Rehydrating Dehydrated Food

When rehydrating dehydrated food, in the images below, you can see the water being absorbed and just how far up the jar the vegetables in the water have risen!

Vegetables Before Rehydrating

Vegetables After Rehydrating

These dehydrated vegetables are from previously frozen bags of crinkle-cut carrots, peas, and green beans. There are also some Ore-Ida Hash Brown potatoes in there—along with dehydrated fresh onion, celery, and elephant garlic!

Note: You now have the humble/great beginnings of a very tasty Vegetable Soup.

That's the magic of rehydrating food! It's fun to watch it plump back up!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Should I Use Hot or Cold Water?

I use hot (boiling) water for rehydrating food when I'm making a recipe that calls for hot 'stock' because my bouillon dissolves better in just-boiled water—but if you know it'll be sitting around a while before you get to use it, then cold (clean) water works fine.

Carrots Before Rehydrating

Carrots After Rehydrating

It takes about an hour for small veggies to plump back up in the water; the larger veggies take longer, about two hours.

Also, note that you may want to cook your rehydrated veggies a little longer than usual... it helps make the vegetables taste like whole vegetables again.

Water Quality Counts when Rehydrating Dehydrated Food

Remember, the quality of the water you use while rehydrating dehydrated food IS important, as the water is absorbed by the foods that you are going to eat rehydrated again—so don't skimp here by using nasty water!

By nasty, you know what I mean! If you wouldn't drink it, don't use it! Make sure it's good, clean, drinking water.

If you're making a soup where the vegetables aren't sautéed in olive oil at the start of the recipe, then go ahead and add them to the water (or soup stock or soup base according to the recipe) in their dehydrated form!

They plump right up in the water/stock base if you let them sit and cook long enough! Shredded dehydrated cabbage is another vegetable that is great tossed in soup while you're making the soup in the pan!

What About Nutrients?

Melba, a good friend of mine, asked me if dehydrated foods lose their nutritional value and how do they really taste when rehydrated.

Excellent questions Melba! I assured her they keep much of their nutritional value because all that's been taken out is their water content during the dehydration process... (but like ALL fruits and vegetables, when overcooked, they WILL lose nutrients!)

What About the Taste?

I admit my first effort at rehydrating carrots yielded somewhat spongy carrots, but when I cooked them a little longer, they were fine. For the record, they were whole baby carrots and that might have had something to do with the sponginess (being whole and not sliced).

My sliced carrots rehydrated perfectly! All the other vegetables came back to life when added to water and it's really quite amazing to see! My favorites are peas and celery! The grated carrots in the above photos were for Deb's Delectable Carrot Cake—check it out, it's delectable, alright!

Take a look at Preparedness Advice—they have a good chart on how much water to use when rehydrating your dehydrated foods.

What's a "Normal Portion Size?"

Audrey wrote in to ask, "Susan, what's a normal portion size of dehydrated carrots?"

Great question Audrey! First, thanks for taking the time to write in.

For a personal portion of carrots - using dehydrated carrots - I'd say a "couple of handfuls" would be enough. Carrots shrink down to at least half their normal size, so just look at a couple of handfuls (assuming you don't have massive hands, LOL) and imagine those handfuls to be double that when they're rehydrated.

I hope this helps, and thanks for asking!

(and I bet you all said, "Lori's Fasta Pasta Prep" like I said to myself!)

Thanks for taking the time to read rehydrating dehydrated food. If you have any questions, write to me here!

Don't forget to get your free "Six Simple Steps" eBook where I share how to dehydrate food safely!