Dehydrating soups?

[Denim Deb]

I almost got stuck out at the farm today-DS has DH's car, so DH has my truck which means I was on the bike. And, not too happy about it cuz it was kind of cold and damp feeling, then it started to rain. (Thought DH was going to have to pick me up on his way home from work and drop me off in the morning.) I wouldn't have minded it too much-except for one big problem. Other than some chocolate bars and some graham crackers, I have no food at the farm. I'm even out of pancake mix!

I'm out of all the soups I made earlier in the year, and am needing to make more. And, while it was nice to have them in the freezer, it was also a bit of a pain. I'd have to thaw them out B4 I could heat them up.

I've thought about canning them, and while that would work for soups at home, it doesn't really help for out at the farm. I don't have room to store a bunch of jars of soup. That's when I got to wondering about dehydrating soups. The only things I've dehydrated are fruits and meat for jerky. I've never really thought about dehydrating other stuff until today.

So, does anyone dehydrate soups? If so, what varieties? Do you need to do anything special in order to dehydrate it or store it? Thanks.

 

[moolie]

Check out camping recipe books from your local library. I've got a few recipes that I've saved over the years for dehydrated convenience foods for camping, and I'm sure I've seen soup recipes (although they may depend on powdered soup stock plus home-dehydrated ingredients).

 

[SSDreamin]

dehydrate2store.com has several soup recipes. She dehydrates things separately, then adds different things to water in a crock pot. I have canned soup, but I like the idea of dehydrating things separately- it gives me more flexibility and I don't have those neat teflon mats for my dehydrator, so I'd have a big mess.
DH has asked me to make up some 'soup in a bag' (lrg multi serving)/ single serve's for him for this years hunting season. That might work well for you! We save Capri Sun pouches, cut them off just below the straw hole (did I see this here or somewhere else? Can't remember), then fill them with a single serving of whatever - soup, veggies, meat (DH loves taco rocks - dehydrated, seasoned hamburger, or in our case venison). Then, I either seal them up with the vacuum sealer, or the hair flattener thing we got for $10 at WM. I mark what's in each with black marker on the back side. When he wants one, he cuts the top off, adds hot water and lets it sit a bit. Presto! Hot single serve meal! MUCH cheaper than the single serve stuff they sell at the store, even if you include the Capri Sun!

 

[Denim Deb]

Good idea, but I don't drink Capri Sun.

 

[ORChick]

This site has some interesting ideas for dehydrating food:

http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html

 

[mlynd]

i like this idea I'll have to start looking for recipes

 

[Hinotori]

I'm going to try the soups now. I have the fruit leather sheets for my dehydrator and the hubby liked the sound of this.

I think it's a great idea.

 

[moolie]

This site has some interesting ideas for dehydrating food:

http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html

Great link, thanks for that ORChick--I'm looking through it now for new ideas for my Girl Guide (same as Girl Scouts) tent camp in May