Knowing how to prepare dehydrated soups is highly advisable, as they are excellent survival food.
How?
Dehydrated soups can feed more people and last very long after preparation. You may know that moisture is one of the chief reasons that foods spoil easily. Also, dehydrated soups are easy to make when SHTF, as they are best made from items with long shelf lives, like dehydrated vegetables or from different types of scraps. Having the knowledge & ability to cook these soups will undoubtedly be helpful in difficult times.
Also, dehydrated soups can be prepared to be more concentrated to increase their nutritional value, but this reason may not matter in SHTF scenarios when ingredients are hardly enough.
What is Meant by Dehydrated Soup?
When we say that a soup is dehydrated, all presence of water (moisture) is removed from its ingredients. The result of this moisture removal is always the powdered form of these ingredients, such as powder veggies & spices. Whenever there’s a reason to cook then, all you have to do is mix the powders on fire & that’s it.
Looking at How to Prepare Dehydrated Soups
Bacteria & other pathogens need moisture to operate (that is, spoil foods). So, by removing water from your foods, you reduce the possibility of any spoilage. Dehydration is achieved by utilizing heated airflow to drain food of moisture.
Devices Used to Dehydrate Foods
First off, let’s take a look at a few of the gadgets used to remove moisture from foods. They are:
Electric Dehydrator
This is a fan, a series of tests & a heating element that combine to hold foods to be dehydrated. All the user has to do is position the food on the racks, set the ideal temp, which you should know (it may interest you that foods have different temperatures required) & then let the device work for hours. The number of hours usually depends on the model of your dehydrator. To know the appropriate level of dryness, you may first have to read through the guide & experiment with several foods.
Kitchen Oven
Your kitchen oven is also a dehydrator as long as it’s running at a temp not too higher than 200° Fahrenheit. Any food subjected to the oven’s whims for 12–24 hours at a temperature of 200° is not getting baked, broiled, or roasted. It is getting dehydrated, it knows. However, unlike the electric dehydrator, foods in your kitchen oven have to be turned from time to time to enhance the drying quality.
Solar Dehydrator
In case there’s no electricity after a catastrophe, this would be your saving grace. You can build your solar dehydrator yourself (although it involves many technicalities) or just buy from a store. Several designs are available, ranging from an ordinary dashboard to dry foods to more elaborate systems featuring racks & windows.
How to Make Dehydrated Soup Bases
Dehydrated soup bases are the dried forms of ingredients that you use in making a dehydrated soup. Sounds fairly easy to make, but the process has to be perfectly done for maximum effects.
Ingredients to be dehydrated can be gotten from just about anywhere, whether your survival garden, local plants marketplace, wild plants, or wherever. Just so you know, your dehydrated soup (when SHTF) always depends on the available ingredients & the type of foods you like eating or choose to eat.
For example, getting plants like corn, carrots, cabbage & tomatoes is fairly easy. So if you can get them & dehydrated them now, you will have planned against when they may become difficult to obtain. Later on, dehydrated soups may be cooked with roots available in the wilderness or whatever can be scavenged.
Yes, dehydrating foods isn’t a complicated process that requires a Ph.D. to complete, but it can take a lot of time & requires you to be attentive enough.
Follow the instructions below to de-moisturize veggies for soup bases:
Always do your best to pick veggies at peak ripeness, preferably a few days after harvest. But only if available. It’s far from being mandatory.
Regardless of where your vegetables are gotten from, be sure to wash them thoroughly before anything.
While some veggies can be dehydrated in their raw form, others have to be blanched before dehydrating if you’d like them to retain a good taste. The process is white simple. All you have to do is boil the veggies for 3 minutes, after which you cool them in an ice bath. Vegetables that you may have to blanch before dehydrating include potatoes, asparagus, peas, cabbage, leafy greens, carrots, kale & green beans.
After blanching, dry the vegetables before cutting them evenly into ¼” thick pieces. Remove leaves that show discoloration or any sign of damage or disease.
Arrange the cut pieces on the rack in a manner that there is no overlapping. This will allow air to circulate freely under, over & around it.
If you’re using a machine, read through the manual as advised to determine the appropriate drying temp for that food.
Exercise patience when the process starts. It may take up to 6 hours.
Check the veggies every 2 hours. When completely dehydrated, the slices will break apart, snapping instead of flexing or breaking when bent.
After dehydration is complete, you have to handle it carefully to avoid contamination. Use only clean utensils & ensure that your hands are clean too. Containers to be used for storing foods have to be clean, absolutely dry & sterilized.
After the food is cooled off, turn them to powder. You can use a food processor if the quantity is quite sizable. If this is unavailable, a mortar & pestle are good alternatives, although your arms may be sore from pounding after it all. You may also decide to do this after some time, deciding to just store them as they are.
For long-term storage, use Mylar or vacuum-sealed bags. The powdered veggie can also be kept in a clean, sterilized & tightly sealed glass container with an oxygen absorber. Keep the container used in storing away from heat, moisture & light.
Conclusion on How to Prepare Dehydrated Soups
Now that you know how to prepare dehydrated soups, I hope you won’t have any hard time making one when it matters. I advise that you get the materials you wish to use now & try out the process. This will help to know if you get it right. Remember, preparing your dehydrated soups is easy. It is just the usual method of preparing a soup, albeit with powdered ingredients.