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#131476 - 03/29/10 08:23 PM Dehydrating to beat food allergies
Jill Offline
newbie

Registered: 03/29/10
Posts: 2
Loc: NE PA, USA
OK, with a hubby who can't do onion of any sort and a daughter who can't do gluten, corn, dairy or egg I cook and bake literally everything from scratch.

What are my chances of being able to dehydrate meals like beef stew or chicken soup, etc? I'm thinking I will separate the broth from the "stuff" in the soup and dry it separately. Has anyone got any experience with this or am I on my own with experimenting? Or do we just stay home lol

Thanks for any help!!


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#131486 - 03/29/10 09:32 PM Re: Dehydrating to beat food allergies [Re: Jill]
OregonMouse Online   content
member

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Try experimenting with very small batches. Dehydrate just enough for a single serving for one and then rehydrate at home for taste-testing. There's no reason at all to stay home as long as you're willing to do the cooking and dehydrating!

Rather than dehydrate soups from scratch, I'd use the liquid to cook gluten free grains (quinoa? rice?) and add those to the solid parts of the soup for dehydrating. This makes a more filling meal than just soup. These grains have to be cooked and dehydrated anyway unless you really like the tasteless commercial instant rice. They taste a lot better when cooked in broth!

Cooked meat should be cut into tiny, tiny pieces for quicker dehydrating and rehydrating. Large chunks take longer to dry and may end up at jerky consistency.

Some veggies are a problem. I once dehydrated a favorite chicken casserole dish with peas. Unfortunately, after boiling for 20 minutes (with the rest of the dish turned to a gluey mush), the peas were still the consistency of buckshot! (I didn't follow my own directions in the first paragraph above!) I now use freeze-dried veggies from Just Tomatoes, adding them to the already-dehydrated meal when packaging at home. These have no additives so should be fine for your family.

Sarbar's excellent website has lots of ideas and recipes that can be adapted for your needs.


Edited by OregonMouse (03/30/10 12:29 AM)
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey

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#131503 - 03/30/10 08:24 AM Re: Dehydrating to beat food allergies [Re: OregonMouse]
Jill Offline
newbie

Registered: 03/29/10
Posts: 2
Loc: NE PA, USA
Thanks for the advice, I'm going to start experimenting and see what happens. Food allergies are a giant pain sometimes, and having a best friend who hiked the AT and is itching to take my 5 yr old out camping is urging me on.

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#131545 - 03/30/10 05:58 PM Re: Dehydrating to beat food allergies [Re: Jill]
OregonMouse Online   content
member

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6799
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
Another source. This woman is working on a book of entirely vegetarian and gluten-free reciples. It isn't due for publication until next year, but I'll bet if you contact her she would share some gluten-free recipes!

EDIT: Just found these recipes for nice thick soups, which you'd of course have to adapt. You'd need to eliminate onion and maybe garlic, while I'd need to eliminate the hot stuff, which I can't digest. I'd want to beef these up with some kind of grain (gluten-free in your case), too.


Edited by OregonMouse (03/30/10 06:49 PM)
_________________________
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey

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