Culinary yoU: Dehydrating Onions

One of the few items that I never attempt to grow in our garden is yellow or white onions. It is just not a good use of our garden space as onions can be purchased on sale almost every week cheaper than we can grow them. Just last week white onions were on sale at one of the Mexican markets for $0.98 for 2lbs ($0.49 lb). So, when we did our weekly shopping we comp'd 6lbs of white onions at our local Wal-Mart. FYI, the Wal-Mart price was $.99 for 1lb, so we saved 50% using our 'Flipp' app (see my article 'Saving Money With Flipp').

So why so many onions? Well, we were getting low on dehydrated onions and it was time to restock our supply. While 4lbs of onions (which was 9 large onions) sounds like a lot, however, when dehydrated they take up the equivalent space of a one quart mason jar. We use dehydrated onions in a lot of our cooking, especially when making beans, soups, stews, marinades and spice mixtures (4 – 5 tablespoons of dehydrated onions is equal to about one medium to large onion). They are shelf stable and make a great addition to your minimalist pantry. My friend Steve Coyne who writes the 'I Grow Vegetables Blog' dehydrates his onions and then roasts them in the oven and grinds them into onion powder. I have yet to do this, but may one day in the future.

In this article I will show you just how easy it is to cut and dehydrate onions. Unlike other vegetables, you do not have to blanch or treat the onions to keep them from becoming discolored during the dehydration process. In fact, they are probably one of the easiest vegetables to dehydrate.

Preparing The Onions

When dehydrating chopped onions I have found that when using my L'Equip 528 dehydrator each tray will hold 1 ½ large onions. My L'Equip has 6 trays so I can dehydrate approximately 9 large onions (about 4 lbs) at a time. For chopped onions, I cut them into a small to medium dice, or the same size as I would use them in a soup or any meal in which I was sautéing them. If you are going to grind your onions to make onion powder then you can leave them in rings as you are going to grind them later with your food processor or food mill.

I cut my onions one tray at a time and then stack them onto the dehydrator, but if you like you can cut all of your onions and then place them on the trays. The important part here is that you try and evenly distribute the onions across the trays without to many touching to allow adequate air flow. Once you have all of your onions stacked onto trays it is time to get on with the drying process.

The Drying Process

Most dehydrator instruction manuals tell you that for dehydrating vegetables you need to set your temperature between 125 to 135 degrees. My Nesco FD60 manual indicates that onions cut 3/8” thick need to be dried for 9 to13 hours. The manual for the L'Equip 528 that I am using for this article indicates that it takes 6 to 12 hours to dehydrate sliced or diced onions. Of course actual drying times will vary as the process is affected by the moisture content in the onions, the relative humidity in the air, temperature used, and the size of the cut onions you are dehydrating. For me, I have found that dehydrating onions cut to a small and/or medium dice, 12 to 18 hours of drying time works better for me, and if I forget and leave them on for 24 hours then no biggie, they cannot get to dry. If you want bigger slices or pieces of onions, then you will probably need to dehydrate the onions for 24 hours.

So if cutting onions makes your eyes water, just wait until you get 4 to 6 pounds of them dehydrating in your kitchen. My wife is pretty sensitive to smells and has underlying asthma so when I dehydrate onions or any other strong smelling vegetable I begin the process when she is not around. Because we do not have a garage or basement, I place the dehydrator on our glass top stove and turn on the vent hood. The smell is the strongest when you are first dehydrating the onions, but the drier the onions become, they less they smell up your house.

Rehydrating Your Onions

If you want to rehydrate your onions to be used in place of fresh onions simply reconstitute them in boiling water. You will need 2 ½ to 3 cups of water for each cup of dehydated onions (a 2.5 to 3 ratio of liquid to dried onions) that you want to reconstitute. I know it sounds like a lot, but do not skimp on the water or you will be disappointed with the results. Let the onions sit for 90 to 102 minutes (2 hours) for them to fully absorb all the liquid that they can. Once they are done, drain the water as use as you would fresh onions. Keep in mind, that as with most vegetables, rehydrated onions will rehydrate to about 80% of their fresh state and may be a little more chewy than fresh or frozen onions.

Adding Dehydrated Onions To Soups

If like me, you want to add your dehydrated onions straight to your bean or soup pot, you have to take into consideration that the onions will absorb some of the cooking liquid. So when cooking beans and or soups with dehydrated vegetables add additional water and stock as necessary during the cooking process to maintain the amount of final liquid you desire in your recipe.

Conclusion

Dehdrating onions is a simple process and they are one of the easiest vegetables to dehydrate. They are also one of the more fragrant. Remember that dehydration times will vary depending on the size of the onions used, the moisture in the air, the temperature of your specific brand of dehydrator. Dehydrated onions are shelf stable and will keep almost indefinately. My experience has been that when adding dehyrated onions to soups and stews is that 1/3 of a cup (4 – 5 tablespoons) of dehydrated onions is equal to one large fresh onion. As always, if you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook and Google+ so that you will not miss out on any of our new articles.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Dehydrating Onions

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