Dehydrated Spicy Green Beans

While fermentation is my favorite preservation method as far as taste goes, I do love dehydrating as well.   I love my pickles but I only have so much room in my fridge.  I have 1 fridge for regular food, one giant fridge for ferments and produce and I’m on the look out for a third fridge to hold my milk.  Keeping 4 growing boys (and me and hubs) full of fresh milk, yogurt, kefir and cheese takes a lot of milk.  A lot of milk.

Dehydrating takes less energy than freezing and ferments (unless you have a root cellar that stays at 45-55F), retains much more nutrients than canning, and in my opinion it’s much easier than canning as well and takes up less room.  I’ve had my trusty Excalibur running all week preserving squash and green beans.  Once the harvest starts to come it, my baby runs most days out of the week.

While most of my dehydrated foods are intended to be used in recipes either rehydrated or not, these beans are great as they are as a tasty snack.  I’m hoping to make up a bunch more of these to keep as a snack for car rides.

Dehydrated Spicy Green Beans

• 1 lb of green beans
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp spicy salt mix (I use Slap Ya Mama)

Bring a saucepan full of water to a boil.  Add green beans and blanch for about 3 mins.
Remove from stove and plunge beans into cold water to stop them from cooking.
Dry beans off and toss together with olive oil and spicy salt.
Place beans on the drying trays in one layer and set dehydrator to it’s recommended temp.  I dehydrated mine at 125F.  The lower the temp, the more nutrients and enzymes are preserved.
Store in an airtight jar or baggies.  I love using my food saver with mason jar attachment to keep these fresh through the year.

  Thanks for recipe: http://www.picklemetoo.com/