Why I love my dehydrator
As I sit here now in my office, cacao in hand, children asleep in our Family Bed, I can hear the gentle hum of it in my kitchen. It is a running joke in my home that I am always drying something out. My dehydrator is pretty much always on! To be honest I often leave it on even when the ‘thing’ I am currently drying out is already dry because the sound is so soothing to me, and I love the gentle warmth that comes from it in my kitchen. Currently in there are shiitake mushrooms. It is funny because I have 4 huge jars of them now. When Riverford started stocking them a couple of months ago I assumed it was going to be short lived, so I have bought 2 boxes every week since and dried them out. Each week they keep having them I think to myself I should stop, but I assume they will stop soon, and then I will make my way through my stash and wish I had more…I should ring them to see if it is going to be a permanent thing!
I have had my dehydrator now for roughly 9 years. The main reason for getting it was to be able to have a ready supply of activated nuts and sprouted, dehydrated seeds available to me, without having to pay the huge amounts it costs to buy them already activated. I speak more about that here, where I go into depth about the benefits of Soaking + Sprouting - it is a comprehensive blog, but easily digestible (excuse the pun), so I would check it out if you haven’t already.
Why dehydrate your food?
Today though I want to share more about dehydrating specifically. Dehydrating is essentially a preserving technique, that has been used by humans for millennia. Through low heat and steady airflow, dehydrating removes enough moisture from food through evaporation to inhibit the growth of bacteria, yeast, and mold.
It is recommended to start off the dehydration process at 60 degrees Celsius. This throws off the moisture more quickly so that no fermentation can take place, and then after about half an hour, turn it down to just above 40 degrees Celsius (which is marked on the Stockli - see below). The initial higher temperature doesn’t ‘cook’ the food, as it is just removing moisture for a short burst, and then when you turn it down to the lower temperature to do the actual slow drying, it is maintained at a temperature that keeps the food completely raw, therefore maintaining all of the enzymes and nutrients. This is one of the key benefits of dehydrating food, bar the food preservation aspect - the food remains raw, so it is perfect to have on hand for super healthy snacks.
What can you dehydrate?
Pretty much everything, but I would say you wouldn't want to dehydrate everything! So what do I dehydrate?
Kale (whenever I can get kale I buy bags + bags of it! - I am always making ‘cheesy’ kale chips (crisps) - I will share a recipe soon!)
Mushrooms of every variety - so useful to have on hand
Carrots (they make delicious sweetie like snacks - chewy and sweet)
Sprouted seeds/pseudo grains - sunflower, buckwheat (great to use in homemade ‘parmesan’ with nutritional yeast in the case of the sunflower, or in raw chocolate as crispies in the case of the buckwheat)
Soaked nuts and seeds that don’t ‘sprout’ per se but I want them activated (again see blog above) - almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds
Almond pulp (when you have made homemade milk you are left with the pulp - freeze it until you have have enough to dehydrate it in bulk to use as almond flour)
Raw granola (I will share a recipe soon for this)
Raw crackers
Which dehydrator?
When I started searching for a dehydrator I kept being directed towards an Excalibur. They are ‘the’ dehydrator that people talk about, but something didn’t add up for me for my personal use. Firstly they are very big, but also the functionality felt unnecessary for what I wanted it for. They are designed so you can take out the layers and therefore essentially use the shell as a low temperature ‘oven’ to make raw breads and cakes. I preferred the idea of something smaller, easier to put in a cupboard, but that still had a good amount of space in each section for mounds of granola or kale. There are smaller dehydrators than the one I have but the trays are small and shallow - I ultimately went for the Stockli and I would get it again and again - I would recommend it to anyone. I will link to the one I have at the end of this sentence, when you go to look you will also be able to search and find the one with a timer too; it is only £10 more but I have never found it necessary (but then I do like it running all the time - ha!) - I also recommend UK Juicers as a company - I have bought a lot from them over the years - here you go.
OK….stop the press! As I was on the site I saw that there is a new design for the Excalibur! I went on to look at the price of the original so I could explain also that it felt unnecessarily expensive to me, compared to the more reasonable Stockli, and then there it was smiling at me! They must have had feedback that others thought the same as me, and created this! Sorry to throw a spanner in the works, because I can’t recommend this as I have only just seen it, but I think I would actually buy it if I needed a new one ever, and take a risk - it has the mats for drying out crackers that I have always missed with the Stockli - do you think Josh would notice if I had 2 dehydrators!? (After a short break in writing….) I have just watched the video on the new Excalibur - one thing I worry about: the trays are plastic and not metal like my Stockli, but they are BPA free. Also, I have just noticed the Stockli is out of stock. If you are weighing up between the 2 it may be worth giving UK Juicers a call and discussing your options.
In conclusion
I love my dehydrator. I wouldn’t be without it! It is so versatile and makes eating healthily so much easier from my perspective. Everything I make in it tastes delicious. Taking out the moisture sweetens most foods, and raw food pretty much always has more flavour anyway.
I would love to know if you have a dehydrator what you like to dehydrate. Any tips are so welcome!
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