly became apparent to me that Excalibur was a top notch model that gave great results. And if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. I had already attempted to use a small, round dinky dehydrator Barry had – but it didn’t get the job done…so, we tried to sell it (no one wanted it, so to Freecycle it went!) and then started looking around for one to buy.

I was very blessed to be able to find a USED 9-Tray Excalibur Dehydrator: the top of the line. It got fabulous reviews and people seemed very pleased with it. An older single lady had purchased it, realized it was too large for her needs and wanted to downsize. Bingo for me! I’m telling y’all…watching Craigslist and asking around are excellent ways to find appliances.

40 Uses for a Dehydrator

This appliance will cost you about $250 brand new – but let me tell you…if you’re into food preservation, this is an excellent appliance to add to your arsenal. It’s rather large, so I have a station set up in my basement canning area. I do my dehydrating there and it works great – it’s also where I mill grain…and where I go if I need to have a fit and not let anyone else see me. Now that I’ve used mine for a while, I am sure if I had not found one used, I would have saved and purchased it new.

It’s not loud, it’s very efficient, and it makes drying things a BREEZE. The traditional dehydrating method of using your oven can give you a bit of a fit, but the Excalibur does all the work for you. You prep the food, put it in there, turn it on and leave. It’ll turn off when the timer goes off and you just come back later to dried food. Amazingly awesome. Plus it’s super easy to clean. The only thing that would make it better is if I could just put dirty dishes in there and come back and they were clean.

So far all I’ve used my dehydrator for is: zucchini chips (awesome!), drying nuts, making crackers, and incubating yogurt…because I have a tendency to forget mine is in the oven and turn it on and set diapers on fire. But today I’m going to give you a list of tons of ways you can use it…and I’m going to start using some of those ways myself, considering it’s almost harvest time around these parts!

40 Uses for a Dehydrator

40 Uses For Your Dehydrator

  1. Making Crispy Nuts and Seeds
  2. Drying Sprouted Flour
  3. Incubating Homemade Yogurt
  4. Making jerkey
  5. Proofing Sourdough Bread
  6. Homemade Fruit Leather
  7. Making Tempeh
  8. Drying Granola
  9. Dehydrating Summer Squash
  10. Making your own Prunes
  11. Drying berries
  12. Dehydrating kefir grains
  13. Preserving Pears and Apples
  14. Making Dried Pineapple
  15. Drying Herbs
  16. Drying Flowers
  17. Dry paper mache or other craft items that need to fully dry
  18. Make Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments
  19. Making Fire Starters40 Uses for a Dehydrator
  20. Potpourri
  21. Make Paper
  22. Drying Tomatoes
  23. Dehydrate Mushrooms
  24. Make Long Term Baby Food
  25. Make Zucchini Raisins
  26. Dry Cherries
  27. Make Raw Kale Chips
  28. Make Dehydrated Brownies
  29. Make Oatmeal Cookies
  30. Dry Zucchini Chips
  31. Make Crackers
  32. Dry Celery
  33. Make Almond Cheese
  34. Make Cocoa Mint Macaroons
  35. Dehydrate Broth
  36. Make Yogurt Drops
  37. Make Faux-Cheetos
  38. Make Eggplant “Bacon”
  39. Make PB and Banana Graham Crackers

So, there ya go. Anything to add? 🙂

 

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Comments

  2. Hi Stacy! i did read several reviews about the Excalibur dehydrator. All of the reviews were just what you said, top of the line. Which model do you have.. thank you!

    Reply

    • Hi Lynn! I use the 9-tray Economy Excalibur Dehydrator. It’s an older version so I’m not exactly sure about model #’s but I think that’s enough information to point you in a right direction!
      — Julie, HH Team

      Reply

  4. Being new to dehydrating foods, what are the options for correctly storing dehydrated foods? ie: avoiding mold or spoilage? How long will dehydrated foods last? Is this considered a way of food preservation? Is there any risk of candida with drying fruits? Which is better? canning vs. dehydration?

    Reply

  5. I have an Excalibur dehydrator and it’s great. I often get fruit on sale at our discount grocery and Iove how easy it is to dehydrate it and use it later. Also great for our surplus garden produce too. I’m going to try using the dehydrator the next time I need to make homemade dairy free yogurt and see how it works. Thanks for sharing my link to drying cherries.

