i’m up to my eyeballs right now with zucchinis and cucumbers on top of everything else. i was lamenting to a good friend about this recently and she suggested drying them. what?! you can do that?! a big DUH! moment for me. of course they can be dried! just like everything else i dry.
and it gets better. for the zucchinis, she suggested seasoning them. she had read about the idea on another blog and spoke of seasoning salt and cinnamon and sugar blends. well, i just had to try this for myself!
so, i set to work and began slicing. the cukes dried fairly quickly and are alright dried. i’m not a fan of cucumbers to begin with so i’m a poor judge on the taste. i think ground up and sprinkled in yogurt, they will make a yummy dip for winter time.
for the zucchini, i settled on using one of my meat seasonings by szeged. i chose the rib rub because it was sweet and spicy. the dried zucchini chips were quite delicious! for the next round, i’m going to attempt sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on them for a dessert chip. perhaps whip up a batch of cream cheese dip to go with them by adding a bit of honey and chopped up peppermint or lemon balm to some softened cream cheese. a snack sure to please even the pickiest in my family!
as for dehydrating, it doesn’t get much easier. slice the zucchini in 1/4″ rounds, sprinkle liberally with your seasoning of choice and place on dehydrator trays. about 24 hours later, they are dry and ready to be stored. be sure to put them in an airtight container immediately or they will start absorbing moisture and soften which will lead to molding.
i’m thinking this is going to make a terrific homemade gift for the holidays this year. a quart jar nicely labeled and perhaps a recipe for a nicely paired dip. another tasty way to share my fruits of labor.
I have been dipping my zuke chips in a soy/maple marinade and sprinkling with garlic salt. Next I’m going to do the same dip with maple sugar sprinkles. I also love kettle corn with that salty/sweet flavor so this should be really good!
that sounds yummy!
Tansy..
We’ve had a great harvest of zukes and yellow summers this year. I love them dried without seasoning (though we do it both ways) They are very good really. The yellows get pretty sweet and make good dipping “chips”—though they aren’t quite as crunchy. I also fine grind both types for sprinkling into winter soups…to kind of add to the base flavor you know?
Anyway…I too had that “duh” moment about drying them at one point. I have to admit…I never thought of cukes, and like you they aren’t really my favorite (or even close). The idea of ground up and added to yogurt or some other thing like that is very good idea though. Maybe ….not sure if I want to spend the time with the cukes. I even prefer green tomatoes for my pickles versus cukes.
Have a great day!
I had that “duh” moment with green beans, facing yet another stack that needed to be blanched for freezing…when it was so bloody hot I couldn’t bear to turn on the stove.
We’ll see how they actually work, since the Ball Book of Preserving assures me I should have blanched them first, but I think they’ll be fine tossed into the Inevitable Weekly Winter Soup.
i was thinking of trying green beans…no one will eat them here if they are canned and i never have enough freezer room for them.
My own ‘duh’ question here. I’m getting conflicting answers on how ‘dry’ to let them get. One book says leathery, another says brittle. Where do you fall on this issue?
thanks!
i like them crunchy so i go brittle. i think it’s a matter of preference.
I dry everything at least once, to see what might be added to the list. We are doing quite a lot of tomatoes, zukes, beans, and apples, and some eggplants, and a wide variety of greens as well as herbs.
+1 to the seasoning, I have a lot of salted zuke chips now with a little bit of zing provided by paprika.
I’m not as fond of the cukes, but the ducks and chickens certainly are. They love zukes too. I have to fight for my share.
“Leathery” can be best if you can keep it from falling below the threshold (different for each veg?) where things can mold. I have had some bad luck with leathery tomatoes.
So I often go to “brittle” for safety. Leaves, for example, of turnips, beets, collards, bok choi, kale, and the like, can be dehydrated in a day — at most two — in our home-built solar dryer, and at the end of that time, the stems are still leathery, but the rest is crackly/crumbly. So we strip the broad part of the leaf off the stems, which then go to the compost, and crumble all that up for the storage jars — the result looks like basil flakes and can be used in bread, soups, shaken over salads, sandwich makings, added to spreads and sauces, ad infinitum.
our perennial drying favorites are tomatoes, onions and apples. zukes will probably be added to that list now!
Ack, why didn’t I think of dehydrating the zucchini? Good idea. I always have a problem when dehyrating veg, though – namely, it turns hard and brittle (not in a good way). It’s like chomping through stone, even when they are rehydrated. Do you know what’s going wrong? Is it maybe the thickness of the slices? Help is much appreciated…
mangochild…
I think some things just are more “leathery” than others when dried: like tomato skins, apple skins or chilis. Zukes however…even when dried to brittle are still ummm….softer. They easily soften even more in the mouth when eaten. I cut mine a bit thinner than Tansy does but not by much…personal choice though I think.
Try them I think you will like them. Some things are better dried than others. Of course everyone has their preferences. I don’t care for tomatoes or apples dried as much as I do chiles and zukes dried. I think zukes dried are better than any other storage way –even zucchini bread. Again though.. just my personal opinion đŸ˜€
I’ve done zukes but never cukes…I have also never heard of sweetening them. Great tips, I can’t wait to try it! Kim
i hope you like them!
Hi Kristine,
Can you tell us what a “dehydrator tray” is?
Thanks
my particular dehydrator is a vertical column of trays that stack on each other with the drying element in the bottom. here’s a picture of what it looks like:
http://www.getitonus.com/pd%3Bjsessionid=D83FFEB17E1B6739413D52123FECD8E9.wwx01-2ws15.web?JSESSIONID=D83FFEB17E1B6739413D52123FECD8E9.wwx01-2ws15.web&catid=155&promoid=12369
i use electric because here in the middle of the usa, it’s usually hot and humid and doesn’t do well for drying foods.
what kind of units do you all use over there? it’s always interesting to me to see the different ways of doing things between continents. đŸ™‚