How to dry veggies for hiking meals?
By Kalina
When I was in primary school, my grandparents used to take me to the Rhodope Mountains (in Bulgaria) every year before school. Drying veggies was something I learnt from a young age.
Rhodope is a vast mountain range made of gentle, rolling hills steeped in myth and legend going back to before the ancient Greeks when Orpheus walked those same hills. Seen from above it reminds you of being at sea. There, for two weeks, we would hike through the pine forest, occasionally spotting a rabbit or a deer and would collect herbs, mushrooms and berries. The berries rarely survived to the drying stage but I remember the earthy, woody scent of the mushrooms, spread out in the sun near the window, filling my room at home.
Rhodope Mountains
In a lot of my recipes, I refer to dried veggies and often make suggestions about what would best go with this particular recipe. While you can get away with a lot more in hiking meals, just like when cooking at home, there are certain veggies that go better with certain recipes and others that just don’t work at all. You wouldn’t put dried capsicum in a risotto, but a chilli would really benefit from the intensity of flavour they provide. So it’s not one size fits all. Except for the meaty, umami goodness of shiitake mushrooms, they go with everything. Always.
There are plenty of hiking specific dehydrated vegetable mixes on the market. They tend to contain the usual suspects - peas, carrots and corn. There are brands out there (eg Campers Pantry and StriveFood) that do have individual dehydrated veggies packs of different veggies. These will set you back about $7.95 for a 25g pack or $47 for a 6 pack. When you think about the rest of your ingredients, the price of that camping meal can really add up. In saying that, there is a lot to be said for the convenience they can provide.
For that amount, you can get yourself an (inexpensive) dehydrator, or even use your oven, which in the long run will save you cash and give you flexibility as well as encouraging your creativity. The process could not be simpler. You need a low temperature. Something between 50C and 60C would work perfectly. The amount of time it takes depends on the item you are drying, the size of the pieces and the temperature. As an example, diced carrots take about 6-8hours, while apple slices and mango take about 12. If you are lucky enough to have somewhere very dry and warm, you can, like my grandparents did, use the sun directly, but the climate here rarely allows for this. Plus it would take a lot longer than 12 hours.
I mostly dehydrate my own fresh fruit, veggies and other ingredients using a dehydrator. There are a few reasons why I love doing this.
They will also look very pretty when you stack them on your shelf at home
Firstly, you reduce the carbon footprint of your meal. Buying fresh seasonal fruit and veggies from your local supermarket or even straight from the farmer if there is a farmer’s market near you, dehydrating it at home and storing it in an airtight jar would have a much smaller carbon footprint than ready-made, packaged ones you buy from the camping stores. And this is not including any additional postage related carbon cost if you buy it online.
I used the recent flood of strawberries onto the market to fill up a few jars and am about to do the same with mangos. Do your friends have any fruit trees and they don't know what to do with the harvest? Lend them your dehydrator! A friend gave me a jar of dehydrated oranges and blood oranges in return for mine. I don't think she wants to see another orange for a very long time. The awesome thing about dehydrated fruit is that it has so many uses beyond the hiking meal. They can be used for baking, cocktails or a healthy sweet pick-me-up when 3 pm hits. Just make sure you keep them out of reach of tiny hands. They have been known to demolish 4 mangos and 3 bananas in a single sitting!
Secondly, you reduce packaging and waste. You can dehydrate exactly what you need, in the quantities you need. I always feel bad when I open one plastic bag to decant what I need from it into another plastic bag before a camping trip. Being able to cut out the middle-man reduces significantly the amount of plastic packaging.
Thirdly, it’s cheaper.
There are a couple of exceptions for a few items which are easily available at the local supermarket (without the “hiking” price tag). Dried peas are one of these items. They are usually found in the tinned veggies section of the supermarket. It’s difficult to find fresh peas (good on you if you grow them yourself!) and there is little point, especially considering the points above, to dehydrate frozen peas. Shiitake mushrooms (and other more exotic varieties) are the other. Dried shiitakes are readily available in the supermarket, inexpensive and one pack will be enough for 5-8 meals.
A final point on cooking before dehydration. Keeping in mind that most veggies can be eaten raw, the basic rule is if it needs to be cooked beyond a simple blanching when you are cooking at home, then it needs to be cooked before dehydrating it. When you cook at the campsite you are only re-hydrating which will serve to gently blanch your veggies. You are likely to have limited fuel and water. Items such as corn, potatoes, eggplant, should be cooked first.
So try something new and see where it takes you.