Kira Stoletova
Dried pumpkin is a popular product. By preparing vegetables in this way, you can preserve the maximum of its nutrients and vitamins. The calorie content of the product is 28 kcal per 100 g. Pumpkin is recommended even for small children; it is rich in vitamins A, D, E, C, PP, K and T. This product contains more protein than eggs and 4 times more carotene than carrots.
Preparing pumpkin for drying
During the cold season, dried fruits are used in cooking or simply eaten as sweets. This drying is prepared for the winter; it can be used to create various salads, casseroles, soups, it can be added to fish and stewed vegetables, and the powder from it gives dishes a refined aroma and bright color. You can make wonderful dried pumpkin, marshmallows, candied fruits or pumpkin chips.
Using dried pumpkin has maximum benefit and minimum harm. In order for the dried fruits to be of high quality and tasty, you need to choose late varieties of this vegetable, which have a very hard peel.
Their pulp contains much less juice, and drying them is faster and more convenient. The fruit must be fully ripe and free from damage and signs of rot. Next, proceed according to the established scheme:
- wash the pumpkin thoroughly;
- divide it into parts (preferably the same way as a watermelon), while cutting, make sure that the pumpkin is not damaged inside;
- remove the seeds and the soft fibers to which they are attached;
- Carefully peel the pumpkin;
- cut the peeled pieces for subsequent drying: the methods for this can be very varied, it all depends on the purpose of use - if you want to make pumpkin chips, it is best to cut the vegetable into thin slices; for further addition to soups, salads and other dishes, you need to cut it into strips 4-6 mm thick; to create candied fruits, cut the pumpkin into small cubes (about 2 by 2 cm); to prepare the powder, the dried pieces must be crushed in a blender or crushed in a special mortar;
- Blanch the cut pieces for 2 minutes. in boiling water - this method will preserve the bright orange color of the dried vegetable;
- To prevent the pumpkin from spoiling and attracting insects, before drying, its pieces should be soaked in salt water (1 teaspoon of salt per 1 liter of water) for 3-5 minutes, and then rinsed under running water;
- dry the processed pieces.
Drying methods
The vegetable has a dense structure, and its pulp is quite hard, so you need to be careful not to overdry the pumpkin (this causes it to lose its beneficial properties and can cause harm to the body). It is also important to completely dry the fruit (if this is not done, it will quickly deteriorate).
How long to dry the fruits depends on their size and how they will be processed. The variety also matters - juicier ones require longer cooking time. The drying temperature ranges from 65 to 85 °, but no more, otherwise the beneficial qualities of the product are lost.
Properly dried pumpkin should be elastic and stick to your fingers.
There are 3 ways to dry vegetables at home.
In an electric dryer
The surfaces for processing pumpkin in an electric dryer do not need to be covered. It is important to consider that with loss of moisture, the slices will shrink and may fly through the mesh, so they must be of the appropriate size and should not touch.
Set the temperature to medium (depending on the power of the dryer, about 85-90 °) and dry for about 5 hours until ready. If the temperature is around 60°, the process will last up to 10-12 hours (depending on the size of the pieces and the variety).
In the oven
You can also use an electric oven. The process is long: it will take approximately 6-8 hours. Before putting the slices in the oven, you need to thoroughly dry them with a paper towel and cover the baking sheet with parchment. The slices should not touch each other, then they will dry evenly.
Place the baking sheet in an oven already preheated to 50°, do not close the door completely so as not to impede the removal of moisture. Next, you need to dry the fruits at a temperature of about 60 ° for 5 hours. After this, you need to raise it to 80 ° and continue to dry the slices for another 3 hours.
Dry pumpkin needs to be cooled and placed in glass jars.
On air
If you want your pumpkin to get a little dry, this option is perfect. Preparation is carried out in the same way. Already cut slices should be washed in salted water and then in running water, laid out on a flat surface (wide tray) covered with gauze or parchment so that they do not touch.
Then place it outside, preferably not in direct sunlight, but in the shade. You need to choose a place where pets will not have access. You can cover the tray with gauze to prevent insects from landing on the pumpkin.
At night, when the air temperature drops, you need to bring the vegetable pieces into a dry room. The slices need to be turned over every day. Drying pumpkin this way takes a long time: it takes up to 5-7 days (depending on the weather).
