March 1, 2024

This is my latest food adventure – making my own powdered vegetables!

I saw someone post about this and thought, what a great way to get more nutritious vegetables into my diet! I’m pescatarian, so I eat a lot of veggies anyway, but there are some that I don’t get enough of or simply don’t like.

You can buy prepackaged greens powders and vegetable powders, but I love making my own because I know what’s in it and it’s all natural. The same goes for my homemade vegetable broth that I always have in the freezer.

If you’re a mom or dad with picky eaters, or you’re caring for elderly parents, or you just don’t like vegetables that much yourself, this is an easy way to sneak them in to other foods.

What you see above is my first batch. Believe it or not, this little jar of powder represents a full bundle of kale, a bag of carrots, and about eight Brussels sprouts that I had in the freezer. Any vegetables will work, as long as they’re in small enough pieces to dehydrate properly.

Why Powdered Vegetables?

According to WebMD, greens powders are not a substitute for a well-balanced diet, but they can be a great way to supplement a healthy diet with a boost of extra vitamins and antioxidants.

The nutrients in greens powders can contribute to potential health benefits, including:

• Healthy Blood Pressure
• Immune System Support
• Chronic Disease Prevention
• Eye and Cognitive Health

You can read all about it over on the WebMD website.

Here’s how I did it:

Step One

First, I rinsed all of my vegetables in a colander, then dried as much as possible with clean tea towels (lay them out on one towel, top with a second towel and press out the moisture).

Step Two

Next, I cut the curly kale leaves off of the center rib, then cut them into smaller pieces about two inches around. Not too small, or they’ll fall through the dehydrator trays.

I had the crinkle-cut carrots, so I decided to dehydrate them as they were. PSA: Don’t do that! They took forever to dehydrate all the way because they were too thick. Next time, I’ll buy whole carrots and slice down with my mandoline on the thinnest setting. But live and learn, right?

My sprouts were pretty tiny, so I just halved them once they were thawed out.

Step Three

Now that I had a pile of nicely sliced veggies, it was time to dehydrate. I have a small Commercial Chef dehydrator that I love, and it was very reasonably priced! It has five trays and holds enough for me. I make sweet potato chips often, and this dehydrator holds a single sweet potato sliced very thin perfectly.

Of course, you can also dehydrate in the oven if you don’t have a dehydrator. Just make sure it’s not hot enough to cook your vegetables. You just want them dried completely out.

I set my dehydrator at 140 degrees, and I reshuffle the trays about once an hour. The kale got crispy pretty quick, after just a few hours. I remove the leaves as they’re done. The sprouts took longer, and the carrots, as I said, took a long time. Thinner slices needed!

Step Four

As the veggies were ready, I removed them and put them in a bowl. Make sure they are crispy all over and don’t bend. If they bend, there’s still moisture in there and they will mold. You don’t want that!

Step Five

Once they were all done, here comes the fun part! I dumped them all into my trusty Magic Bullet Blender and turned them into powder in seconds!

Now I have a shaker of magical vegetables that I can sprinkle into any recipe – soups, casseroles, omelets, smoothies, you name it – for an extra nutritional boost!

You can even sneak a little into brownies or cakes – your kids will never know! 😉

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