DEHYDRATING food is not for everyone. It helps if you have a keen interest in cooking. There are plenty of products on the market now for those who do not have the time or inclination. After wearing out a small 5-tray dehydrator we settled for an eleven-tray Sedona Express Dehydrator which is great for big quantities. Rawblend is the distributor for Sedona dehydrators and their website (rawblend.com.au) is another great e-resource for nutritious raw food ideas and innovative recipes for dehydrating.
Menu planning, mostly involving dehydrated meals is challenging. It takes some trial and error to get it right. We are always changing and improving our menus to adjust to the type of hike, availability of food drops and keeping the food weight down to 500g per day for each of us. Recipes need to be nutritious enough to sustain the high energy demands, light enough to carry, shelf-life stable and with enough variety that we won’t be gagging on it by the end. We usually carry one extra day’s food for emergencies. Along with sharing recipes with other bushwalking friends, I get my inspiration and questions answered from Glen McAllister (backpackingchef.com).
As some flavour and thickening is lost during the dehydrating process, add extra spices into standard recipes and once dehydrated, add a teaspoon of corn flour to one cup of food. For best results, limit the use of salt, sugar, or fat while cooking. Add them after rehydrating. Tinned or frozen beans can be dehydrated. Dried beans are best cooked before dehydrating. If prepared in bulk, cooked beans can be dehydrated or frozen for use.
