Basic Dried Vegetable Tablet

For the most part, vegetables are preferably eaten or prepared on their own as a dish or salad. However, depending on your schedule, free time, and equipment setup, some vegetables might be slightly problematic, especially if you want them daily. Such items as hard root vegetables, specialty sprouted seeds, vegetables with particularly potent “odour”, and oddly shaped items might have the unwanted effect of tying up your whole day prepping, rather than living your best life! But, fear not, drying and grinding is a possible solution to the problem.

Each vegetable will differ, though, depending on inherent moisture level and sugar content. When it comes to things like sugar containing fruits like apricots, figs, raisins, etc., they may retain a sort of “moist” quality to them even when dried extensively due to the syrup like nature of their condensed sugars. So, drying to a state so that you can grind them may be a little tougher. Although, for most dried fruits, you can generally just eat them straight with no difficulty. Once you figure out which ones you need to dry consistently, the method becomes pretty easy.

There are a lot of pretty good web resources on this topic which I will link to below if you are curious.

Equipment Needed:

1. A pretty decent food dehydrator (if you choose to use frequently, also solar dehydration could work).

2. Parchment paper (depending of the vegetable)

3. A devoted spice grinder (different than the one you make coffee with!)

5. A hand held fine mesh strainer.

6. Large glass bowl for sifting.

7. (Optional) A pill machine can be used, which does help in stuffing and packing the pills.

8. May as well slap on a standard mask for the grinding as particulate will get in the air a bit.

9. One Pack of “00” Vegan Capsules (you can find these at most health food stores or online).

Drying:

1. Take about 2 lbs of your chose vegetable. Clean and process. (I don’t really mind the skin too much since you are just going to grind it up and bypass the taste buds anyway).

2. Slice the vegetable into ¼ slivers in order to facilitate quicker drying.

3. You may choose to blanch or quick steam vegetables that oxidize, but that is personal preference.

Most dehydrators run around 140F+ which will essentially cook the vegetable somewhat).

4. Layer the sliced vegetables into the dehydrator and avoid stacking or overlapping.

5. If you have excess that wouldn’t fit, hold it for the next round, or just cook/eat it!

6. Run the dehydrator per its specified settings. After it runs (probably 10-12 hours) allow to cool.

7. Test the vegetable strips out for brittleness. You really want them so dry they break when you bend

them. If they’re still leathery, try setting them for another round in the dehydrator.

8. Once they have reached the desired brittleness, allow to cool and store spread out on a sheet pan.

Grinding:

1. Under a kitchen vent hood (just for the sake of not smelling up the house!) Set up a work station. You could either lay down foil or parchment to catch any stray grindings.

2. Hang your strainer over the bowl and get it ready for sifting.

3. In small batches, place dehydrated veg into the grinder.

4. Pulse at first to ensure that the slivers are not jamming up the grinder blade.

5. Once the contents is relatively small pieces go for a full grind until you can’t hear the chunks

banging around anymore.

6. Invert the grinder to get the powder in the lid catch (if that’s your design), and dump the contents

into the strainer.

7. Repeat until all the vegetable slivers have gone through the first grind.

8. Shake the strainer or tap it with the palm of your hand in order to sift the fine grounds through.

9. Return the larger chunks that did not filter back to the grinder.

10. Repeat until you get sick of doing it, or most of it has passed through the strainer.

“Tabletizing”:

1. You may want to wear gloves in case you’re working with beets or a vegetable that will stain your skin.

2. Move the contents of the bowl into something a bit smaller like a small casserole or storage container.

3. One by one fill each “large side” of the tablet with the ground powder packing it in a bit for and even filling.

4. Repeat that with the smaller side of the tablet, and ensure there is nothing stuck to the outside where they will overlap.

5. Carefully line up the sides and slide the small side securely over the larger one.

6. Place tablets in an airtight container and enjoy. Using a desiccant pouch may help to avoid any sticking together of the packages during storage.