Dehydrating potatoes is fun and easy! If you let the dehydrator run all night you wake up to the smell of potatoes in the morning. My husband says it reminds him of hash-browns cooking… I still prefer waking up to the smell of bread baking but the smell of dehydrating potatoes comes in a close second. The practical side of dehydrating potatoes is that you can almost make a meal out of potatoes so to have them on hand to cook up at a moments notice is super convenient. Dehydrated potatoes also make a great addition to your food storage as they will last for years if stored properly. We usually buy the huge bag of potatoes from our local big box store, eat half and dehydrate the other half.
How to Dehydrate Potatoes Step by Step:
Wash your potatoes. A lot of people think that if you’re going to peel the potatoes then you don’t need to wash them. However, if you don’t wash your potatoes dirt and germs can transfer from the peeler to the peeled potatoes.
Peel your potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into quarters.
They should look similar to this.
Boil your potatoes for about 5-8 minutes depending on how many potatoes you have and the size of your pot. The more potatoes the longer you should cook them. You want them “al dente”. That’s just soft enough for a fork or a skewer to go through. Let the potatoes cool in the fridge. I usually leave mine overnight.
Use your food processor to cut the potatoes into shreds. You use the same blade you would use to shred cheese. This will made the potatoes looked like uncooked hash-browns. At this point you can cut the potatoes with a food slicer or mandoline into slices if you like. They would be good dehydrated this way for potatoes au gratin. Since this is not a dish I feed my family often I usually choose to use fresh potatoes when making it. You can fit a lot more shredded potatoes in the dehydrator than you can sliced potatoes and shredded potatoes can be used for hash-browns, soups, casseroles, stews and much more.
Here’s a shot of the potatoes still in the food processor.
You can see how they’re cut better in this photo.
Load up your trays. Here I have my non-stick dehydrator sheets on my trays. These sheets come in handy for small pieces that might fall through the trays. You can find them here on Amazon. I especially like to use them with potatoes since they are non-stick. It keeps the starch from getting onto the plastic mesh part of the trays, much easier to clean!
Load up your dehydrator. Here you can see I’m using my Excalibur.
Set the temperature and you’re ready to let them dehydrate overnight.
Here is a close-up of what the potatoes look like dehydrated.
OK, so you might have guessed the secret to getting the onion smell out of your dehydrator after you’ve dehydrated a load of onions. That’s right! Just dehydrate a load of potatoes. The first time I dehydrated onions I was really worried because I washed all the trays, sprayed them with vinegar and even tried to air out the dehydrator for a bit. It still smelled like onions. I’m sure the smell would dissipate over time, but I use my dehydrator weekly if not daily. Drying fruit in a dehydrator that reeked of onions was something I didn’t wanted to try. Fruit is just too expensive for an experiment like that. I discovered that if I just plan to dehydrate potatoes right after onions the smell is completely gone! It’s like magic. I’m not worried at all if my potatoes pick up a hint of onions (they never have but if they did I’m fine with that). I’d much rather have a hint of onion in my potatoes than my fruit! There you have it! I told you it was worth waiting for!
