Countrified Hicks: breakfast potatoes

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Dehydrating Hash Brown Potatoes (How to dehydrate potatoes)

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, then you know I am a dehydrating fool. I LOVE to dehydrate and I use my dehydrator almost every single day. Dehydrating just makes sense to me. Dehydrated foods last a LONG time; dehydrating is easy and fun; dehydrated foods take up less space than even home canning.

I usually dehydrate my potatoes into the au gratin/scalloped potato style but we love having hash browns for breakfast and use them in casseroles so I decided to start dehydrating some shredded potatoes also. Here is how I do it:

Dehydrating Hash Brown Potatoes

Scrub your potatoes and then peel each one. I have four dehydrator trays so I peeled 4 large potatoes.

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I always peel potatoes with a paring knife. I just don't like to use a potato peeler.

Now, shred your potatoes. I used a cheese grater to shred mine but you can use whatever you have on hand. Once shredded, drop the shredded potatoes into boiling water and let boil for 2 minutes. Drain quickly and run cold water over the potatoes to cool them off and stop the cooking process. Spread the potatoes out on your dehydrator trays.

Spread the shredded potatoes out evenly on your trays.

Turn on your dehydrator and let them dry. It takes about 8 hours to dehydrate them completely. I just turn the dehydrator on before I go to bed and they are ready the next morning. You really can't "over" dehydrate them so don't worry. Now just put the dehydrated hash browns into a baggie or mason jar and store them on your shelf. :-)


Ready to use.

To use these, just place the dehydrated potatoes into a bowl of really hot water (just enough water to cover the potatoes) and leave for 5-10 minutes. Use as desired. For example, put 1 cup of dehydrated potatoes into 3 cups of boiling water. Remove from the stove and wait 5 minutes. At this point, your potatoes should be ready to use. Just cook them in a greased skillet like you normally would. Or if you are cooking them in a casserole, just put them in with the rest of the ingredients.