Dehydrate food using a microwave oven. How to dehydrate food without a food dehydrator. How to use a microwave oven to dehydrate food. I will say, I tried it out and with a little experimentation, it worked. Here’s how…
I swear, I have so much faith in my mom when it comes to tasks in the kitchen. I was looking to dehydrate some carrot slices. Our guinea pig loves the little carrot bits that come in her food and is always ready to grab them first thing when I bring her a fresh food bowl. But, the amount of carrot bits that come in her food mix is so low. So, I recalled that my mom had a food dehydrator back when I was a kid. I called her up to see if I could borrow it to make some snacks for the pig. She said she gave it away years ago, but heard you can get the same results with a microwave and the oven at low temps.
So, all this time I was waiting for a special dehydrator when I could have been using the common day microwave oven.
I took one fat carrot and sliced it into about 1/8 inch slices. I laid the slices out on wax paper and placed it into the microwave. I would cook and check several times. Overall, I cooked it for about 10 minutes at power level 5 and then another 10 at power level 1. After that, I wanted to make them extra crisp (just like the pig likes them) so I threw them on a cookie sheet and baked them in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Then I let them sit in the oven after turning it off until it cooled. Different foods of varying thickness and size would need different cook times.
The end result was perfect and our guinea pig is a huge fan. I might even try this method with other fruits and veggies. Maybe they’d make for a great snack for the kids too!
Do you have any more suggestions for how to dehydrate food using a microwave?
Sweet potatoes or bana