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Onions keep for a long time if stored in a cool, dark place, but they last even longer if you dehydrate them. Onions require no pre-treatment, so it’s super easy to make dried onion flakes and even homemade onion powder. You'll save money and stock the pantry with superior quality seasoning for months or years to come.
Substituting dried onions is the perfect shortcut in the kitchen if you don’t have time for peeling and chopping. You can add dried onion directly to simmering soups and stews. Onion flakes will reconstitute with the liquid and add all the onion flavour you’d get from using fresh onions.
There is no great secret to making onion powder. It’s simply dried onions that are ground into a powder. No preservatives or anti-caking agents when you make it from scratch! Onion powder dissolves and combines easily for an alternative to vegetable stock powder and is the perfect addition to DIY seasoning blends & rubs.
Drying onions releases some volatile fumes that may linger in your home for a long time, so set up the Breeze Food Dehydrator outside, in the garage, or at least near an open window to vent some of the fumes.
Dehydrated onions can be reconstituted and used like chopped onions in raw and cooked foods. To rehydrate onions, soak one part dried onions in two parts warm water for about 20 minutes. Then proceed with your recipe.
Onions
You can dehydrate any kind of onion. Look for firm onions that are heavy with a strong aroma. Estimate 1 large onion per Breeze dehydrator tray.
1. Slice off the stem and root portion of the onion then remove the papery peel.
2. You can slice in rings, half rings or choose to dice the onions. It's important to cut them consistently so they dry evenly. Cutting in strips (half rings) is the quickest and is easiest to get uniform slices. Note: Once dried, sliced onion becomes brittle enough to crumble into flakes with your fingers. We only diced the small inner rings that would fall throw the trays. Silicon mesh liners are necessary for small strips and diced onion.
3. Separate the onion segments and spread them out evenly on the dehydrator trays. Onions lose volume when dehydrated so they can touch when first put on the trays. Overlap rings and large strips in a criss-cross formation to maximise airflow.
4. Dehydrate onions at 70ºC / 150ºF for 10-12 hours. This time is variable and depends a lot on the dehydrating environment.
5. Let the onions cool in the dehydrator for an hour before you to do your final moisture check.
6. Onions are done when they snap when bending.
7. If the dried onion shows no signs of moisture they are ready to transfer to storage jars. You can leave them in strips, crush them into flakes with your hands or grind into powder.
8. To make onion powder. Add all of the dried onion to the Vibe Blender jug. Secure the lid, then blend on ‘nut’ mode for 15 seconds or until you have a fine powder.
9. To prevent moisture getting in every time you open the jar, it is best to store dried onion flakes and powder in several smaller glass jars rather than one large jar.
10. We also recommend you shake the jar at least once a day for the first week so the dried onion doesn't compact together. Shaking the jars also helps distribute any leftover moisture evenly throughout the batch and will prevent mould from growing.
11. Store dehydrated onion in a cool dark place.
12. You can also freeze or vacuum seal dehydrated onion.
If you make this, or any of our recipes, we would love to see your creations. Leave us a comment, or tag a photo using #luvelelife on Instagram.
