In general, when cooking with dehydrated vegetables, the flavor is intensified and the texture is changed. I would not attempt rehydrating veggies and serving them as a side dish as though they were fresh...frozen works better for that sort of thing. Likewise, you could make a very nice tomato spread from rehydrated tomatoes minced or blended with oil or mayo which would bring the flavor of tomatoes to your sandwich, but thinking of them as replacing sliced will only leave you disappointed. The thought of rehydrated mushrooms on a salad doesn't bear thinking about.

Mostly, dehydrated vegetables are best in soups or stews, and I'm sure the avid users of dehydrators can come up with wonderful recipes.

I love making dehydrated fruits for snacking and for use in hot cereals all winter. I have also made wonderful dehydrated meals for camping.

But, if you're looking to bring the flavors of Summer into your Winter meals, you might be better off buying a good freezer rather than a dehydrator.

My suggestion for you is that you try drying a few items in your oven first (I'm sure you can find instructions on how to do so on the net) and experiment with using them before you spend money on an expensive dehydrator which might end up sitting in your garage gathering dust.

Agree with rachelellen - dehydrated foods are primarily used as either dry snacks (as with tomatoes and fruit pieces) or as additives to dishes containing liquids such as soups, casseroles and stews. They aren't intended to use as a substitute for fresh vegetables and don't work well for that purpose.

Canning or freezing such things gives you a much better approximation of fresh vegetables.

Dave

I dehydrate apple, bananas and peach slices for snacking and mixing in with muffins,cookies or cereals. Tomatoes,onions, bell peppers and chili peppers are really good to keep on hand to spice up cooked dishes. My girls love fruit leathers. I am sure there are lots of other things to dry also.
Donna

I use mine frequently in the off season to make jerky. The other thing I came up with are what we call "Dusts". Tomato, onion, garlic, peppers, sweet and hot, carrots, mushrooms cucumbers, what ever you think of. Dry them until they are absolutely brittle, and grind them in a coffee type grinder. I have one dedicated to spices only, no coffee! Grind them into powders and store in sealed containers. We use them as finishing seasonings. How about tomato and green pepper on popcorn, or blended into butter for dinner rolls or veggies. Whatever you can come up with works. They can also be blended into oils for dipping and drizzling. Only drawback is they make the oil cloudy, but they are shelf stable.

Just another use for your dehydrator.

I do appreciate all of your responses. I have to rethink my purchase. I am trying to justify a purchase just to dry tomatoes for making pasta sauce, raising dough and making yogurt but it's hard. I could dry veggies for soups,pot pies, etc and as you have said they are much more favorable so that can go on the 'pro' side. I absolutely love eggplant. Would breading and frying it work with dried slices?

I like having my dehydrator and I looked at the excaliber models and they are great but I decided to go for much less money and got a nesco with fan and t stat its a great addition to canning and freezing but not a replacement

Trying some veggies in the oven is a great idea. See if you like them. There are some I love, some not so much.

You can raise bread and make yogurt in the oven with just the light on....no need for another "appliance" for that.

I'm not an eggplant eater, but I do believe you'd be better off freezing them (search for threads here about freezing green tomatoes, etc. for frying later).

Unless you are planning to do massive quantities, you might consider a lower end dehydrator first ($30 risk instead of $100+).

Just my thoughts.
Deanna

Last year I learned about salting eggplant to pull out the liquid before using it for lasagna. I got it in my head to try to dehydrate them for the same purpose. If it works, I will let you all know, but that is an experiment for late summer when my crop comes in.

Painterlady, I am in the same boat. I would love to have a dehydrator but I'm not sure the cost would justify what I would use it for. In addition, I don't think the cheaper models are really worth much. I borrowed a fancy one from a coworker a few years back and LOVED it, did a lot of apples that way and they turned out wonderful. If I were ever lucky enough to receive one as a gift I would be very pleased but until then I'm thinking I will try my oven for what I want and see how the results come out. Lori

You can get decent dehydrators cheaper than an Excaliber. Mine is a Nesco Professional (under $70) and works perfectly well. I have to rotate the shelves every so often, but so what? The main thing is to make darn sure that you have forced air drying instead of a simple heating element...those take too darn long! And, the motor/fan should be on the top, not underneath the trays as it is too difficult to clean the electric parts once food juices drip on them.

I also use my dehydrator to make mushroom and tomato slices for powdering. Powdered mushroom helps my Cream O' 'Shroom soup thicken so I use less roux while adding more flavor.

I dry a lot of fruit in mine to use in our Winter hot cereals as well.

Rachelellen, you actually gave me some really helpful info here. I googled the Nesco and I do think it is something I would be interested in. As I was saying, I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in something like the Excaliber but yet couldn't see tossing money on the cheapos like what I used to have. It lasted one season and gave out because...the motor or heater was on the bottom and got juiced on. I would certainly pay that amount for the Nesco, I just didn't realize there was much of a compromise. Lori

I have had the 5 shelf Excalibur for over 20 years. I tried one of those round types when I picked up a brand new one, still in box at the SalVal for 5.00.
To compare the 2 is like comparing apples to oranges.

It depends on what you will be using the dehydrator for. I use the Excalibur for drying crafts as well as foods, so I need one that has the features the Excalibur offers. Such as yesterday, I made soap and dried the bars in the dehydrator. With the Excalibur you can use all the trays , some trays or remove them all for taller applications like raising bread or making yogurt and you cannot do that in round models, or at least the one I picked up cheap.
If a part gets broken I can order replacements and the cheaper ones don't have a 10 year warranty.
I saw on the Excalibur site the Economy 4 tray is one sale and lower priced than the Nesco Pro right now.

I found that in the round types ones the food trays lower dried faster and you were constantly moving tray for even drying, you don't need to do that in the Excalibur.

Dehydrated green beans with ham and potatoes is awesome. Dried strawberries are intense, and I always make a big batch of dried soup veggies , as those mixes are so pricy to buy.
Both manufacturers have recipes/ideas on their websites, maybe those can help you decide.