It is better not to prepare candied fruits this way, because... they are thicker than chips and slices and may not dry out. When cutting vegetables for drying, make medium-thick slices. This way you will get a tasty product.
Drying whole pumpkin
In addition to the fact that this vegetable can be used as food, it can be used for decoration: it is used to create various vases, candlesticks, etc. Whole pumpkins serve as decorations for Halloween. With the right drying technology, ornamental vegetables can be stored for several years; their peel becomes so hard that it is difficult to damage.
If a pumpkin has a lot of seeds, it has very little pulp - these are the specimens you need. Only decorative varieties (Alice, Red Velvet, etc.) are suitable for drying; they are harder, smaller, have large protuberances and are darker in color. The vegetable must not be damaged by mold or rot.
The main condition when choosing is that the vegetable must retain its stalk (it must be whole). Since it will be dried entirely, when it is removed, a hole will appear from which juice will flow out, and the whole process will be ruined. In addition, the stalk must be fully ripe.
You need to wash the pumpkin with low-hot water and not under strong pressure and wipe it dry - best with paper towels or a soft cloth so as not to damage the surface. After this, the pumpkin is placed on parchment, a baking sheet and placed in the oven for 6-8 hours (depending on size) at a temperature of 60-70 °.
Periodically, the vegetable needs to be turned over so that it does not burn and dries evenly.
You can air dry the whole pumpkin. The vegetable is placed in the shade so that it is not exposed to direct sunlight; the temperature should not be lower than 18 °C. Air humidity should not exceed 40%. Periodically, the vegetable needs to be turned over and inspected, because... the process will take about 3 months to dry the fruit to the desired consistency.
In a similar way, but much faster, you can dry the pumpkin in an electric dryer.
Storage rules
In order for dried pumpkin to be stored for a long time and not lose vitamins and microelements, you must strictly observe the storage conditions:
- the room should be dark, with an air temperature of 12-15 °C (basement or pantry);
- the humidity in the room should not exceed 60% - if it is more than the permissible norm, then the pumpkin gains excess moisture and spoils, in which case it can be dried;
- It is best to store such drying in glass jars with vacuum lids or in bags made of thick fabric;
- if jars are used for storage, a piece of parchment should be placed on their bottom and the vessels should be covered with it;
- Dried pumpkin doesn't last very long; it needs to be eaten over the winter, earlier than dried pumpkin.
Dried pumpkin for the winter. Pumpkin powder
Pumpkin chips 🤗 are something
Candied pumpkin The most delicious recipe candied pumpkin natural candy
Under the right conditions, dried pumpkins can be stored until the beginning of spring, all their beneficial qualities remain unchanged. If you prepare the product in the dryer, you will be able to enjoy its incredible taste for a long time, enriching your body with useful microelements and pumpkin vitamins.
Is it possible to dry pumpkin for the winter at home? Naturally, this is possible and carries a lot of benefits depending on the application of the finished product. Using home appliances and improvised means, you can make a dried product with high quality and relatively quickly, preserving most of the useful substances.
What is the benefit or harm to the body from dried pumpkin?
From positive properties One can highlight the richness of vitamins B, E and PP, the presence of fiber, pectin, sugars, carotene, ascorbic acid and minerals such as magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium and calcium.
Thanks to them, a person receives necessary micro and macroelements, improves memory, normalizes the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract (especially with colitis or enteritis), strengthens hair and rejuvenates the skin. Iron also improves mood and helps calm your nerves and cope with stress after a tiring day.
Pumpkin will be extremely useful for patients with insufficient blood sugar. It is potassium that is responsible for the density of vessel walls and optimal blood pressure. With regular consumption of pumpkin, excess bile, mucus and cholesterol are eliminated, and the body receives the necessary supply of energy for the whole day. If you are experiencing difficulty sleeping, try eating a little dried pumpkin every day.
Sufficient content fluoride together with iron can strengthen human muscle and bone tissue, and in some cases help accelerate bone healing after fractures. Finally, it is an excellent immune system booster and protection against tooth decay.
Costs abstain from pumpkin in your diet if you have serious problems with acid-base balance or suffer from diabetes.
At low acidity stomach juice, pumpkin will only worsen the situation, depriving you of alkali and exacerbating ulcerative diseases such as gastritis. In this plan don't overeat pumpkin seeds, due to their high content of salicylic acid.
