Freeze Dried Onions
Freeze-dried onions are a must-have pantry staple to keep in the kitchen. Freeze-drying onions is incredibly easy and ensures you’ll always have a supply of onions on hand for adding to soups, stews, savory dinners and more!
Servings: 30 cups ber medium freeze dryer batch
Cost: $10
Ingredients
- 15 lbs Onions Fresh or Frozen, for a medium freeze dryer batch
Instructions
- Set your freeze dryer to pre-chill for 30 minutes.
- Next, slice onions into your desired shape. Onions can be chopped, diced or sliced into thin strings. Try to keep slices uniform in size.
- Arrange onion pieces on freeze-drying trays in an even layer. Trays can be lined with parchment paper or silicone liners first if desired.
- When the freeze dryer is pre-chilled, slide the trays inside and close the door.
- Press “continue” to set the machine to run for a full freeze-drying cycle. Drying times will vary based on the thickness of slices, moisture content and how heavily trays are packed. On average, freeze-drying a full batch of onions usually takes somewhere between 40 to 50 hours.
- When the cycle has finished, pull out the trays and check for dryness. Adequately dry onions will be firm, crispy and light. If onions are not fully dry, you will need to lengthen the drying time by a few additional hours.
- Once onions are fully freeze-dried, remove the trays and set the machine to defrost.
- While your freeze dryer is defrosting, go ahead and pack away freeze-dried onions for storage.
- For short-term storage, mason jars with snug-fitting lids will work very well. For long-term storage, onions should be sealed in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
Notes
Pre-Freezing
To shorten the freeze-drying time, you can pre-freeze onions before processing them in the freeze dryer. Once sliced, onions can be pre-frozen directly on freeze-drying trays or in freezer bags.Rehydration
To rehydrate onions, place some in a dish and cover with water. Let the veggies rehydrate for 10 to 20 minutes, drain off any unabsorbed liquid, and then proceed with your recipe.Yield
Total yield depends on the size of your freeze dryer. A medium-sized freeze dryer can hold 2 to 3 pounds of diced onions per tray, or 10 to 15 pounds total. One pound of diced onions is about 2 1/2 to 3 cups, and the onions stay the same size after freeze-drying (but weigh less, obviously).Nutrition
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 91kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 0.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.04g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.03g | Sodium: 9mg | Potassium: 331mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 17mg | Calcium: 52mg | Iron: 0.5mg