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For today’s seasonal recipe round-up on summer squash (and zucchini), I’d like to show you how to dehdyrate it. A single zucchini or squash plant is quite productive and can easily overwhelm a good sized family. So preserving it for the future is a good and frugal idea. Not to mention that your family may be pretty sick of it, if you’re eating a lot fresh.
Are you all sick of it? Truthfully, I’m not yet. We’re not eating tons of it because I’m saving a bunch — and that’s probably helping. 
The two best ways I’ve found to dehydrate zucchini are: shredded and thinly sliced. The thinly sliced become zucchini chips and they’re really good!
By the way, in today’s podcast I share three reasons why dehydrating is my family’s preferred method of long-term food preservation. Here’s where you can listen to that.
Zucchini (or Squash) Chips
Thinly sliced, seasoned, dehydrated, and crispy zucchini or squash make a great snack! We really enjoy them.
Thinly slice zucchini or squash to somewhere between 1/8″ and 1/4″ thick. 1/8″ is too thin, I think, and you end up with paper-like chips. 1/4″ is a bit too thick. I use my mandolin slicer; mine is a Bron and it comes with a carriage guard to protect fingers from the very dangerous and sharp blade. (Love it!)
Spread on dehydrator trays and sprinkle the chips with sea salt. You can also brush with olive oil or sprinkle with other seasonings like pepper or garlic. If you use olive oil, they’re more of a fresh-eating chip rather than something you store long-term.
Dry at 115 degrees Fahrenheit until crisp, about 12 hours or overnight, give or take. They really will be crisp when done. Let cool, but transfer as soon as possible to air-tight jars or containers. Vacuum seal if you can and they will keep crisp a long time.
I think you could also make these in the oven. Anyone know what the temp and timing would be on that? Please share. 
Shredded, Dried Zucchini or Squash
Perhaps the easiest and most useful way to preserve excess zucchini or squash is through shredding and drying. This is a really portable and space-saving technique.
Did I mention easy?
Shred the zucchini or squash and spread out on dehydrator trays that are lined. I have an Excalibur dehydrator and I put the Paraflexx liners on — you can also line with parchment paper.
Dry at 115 degrees Fahrenheit until the shreds are totally dried out and crunchy, about 12 hours or overnight, give or take. They will be totally dry when done. Let cool, but transfer as soon as possible to air-tight jars or containers. Vacuum seal if you can and they will keep a long time at room temperature.
You might wonder how to use the shredded zucchini. Here are some ideas. You can crumble the dried shreds and sprinkle on salads. You can toss them in soups or stews or with browned hamburger. You can use in muffins, cookies, and breads.
I keep track of the measurements this way. I spread 3 or 4 cups of wet shredded zucchini on each dehydrator tray. Then when they’re done, I vacuum seal each tray’s contents separately and label accordingly — “4 cups wet zucchini.” This way, when I go to use it in the winter, I’ll know that each packet contains the equivalent of 3 (or 4) cups of wet, shredded zucchini. These are good amounts for most recipes, I think.
If the zucchini should be reconstituted for the recipe, I’ll mix the dried shreds with water to fluff up. If there’s excess water, I’ll drain it away before use. As time goes by, I’ll know better how much water to use, but right now I don’t.
Do you know how much water to use to reconstitute shredded zucchini? If so, please share. And don’t forget about the question above — if you know how long and at what temp to make zucchini chips in the oven, please fill us in.
Have a blessed weekend everyone! Don’t forget to check out the other squash and zucchini recipes and tips in this week’s seasonal recipe round-up.
About Wardee Harmon
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I just did this with 20 zucchinis!
Do you need a mandolin or will a food processor slice thin enough?
Rachel — You can use a food processor. I have read you have to play with it to get them thin enough. I think press lightly on the blade so it doesn’t take so much off.
I am a zucchini chip-a-holic. I’m just hand slicing and throwing some sea salt, coconut oil and lime juice on them before dehydrating…It seems I’m eating a couple zucchini a day. It’s the new kale chip in this home
Your Bron Mandoline cost $163 on Amazon. Can you or anybody else here recommend a mandoline that is less expensive? There is a Norpro on Amazon for around $17.00. As much as I would like the one you own there are other cooking tools I’d rather have more like the Vitamix.
I got a Kyocera Mandolin slicer (http://tinyurl.com/Kyoceramandolin) which has a an adjustable very sharp ceramic blade (I also bought a cut-protection glove http://tinyurl.com/microplaneglove l which I had used the other day when I decided to slice some cucumbers, and ended up slicing off a nice portion of my thumb…eeeuuuww! I think the glove is definitely a good investment)
The Kyocera slicer is adjustable to, I think, 3 widths. I really like it a lot. (I just recommend forego storing it in a drawer if you like your fingertips. I hang mine on a magnetic hook on the side of the refrigerator)
This device sells for $22 or so on Amazon.
Kay — When I was picking mine out, this article helped me:
http://main.kitchendaily.com/2011/01/31/best-mandoline-slicer/
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You’ve probably found one by now, but a coworker suggested the OXO $40 from amazon. It is perfect. Has 4 adjustable slice size settings, wavy and Julian blades and a finger guard spoof holder. This has made dehydrating so much better
I would imagine one simple way to find out how much water to use for re-hydration, is to weigh the raw zucchini on a kitchen scale first. Weigh again when completely dried. Find the difference in weight which would be the amount of water removed form the zucchini during drying. I’m sure if you did this several times you would get a good idea of approximate water needed to rehydrate.
I havent tried this yet, but it seems logical to me!
Dawn — Good thinking! I think that would work.
Do you peel the outside before you shred or do you leave it on?
My zucchinis are organic, so I just wash them well, then leave the peel on. If you are using non-organic, you might want to remove the skins.
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Nancy — I leave the peel on. Very easy!
I’ve learned that I don’t love zucchini. So it’s been piling up on our counter from our CSA and my brother-in-law’s garden. I tried zucchini chips in the dehydrator and it only concentrated that flavor I don’t like lol. But I am okay with it in soup and bread because the flavor gets covered up. I love your idea to shred it then dry it! I’m going to need a vacuum sealer…
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After the webinar on food preservation, and now this post on dehydrating, I’m almost ready to buy a good dehydrator. I have one of those small circular tray dehydrators and have dehydrated zucchini but it doesn’t hold much! I used dried zucchini in soups, refried beans, and spaghetti sauce. I like the idea to add it to hamburgers.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences about dehydrating squash! I have been doing it for a while and chunk the squash before dehydrating it as it looks better in soups and stews! I’ve never dried shredded zucchini, but it’s a great idea. Thanks again!
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Do have any instruction on how to dehydrate using oven? I don’t have one and would love to learn to do this.
I am going to dehydrate some store bought now to experiment for this summers crop. I might put it in the food processer after it dries to powder it, that way I can sneek it into all kinds of stuff
When you mention that vacuum sealing lets them stay crisp for a long time would that be 3 months, 6 months? I am trying to dehydrate for an upcoming trip where we will be mainly in the remote bush for 3 months and want to work out when I can start frantically stockpiling non persihable non fridge reliant foods.
Pamela — I’ll be opening up a package of them from the summer soon and I’ll let you know if they’re still crisp. Let’s hope they are!
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