Methods Of Dehydrating Avocados
Team Mishry
Fresh or dried, avocados are all the rage these days. Learn all about dehydrating avocados and how to use them.
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Since vegetables and herbs are dried frequently, people usually have an idea about these ingredient elements. But, hearing about dried fruit is seldom. After all, everyone likes to taste the freshness of the fruits and not the crispy, crunchy dried form. But, some fruits are used in both ways- fresh juicy one and the crunchy dried form. One of these fruits is the avocado.
There are many dishes where you need the dehydrating avocados more than the fresh state. And that’s why today we will discuss everything about this fruit’s drying process, the health benefits, and other sorts of facts.
Table of Contents
What Is An Avocado And Where It Is Grown?
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Avocadoes are biologically considered a large berry fruit with a hard, circular seed sitting in the middle. This fruit is initially grown in Mexico’s southern and central parts, making it one of the native fruits of the American sub-continent fruits.
If you take a careful look, you will notice the avocadoes coming in different shapes like oval, egg-shaped, or circular. The fruit has a skinny peel layer, which becomes brown after the ripening of the fruit. You have to peel off this cover to reveal the light green fruit pulp inside.
This fruit is widely used worldwide in different dishes, be it as a puree on the breakfast platter or in a healthy, refreshing smoothie. This is why people are more eager to know everything about dehydrating avocados and its health benefits. An important question you will get an answer to is ‘can you dehydrate avocado’?
Methods of Dehydrating Avocados
If you want to make your dehydrating avocados set, you need a little bit of guidance to ensure that nothing goes wrong. Since it is a pulpy fruit with lots of water content, you have to exercise caution and dehydration accuracy. So, let’s discuss the most common ways to dehydrate avocado without altering its nutritional value.
Drying Under The Sun
If you are choosing this method for making dehydrated avocado, you need to ensure that you are choosing a sunny day with less humidity and no chance of a downpour, no matter how little it is.
- The fruit must be ripened completely, and the peel should be darkened in color. Make sure it is fresh with no spoilt part inside the peel.
- After peeling off the fruit, cut into half and then remove the large seed using a knife. Cut small pieces, either in cube form or in thinly sliced form. Sometimes, if the cut fruit pieces are kept in the open for too long, the color darkens due to oxidation. So, you might keep a bowl of lime juice by your side so that you can place the fruit in it.
- Once done, take a tray or a square plate since the shape provides more surface area than the circular ones. Place the slices or the cubes on the tray in a single layer, making sure to leave at least a six-millimeter gap between the adjacent portions.
- Since you will be keeping the tray in open for dehydrating avocados, you will have to cover the tray with a thin cloth that will help keep the flies and bugs away.
- Keep the tray under direct sunlight and leave the fruits to dry. Every three to five hours, flip over the fruit to ensure even dehydration.
Freezer Dried Fruit
Well, since the avocado is a fruit, it can be dehydrated using a freezer. It is a relatively new idea, and it seems that the use of the freezer is working fine with many people. So, here’s what you have to do if you are using this method for making freeze dried avocado.
- After slicing a fresh, ripened fruit into half, you have to remove the seed. For this, you can either scoop out the seed or use a knife to remove it. After this, remove the fruit’s skin’s outer brown peel, ensuring you do not destroy the fruit pulp’s dark green cover.
- As you will cut the avocado in small cubes, don’t forget to place them in lime juice. The citrus acid will prevent the fruit from getting oxidized, thereby keeping it fresh.
- Arrange these cubes on the tray you have chosen, leaving ample distance between two adjacent pieces to allow the proper airflow. For preventing moisture from interacting with the cubes, place a thin nylon cloth over the layer.
- Put the tray in the freezer for a couple of weeks. After all, freezer drying of the fruit takes much longer than other methods. Occasionally check whether the fruit is being dried up or not. Also, make sure that the color of the same isn’t changing during the process of dehydration.
Using A Microwave Oven For Drying
If you want to make dehydrated avocado chips in the fastest possible method, you need to use the microwave oven. Here’s how you can do it:
- After you have cut the fruit into thin slices, let them soak in the lime water since eating raw avocado might be bitter to some people. The lime juice will not only enhance the flavor profile but also will help in preventing oxidation of the fruit.
- Keep the oven door open for a few minutes to make the inside moisture-free for as much as possible.
- Place the slices of the fruit on a baking tray. It will be helpful if you cover the tray with a thin brown paper. While placing the slices, do not forget to keep enough distance between two adjacent pieces such that they don’t overcrowd each other.
- Set the microwave setting to defrost to prevent non-uniform dehydration. Occasionally check whether the fruit slices are getting dried up or not. If, after half an hour, the pieces hadn’t become brittle, you will have to keep the tray inside for another half an hour.
Drying Avocado In The Oven
For using the oven to prepare dehydrated avocado chips, you need to do the following steps:
- Take a fresh fruit, cut it into half, and then remove the seed. Once done, you need to remove the peel off the fruit’s body carefully without losing any bit of the pulp inside.
- Cut the fruit into small cubes or slices, while making sure no piece is large and chunky. If it happens, the dehydration process will take longer, and also it will cause uneven heating.
- Place the cubes or the slices on the oven tray. If you want to keep the fruit open for a few minutes, place them in a bowl having lime juice. Open-air can cause the fruit to darken in color due to oxidation.
- While arranging the fruit pieces on the tray, make sure you are not overcrowding any spot with the slices or the cubes. Leave a gap of six millimeters between two adjacent pieces. Also, make a single layer of the fruit pieces rather than stuffing one layer above the other.
- Set the oven temperature to a hundred and forty-degree Fahrenheit and leave the door open to allow the moisture to escape. Place the tray and set the timer for at least an hour.
Using A Food Dehydrator
The last process of dehydrating avocados is using a food dehydrator. This is quite a convenient way to get dried avocados, but you need to have a dehydrator in the first place. So, for those having this appliance preinstalled in your home, here are the steps you need to follow:
- It would be best to place the thinly cut avocado slice in lime juice to prevent the pulp’s nutrients’ oxidation.
- Preheat the dehydrator to avoid any form of moisture contamination inside.
- Place the thinly cut slice on a tray but in a single layer. Do not place the pieces too close to each other. It will cause uneven heating of the fruit, which isn’t what you need.
- The temperature of the dehydrator should be between a hundred and thirty-five to forty degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place the tray inside the device and set the timer for eight to ten hours. If the fruits don’t become brittle by then, you need to keep the tray inside for another two hours.
What The Health Benefits Of Dried Avocado?
Before ending this discussion, you need to know what perks you can enjoy by dehydrating avocados. So, let’s find out!
- High in nutritional content
- Is rich in potassium content
- Contains a lot of monosaturated fatty acids
- Avocadoes are enriched with fiber
- Helps in lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels
- Rich in Vitamin A and hence is suitable for eyes
- Contains antioxidants which might prevent cancer
Conclusion
Dehydrating avocados is not everyone’s cup of tea. It will help if you have techniques, impeccable knife skills, and proper setup for the drying process. Since here we have motioned five different methods of drying the fruit, you can choose any one of them as per your convenience.
