How to Dehydrate Cabbage (Preserve the Harvest)
Did you know you could successful dehydrate cabbage for future use? I didn’t until I researched it a while back. One of my many missions is to come up with great home-cooked meal ideas for my husband when he goes backpacking on the Appalachian Trail every year. The goal of this is to make great tasting meals that weigh virtually nothing in his backpack. Cabbage is a great vegetable full of vitamins and dehydrates to nearly nothing in weight. I had dehydrated 24 ounces of green cabbage for this post and the dehydrated portion reduced to 2 ounces. Yup, that is from 24 to 2. That is a heck of a lot of water.
Now you must be thinking, well sure that is great and all but how does it rehydrate? Well, my friends, it pops back nearly like before and tastes great too. It is easy to store all dehydrated as well. One small head of cabbage will fit perfectly in a quart size mason jar. If you use my food saver sealing trick to vacuum seal the jar, your cabbage will stay dry until you are ready to use it.
Step By Step Instructions
First, cut up your head of cabbage into large chunks. Be sure to remove large parts of the stems and the core piece. Rinse in a colander to get any dirt or debris off. Then lay the cabbage in your dehydrator or on a baking sheet. Dehydrate the cabbage at 130-135 degrees F for a few hours or until it is slightly brittle, dry look and shriveled. Turn off heat and let cabbage cool down completely. Store in a mason jar or an air tight container.
Oh, and by the way, there is no need for blanching your cabbage beforehand. This is a simple dehydrating vegetable!
Rehydrate Cabbage
Place your dehydrated cabbage in your hot water or soup base. Let it warm up and rehydrate for about 10-15 minutes or until the desired texture and softness is reached. Then eat. That’s it. Pretty easy, huh? Go ahead give it a try and let me know how yours turns out!
We would love to hear from you, so comment down below. Also check out more of our dehydrating posts like how to dehydrate ground meats, peppers, and how to store them properly.
