Making Your Own Dehydrated Onions

Dehydrated onions! What would you want these for and why do I want them?? Good questions. I’ll tell you why! Not only are these babies fantastic for eating straight out of the bag for snacks (my toddler loves them), but they are great for tossing into chilis, stews, soups and casseroles without having to have fresh onions on hand, or waste your time having to chop them up and cook them at the last minute.

Dehydrated, they last forever in an airtight bag or container in the pantry. No more moldy onions or tears when it comes to chopping them up for dinner. Many great recipes also call for dried onions or onion powder, which is super simple to make in your food processor once you have the dried onions.

I can take advantage of the fantastic sales at my local Sprouts when they have 3lbs of onions for a $1, and as long as my toddler doesn’t eat them all, I have dehydrated onions to last me a while for all of my recipes.

I highly suggest grabbing your own dehydrator to do this at home, or simply pop them in the oven at the lowest temperature for a couple hours, until there’s no more soft spots on your onions.

Let me show you how simple this really is…

Cut the ends off of your onions, cut them in half and remove the brown peels, and then cut them into 1/4 inch slices.

I then separate all of the individual pieces on each of my dehydrator trays. Yes, my toddler has to be involved in everything I do. He would run this house if I let him.

I close the lid on my dehydrator. I have two dehydrators. One I just have to turn on, but this one requires me to set the temperature for what I’m dehydrating, so I chose to show this one to you. I set it for fruits and veggies and plug it in.

I always dehydrate my items overnight regardless of when I got them started. They usually take 24 hours or so. When finished, I simply slide them all into a plastic storage bag to put in the pantry.

Now they are all ready for using in my last minute dinner dishes! Now it’s your turn.

Related Links:
Great Crockpot Meals You Can Make for Dinner Tonight
Fun and Easy Snacks You Can Make at Home for Cheap
Preserving Pineapple Jam with the Water Bath Canning Method

Ingredients

Bag of onions
at least one dehydrator 

Instructions

Chop the ends off of your onions and then cut each of them in half through the ends you just cut off. Remove the outside peels leaving as much onion still intact as possible.

Now slice 1/4 slices off of each half with a very sharp knife. Spread them evenly on your dehydrator trays so that they can all get sufficient air flow during the drying process.  Turn on your dehydrator, or set it to fruits and veggies and plug it in. Allow your onions to run at least overnight. Remove them only when there are no more soft spots and seal them in a plastic bag to put in the pantry.

When it’s time to use them, you can measure out about half of what your recipe calls for and crush them in your hands to “chop” them. They can be placed right in your crockpot, casseroles, and pots just like you would fresh onions.

To make your own onion powder, simply drop a handful of your dried onions into the food processor, or a clean coffee grinder, and process them down to powder. I suggest storing your onion powder in a glass pint jar in the pantry for when you need it.

Dehydrators are definitely not just for onions either. In pineapple season, we buy a whole bunch and make pineapple chips for snacks, I have been known to buy 100lbs of bananas and my husband and I go to town peeling and chopping to make banana chips that last the whole year.

Zucchini chips seasoned with garlic are amazing, and we also have a host of other dried fruits, like cherries, peaches, apples, and cranberries, that we use in my homemade granola and granola bars throughout the year. All of these options are also great for just eating alone as well.

With a little creativity, the options are endless for snacks and meals around the house.

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