    Reply

  6. I have a dehydrator and love it! I’m thinking about trying to figure out a way to switch the fan off for a curing box for my summer sausage. Any ideas?

    Reply

  9. I like to cut tortillias into eight pieces, lay on the screen and dehydrate. You then tortillia chips! They are so good and crispy and you put any kind of seasoning on them. I just like them plain.

    Reply

  10. Sorry for not searching first!! I should have known you’d beaten me to the punch; weeks ago too! Thanks for the advice and ideas….

    Reply

  11. This is great! Thanks for linking it up at the party on ‘Or so she says…’! I’m actually featuring it this weekend. I would love for you to link back, if you haven’t. And, see you tomorrow with more of your great ideas! ~ Mariel

    Reply

  12. Hi Stacy! What a wonderful post. I wish I knew half of these before I gave away my dehydrator. I just have to share this with my followers. I’m featuring this at tomorrow’s Thriving on Thursdays. Thanks for linking up.

    Anne xx

    Reply

  13. What a great collection of ideas! Thanks for linking up with Let’s Get Real! Hope our readers stop by to see this!

    Reply

  15. This would be awesome to use with my blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries not to mention the rest of the fruit and veggies around here.

    Reply

  16. I was wondering, with the dehydrator, they sell plastic sheets to use with it for more “liquidy” things. Do you use these, or could you use parchment paper instead?

    Reply

  20. Awesome! I’ve been thinking of getting one these for my mother-in-law who has a very extensive herb garden, but the price tag always makes me a little nervous.

    Reply

  21. Thanks for the opportunity 🙂 A dehydrator has been on my wish list for sometime! I would love to make some yummy jerky and tasty fruits

    Reply

  24. You know . . . they already make a machine that you can put dirty dishes in and they come back clean. It’s called a dishwasher, but you keep having Barry remove them 😉

    Reply

  27. I would just love to win one of those. I have 3 teenagers and a 7 yr old. Good health quick snacks are a must at our house.

    Reply

  29. Hi Stacy ~ I have the same model and I LOVE it! I also had a station set up for dehydrating in my garage. Just an FYI–I used to set a timer and hope I was home when it went off, but then I started using one of the little automatic appliance timers on the plug-in thingy and it works great–I got the idea from using the same thing on my Crock Pot since I didn’t have one with a timer and I had a full time job at the time and never knew when I was getting home from work. The timer works really well with the dehydrator as well. My latest creation in the dehydrator is yummy kale crackers that are made with soaked almonds, nutritional yeast, lots of chopped up kale and a few other spices. they are my THM go to for something S and crunchy! BTW–I just love THM Tuesdays–wouldn’t miss them for the world! You are terrific!

    Reply

  30. I would LOVE to have a better dehydrator. We use ours to make jerky and dry bananas and other fruit mostly.

    Reply

  31. This would certainly help with the plethora of tomatoes coming in now. And for next spring when we go strawberry picking. I got one of the dinky round ones from Freecycle and have to agree that it is frustrating. Hmm, I wonder if is the same one you gave away making it’s way around southern VA? 🙂

    Reply

  32. Hey Stacy,
    I bought some nutritional yeast and forgot why, so now I have this can. What do I use it for?????

    Reply

  36. Dude. LOVE my Excalibur! I especially love the non-stick sheets- but I bought an off-brand on Amazon rather than the official Excalibur ones. We make lots of fruit leather on those sheets- sooooo easy! My favorite fruit leather tip- blend fruits together with pears. Pears make it more pliable and chewy. For example, apricots make a crisp, tough leather, but if you blend in pears, you get a sweeter, more flexible and thicker leather. For fruits that tend to brown while drying (like banana, apple, etc.) add a few mulberries or other berry to make the leather prettier. Before I knew this, I had people stopping me in the street to tell me my three year old was eating a huge dry leaf or a paper bag, when in reality she was chewing on a not-so-pretty but oh-so-yummy fruit leather!

    Reply

  37. I’d like to win that basement room! I grind my grain in the front yard to avoid the mess and who knows what the neighbors think is going on . . .

    Reply

  39. I have wanted one of these for a year!!! Thank you for such an informative post for when I am able to get one. Thanks for the giveaway.

    Reply
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