How To Dehydrate Squash – take one

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How To Dehydrate Squash - take one recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen

My pattypans went crazy a couple weeks ago and I decided to try dehydrating them. I’d read that it could be done, so I dove in without reading any further.

Same dehydrating process as with most things:

How To Dehydrate Squash - take one recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen

I used a mandoline slicer to make my life simpler. After slicing up a couple baskets of pattypans, crooknecks and Italian zucchinis, I spread the slices out on the dehydrating trays.

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How To Dehydrate Squash - take one recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen

Once they were done, I tossed them into jars and looked around for an easy way to use them. I didn’t want to go crazy dehydrating a million squash before making sure they would be edible once I re-hydrated them.

How To Dehydrate Squash - take one recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen

I decided to make a simple pasta dish with them. So, I poured them into the bottom of a pyrex dish.

How To Dehydrate Squash - take one recipe by Barefeet In The Kitchen

Poured hot marinara sauce over them, cooked some noodles (letting the squash soak in the marinara sauce during that time) and then layered the penne over the squash and marinara and then added more marinara and some Monterey Jack cheese. Baked that at 350 until it was warm and bubbling.

The above picture is there to illustrate that not all food photos taste the way they appear. I was excited to try my first re-hydrated food creation. I took a big bite and it tasted bizarre. The squash was way too chewy and it didn’t taste fully cooked. I was so disappointed.

After I did a little research (by way of my friend Google and a phone call with my awesome brother), I found out that foods really need to be re-hydrated in water. It basically replaces what was removed from them in the dehydrating process. By just placing the dry squash in the marinara sauce, it wasn’t able to absorb enough moisture to fully rehydrate.

Oh well, I said I’d share what I discovered along the way, so I’m calling this “take one” of squash. Because I will definitely be trying this again, with properly re-hydrated squash!

I tried bell peppers as well, check out how that went here.

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Mary Younkin

Mary Younkin

Hi, I’m Mary. I’m the author, cook, photographer, and travel lover behind the scenes here at Barefeet In The Kitchen. I'm also the author of three cookbooks dedicated to making cooking from scratch as simple as possible.

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  1. The Slow Roasted Italian says

    Wow, I certainly would have thought that the sauce was enough to rehydrate them too, but that makes a lot of sense. The dish does look very appetizing too. Can't wait to see take 2. So how long should you soak them in water before cooking them?

  2. Barefeet In The Kitchen says

    I think that 20-30 minutes would more than do it. I'll let you know once I've played with it again. I re-hydrated some green beans and corn this weekend, using boiling water and it only took about 15 minutes.

  3. Serenity says

    Yeah we have had similar turn outs. We normally soak ours in water for about 30 mins now or until they have grown back to normal size. I tried to do chicken stock once and they were still very chewy after cooking for over an hour. We think its the salt in the sauces or stock that blocks absorbtion just like in beans.

    The dish looks amazing though 🙂