How to Dehydrate Zucchini

I know, right? Why would anyone want to know how to dehydrate zucchini. But seriously, what if the world comes to an end? At least you’ll have something to bring to the stone soup party. 😉

I love gardening, and I love preserving food {canning, freezing, dehydrating} so when I sat down to plan our garden for this year, I started with the idea of growing as many things as possible.

Partly because I knew we loved eating fresh vegetables right out of the garden and partly because I knew that if we had an abundance of vegetables, we’d be able to can, freeze or dehydrate them for use during the long winter months.

Being able to grab a jar of home canned salsa or jam from the pantry shelf is pretty awesome, but having all the vegetables you need on hand during a snowstorm or a busy weeknight is pretty nice too.

And that’s where dehydrating zucchini comes into play. 

Now I know dehydrating zucchini might seem a little extreme, like the only way you’d ever consider going to the trouble of dehydrating zucchini is if there was an impending zombie apocalypse and you were desperately looking around for something… ANYTHING to scavenge before locking yourself up in the house before the invasion. 

But then days went by and while you could hear the zombies rustling around in the woods, you couldn’t yet see them and well, there was all this zucchini sitting on your countertop and you needed to do something with all of it, and quickly.

Or, it could just be that you’re like me and really don’t like to see food go to waste and you know that there is a real value in dehydrated vegetables {especially if you’re someone who doesn’t like to leave the house much during the holiday season/winter months}.

And if that’s the case, well then it’s time to dust off your food dehydrator and get a move on because zucchini season is here! If you don’t start dehydrating now, you’ll be having to trek out to the stores come winter and pay a pretty penny for it.

And trust me, nobody wants to do that. 😉

If you’ve never dehydrated zucchini before, it couldn’t be easier. Here’s how I do it:

Wash zucchini. Cut off both ends of the zucchini. Slice zucchini into 1/8th inch slices {if your zucchinis are huge cut them into quarters first and scoop out the mushy/seedy centers and toss that part onto your compost pile}.

Place zucchini slices {or quarters} onto dehydrator trays. Set your dehydrator to 135 degrees and dehydrate for about 6 hours. {I own a Cosori Food Dehydrator.}

At that point, check to see if your zucchini is nice and dry {not quite potato chip dry but close}. Every food dehydrator is a little different, so you may need to adjust your dehydrating time accordingly. 

Once your zucchini has been totally dehydrated, place the zucchini in an airtight container along with a food safe desiccant packet and store in a cool dry place.

Look at all that zucchini!

So far this year I’ve dehydrated:

• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Green Onions 
• Chives
• Celery
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Tomatoes

Yee-Haw! I don’t know about you, but I’m already looking forward to this winter, and all the soups and other homemade meals we’ll be able to enjoy without having to run to the store for vegetables.

Save yourself some money! Grow it and preserve it while you can. Sweater weather will be here before you know it. 

Keep calm and preserve on,

~Mavis

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can always freeze your extra zuchhini too! Find my How to Freeze Zucchini Tutorial HERE.