Back-To-Basics: How To Dehydrate Ginger

This post and the photos within it may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

Back to Basics Sew Creative Shares How to Dehydrate Ginger for use in tea, soups, broth, baking and other cooking needs

Last summer I took a food preservation class and ever since I’ve been pining over a dehydrator. My parents had a gigantic one when I was a kid, it was almost the size of a refrigerator, and I remember the smell of plums, apples and nectarines dehydrating during the summer months. When The Sisser asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year the first thing that came to mind was a dehydrator. I was so excited to wake up on Christmas morning and find the Nesco Professional Food Dehydrator under the Christmas Tree.

The minute I got home from my parent’s house I started playing with dehydrating dehydrating a bunch of herbs and making zucchini chips! I can’t wait for the summer to roll around so that I can dehydrate all of the fresh, local produce!

Last week I went to tea with a client and had the most delicious spice tea. I was determined to reproduce it at home (look for a post coming soon) but one of the tea ingredients is ginger. I would love to give my special blend out for gifts so fresh ginger won’t do and powdered ginger is too fine to put in a tea diffuser so I decided to dehydrate my own ginger for in the tea.

Dehydrating ginger wasn’t something that we discussed in the food preservation class, but with the basic skills I learned dehydrating the ginger came as second nature. It never would have been something that I considered doing a year ago before my class, so I decided to share this idea with you and to continue sharing kitchen basics in my new “Back To Basics” series. 

How To Dehydrate Ginger

How to dehydrate ginger, materials needed
What you need:

Instructions:

How to dehydrate ginger Step 1. Wash and then peel ginger
Step 1. Wash and then peel ginger.

How to dehydrate ginger Step 2. Slice ginger into thing pieces approximately 1/8" thick
Step 2. Slice ginger into thin pieces approximately 1/8″ thick.

 How to dehydrate ginger Step 3. Lay ginger out on your dehydrator tray
 Step 3. Lay ginger out on your dehydrator tray. For smaller pieces set them on a tray with a “Clean A Screen Tray” on top so that the pieces don’t fall through as they dehydrate. I put that tray below the tray with the bigger pieces in case any of the larger pieces fell through when dehydrating. 

How to dehydrate ginger Step 4. Dehydrate at 135F for approximately 3 hours or until ginger is completely dried and snaps when bent.
Step 4. Dehydrate at 135F for approximately 3-4 hours or until ginger is completely dried and snaps when bent.

How to dehydrate ginger. Finished ginger! Look how much they shrunk!
Here is the finished ginger! Look how much the pieces shrunk! Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag to preserve natural oils and flavors. 

Sew Creative shares how to dehydrate ginger in 3-4 hours for use in teas, baking, soups and other cooking needs
Isn’t it pretty! Such a great way to save the leftover bits of fresh ginger once you are done with a recipe! The great thing about dehydrated food is that it has such a long shelf life that as long as it is stored properly it will last a really long time. 

What can you use dehydrated ginger for? Tea, steeping with hot water, honey and lemon when you have a cold, adding flavor to broth and soups, grinding up for baking… it can even be used in detox baths! 

Please subscribe to my newsletter and/or check back next week when I teach you how to turn these delicious bits of curly goodness into a spiced tea, it would be perfect for a chai tea base!

Tell me… Do you have a dehydrator? What are some of your favorite things to dehydrate?

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments

  1. Dehydrators are so Awesome! The options are unlimited when it comes to making healthy food in them. I can’t get enough of kale chips, so I enjoy experimenting with all sorts of kale chips recipes. And the kids love them too. But I also enjoy other dehydrator recipes like pumpkin fruit leathers, spicy buffalo cauliflower popcorn, dried persimmons, mushrooms and the list can go on.

  2. I make pineapple chips that melt in your mouth. Very ripe fresh pineapple, cleaned and cored. Cut into chunks and run through a blender until it is like puree. Using teflon sheets or plastic wrap on your trays Pour the puree onto the trays. Shake it to thin it out to about 1/8th inch. Dehydrate 8 to 12 hours until it is crisp. Break into pieces and enjoy.

  3. I just made some spiced tea which I drank a lot when I lived in East Africa and have brought the habit home to the UK – as I had no fresh ginger I had to use ground ginger – but while waiting for the spices to infuse I had exactly the same thought as you – “wouldn’t it be lovely to make spiced tea bags” so searched for dried ginger online – saw it was pretty expensive, and then your post about dehydrating! … I haven’t got a dehydrator yet but it is on my list of things I need for my kitchen! … Thank you for the information and lovely to meet a fellow spiced tea fan! 🙂

  4. No need to peel. Wash, run it through a mandolin, dry at 150 for 2 – 3 hours (check after 2), grind the dried ginger, then run it through a sieve (you know like a flour sifter), throw away the dried skin and big chunks..