How to make dehydrated vegetables

We eat a lot of food every day, and a daily nutritional combination can maintain a healthy body. Fresh vegetables can supplement vitamins, but fresh vegetables are not easy to preserve. After a long time, they will wither and their nutritional value will be lost. So making it into dried vegetables is the best way. Dehydrated vegetables are very nutritious and high in fiber and nutrition. However, the method is rather complicated, so I will give you a detailed introduction below.

1. Dehydration methods include natural drying and artificial dehydration . Artificial dehydration includes hot air drying, microwave drying, puffing drying, infrared and far infrared drying, vacuum drying, etc. At present, the most commonly used methods for vegetable dehydration are hot air drying and freeze-vacuum drying. Freeze-vacuum dehydration is an advanced method for vegetable dehydration. The product can retain the original color, aroma, taste and shape of fresh vegetables, and has ideal rapid rehydration properties. The process flow and methods of hot air drying and dehydrated vegetables and freeze vacuum drying and dehydrated vegetables are introduced as follows.

2. Process flow and methods of hot air drying and dehydrating vegetables:

1. Raw material selection: Choose vegetable varieties with rich flesh. Before dehydration, strictly select the best and remove the inferior, and remove the diseased, insect-infested, rotten, and shriveled parts. It is best to have 80% maturity. Overripe or underripe ones should be picked out. Except for melons with seeds and pulp removed, other types of vegetables can be rinsed with clean water and then placed in a cool place to dry, but should not be exposed to the sun.

2. Cutting and blanching: Cut the washed raw materials into slices, strips, etc. according to product requirements. During pre-cooking, the method varies depending on the raw materials. Those that are easy to cook through should be blanched in boiling water, while those that are difficult to cook through should be boiled for a while in boiling water. Generally, the blanching time is 2 to 4 minutes. It is best not to blanch leafy vegetables.

3. Cooling and draining: Vegetables that have been pre-cooked should be cooled immediately (usually by rinsing with cold water) so that they can quickly drop to room temperature. After cooling, in order to shorten the drying time, you can use a centrifuge to spin out the water, or you can use a simple manual method to drain the water. After the water is drained, you can spread it out to cool and dry it for a while before putting it on a plate and baking it.

4. The drying temperature, time, color and moisture content should be determined according to different varieties. Drying is generally carried out in a drying room. There are roughly three types of drying rooms: the first type is a simple drying room that uses countercurrent air drying; the second type is a drying room that uses a two-layer double tunnel and a combination of forward and reverse currents; the third type is a box-type stainless steel hot air dryer with a drying temperature range of 65℃-85℃, drying at different temperatures and gradually cooling down. When using the first or second type of drying room, spread the vegetables evenly on a plate and then place them on a pre-set drying rack, keeping the room temperature at around 50°C. At the same time, turn them over constantly to speed up drying. The general drying time is about 5 hours.

5. Inspection and packaging: After the dehydrated vegetables have been inspected and found to meet the requirements of the Food Hygiene Law, they can be packaged in plastic bags, sealed, packed, and then put on the market.