Dehydrating Potatoes – Get Stunning Results With One Simple Trick

Why should we talk about dehydrating potatoes? Well for one thing I’m from Idaho. We are potato people. Which reminds me of a short story involving my family and, well, potatoes.

There we were sitting in a local diner in Idaho that specialized in burgers & fries. We are placing our order for, yes, burgers & fries, when the waiter informs us . . .

THEY HAVE NO POTATOES!

What? I thought we were in Idaho! My daughter leans in and suggests they might run across the road and grab some out of the field. Sigh that didn’t go over well.

Back to Why Dehydrating Potatoes

One can store potatoes in straw or sand or even wood shavings in a cool, dry, dark place. However, eventually, those potatoes are going to start growing. That tends to end up a big mess. To avoid the big mess, I like to dehydrate potatoes for long lasting yummy goodness. They do rehydrate quickly so you can do a lot with them. Of course one can can potatoes too, but that is a story for a different day.

The One Big Secret For Dehydrating Potatoes

The MUST BE PAR BOILED FIRST. The whole process goes like this. First you need to peel your potatoes (unless you want skins, in that case just wash them good) then thinly prepare them in the manner you wish them to be. I like slices, but shredding works too. Keep them in lightly salted water while you work.

Next you need to submerge the potatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds or so. If you miss this step you will end up with little black hockey pucks that work better out on the street than in anything you might want to eat. Just saying, cause we all know, I’ve done that.

Let The Drying Begin

Now that your potatoes are all nice and par boiled lay them out on the dehydrator trays. Let them hang out until they are dry and there is no mushiness about them at all. Read your dehydrator instructions to get the best results. As for me, my dehydrator is old, it has only one setting and I have to roll the trays around to get even heating.

Here are some good dehydrators for dehydrating potatoes.

Cooking With Dehydrated Potatoes

You can soak them in boiling water for a few minutes and they will then reconstitute. After that you can fry them or make scalloped potatoes (we call them funeral potatoes around here) or even add them to soups (don’t re hydrate them in this case). They are very handy if you over salt something too. Throw a couple chips in and as they re hydrate they will soak up the salt.

Go forth and dry your harvest.