Nesco Food Dehydrator manual Drying, Hints and Suggestions, Green beans, wax beans & green peas

and cook on high for about 1⁄2 of the time required to completely cook the fresh vegetable. Depending on the age and design of your microwave, you may want to stop the cooking half way through and stir the vegetables to achieve a more even blanching.

Drying

Load blanched vegetables onto drying trays, making sure that air can move freely between the pieces. For vegeta- bles, such as corn or peas, that tend to clump together, stir occasionally to allow air to reach all of the pieces.

Vegetables are dried until they are crisp, tough, or brittle. Package immediately after drying to prevent absorption of moisture from the air. See Packaging, page 11 & Storage, page 16.

Hints and Suggestions

Carrots – to save time grating, dry car- rots for salads, carrot cake or coleslaw.

Green pepper, onion, celery, chives, etc., – chop and dry in a one-day effort for use instantly all year!

Green beans, wax beans & green peas

–best when used in soups, stews or casseroles.

Onion powder – dry the whole veg- etable slice until crisp and powder in the blender or chop in blender for chopped onions.

Tomato slices – use for color and crunch when crumbled over a tossed salad. They rehydrate well in soups, stews and casseroles. Tomato leathers can be powdered and used as instant soup, sauces and paste.

All Purpose Tomato Sauce

Wash and core 15 lbs. of ripe tomatoes. Chop in blender.

Chop or grind:

4 large green peppers

3 large onions

3 large carrots

2 garlic cloves

1 jar pimentos

Mix all ingredients together, then blend in portions until smooth. Press through a strainer to remove any pulp.

In a very large kettle (12 qt. or larger) or 2 smaller kettles (6qts.) bring mix- ture to a boil over medium heat. Boil gently, uncovered for about 5 hours.

Stir often to prevent scorching. Mixture should be thick enough to mound on a spoon. Ladle onto 5 Fruit Roll sheets and dry at 140°F until crisp. Powder in blender.

Add different amounts of water to your powder mixture to make:

Tomato Paste –

1 t. powder and 1 t. water. Tomato Sauce –

l t. powder and 3 t. water. Tomato Soup –

1 t. powder, 1 t. water and 2 t. cream. Tomato Juice –

1 t. powder and 1/2 c. water or more.

Adjust amount of water to taste for soup and juice.

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