How many calories are in dried pumpkin? Due to evaporated moisture, the concentration of sugar in the vegetable increases along with its calorie content. The standard calorie content of fresh pumpkin is approximately 28 kcal per 100 grams of vegetable. As a result of drying we get 68 kcal for the same amount of product.
Variety selection
What varieties of pumpkin are best suited for drying for the winter?
Give priority first table and nutmeg, and not forage varieties.
The best option is considered hard-barked, late-ripening pumpkins. Winter squash varieties include Table Sweet, Winter Sweet, Spaghetti, Buttercup, and Butternut, as well as Blue Hubbard.
From decorative varieties that can be dried are varieties such as “Legendaria” and “Cucurbita”. Early maturing varieties like Acorn pumpkins are also suitable, but will take much longer to dry than other varieties.
Only ripe, whole fruits, without visible or hidden damage, suspicious plaque or stains, are suitable for drying. You can learn about this from our article.
Choose only those pumpkins that, after harvesting, the ponytail was preserved– this is a guarantee of maintaining moisture and protecting the pumpkin from harmful microbes entering the fruit.
Preparation
How to dry pumpkin for food? First of all, carefully inspect the harvested crop, sort by size and degree of maturity. Unfit for food, spoiled or unripe pumpkins should be thrown away.
Then rinse each pumpkin in running water and leave to dry for a couple of hours on a paper towel. The peduncle, flowers and dark spots are cut out, provided that under the skin the pulp remained intact.
Then it was time pit removal– cut the fruit exactly in the middle and cut out the fibrous core along with the seeds. After this, all that remains is to cut the pumpkin into equal slices half or one and a half centimeters thick. In addition, it’s good and much faster You get dried pumpkin if you first cut it into small cubes.
Like most vegetables and fruits, pumpkin may need to maintain its bright orange hue as it can darken significantly after drying. For this purpose it is carried out blanching in boiling water (no longer than 2 minutes).
Another method of disinfecting future drying from harmful diseases and insects is processing in saline solution.
In some situations, the pumpkin should be thoroughly steamed before drying.
This stage is especially good for drying pumpkin in Russian stove– after this the product turns out dense, elastic, completely retaining all the taste qualities of fresh pumpkin.
Household appliances and their modes
What to dry pumpkin in? Almost all Appliances for drying vegetables, it is equally suitable for drying pumpkin. This can be a gas or electric oven, an electric dryer, a convection oven, or a regular Russian oven.
Dry the pumpkin and outdoors, but in terms of time this is a very labor-intensive and lengthy process. Any type of drying requires periodic supervision.
At what temperature should you dry pumpkin? Temperature conditions can vary greatly depending on the cooking method, the condition of the pumpkin, the thickness of the pieces and the power of your units. It is generally recommended to dry the pumpkin at an average temperature of +50-85 °C.
How to determine readiness? Test the pumpkin pieces to the touch - they should be a little soft and flexible, but not so much that they stick to your fingers. The pumpkin tastes sweetish, and when chewed for a long time, it seems to melt in the mouth. Sometimes dried pumpkin is compared to dried candied fruits.
If the pieces are too wet and sticky, then not all the moisture has left the product and you will need to leave them dry out a couple more hours.
How to dry pumpkin in the oven? You can learn how to cook candied pumpkin in the oven from this video:
Storage
How to store dried pumpkins? The ideal storage location should be dry and cool(+9-12°C), with air humidity no more than 60%. You can store pumpkin in a tightly closed container, such as airtight containers. The bottom and the pumpkins themselves are covered with dry parchment paper.
Step by step instructions
The seeds are also carefully removed. Then cut the vegetable into slices of exactly equal length, thickness no more than 1 cm.
Boil water in a saucepan of a suitable size, having previously salted it, and prepare a deep bowl of ice water nearby.
Within 1-2 minutes boil pumpkin pieces, then use a slotted spoon to catch them and lower them to cool for the same time cold water.
Prepare baking sheets for several or one batch of pumpkin, carefully preheat the oven to +55-65 °C. Then lay out all the pieces in one layer, leaving free space between the pieces.
Oven required leave it ajar to free up the outlet for evaporated moisture. For the first 4-5 hours, cook the pumpkin at the initial temperature, and in the final 2-3 hours, increase it to +70-85 °C.
How to dry pumpkin electric dryer? To dry pumpkin in a dryer, the vegetable is processed in the same way as for cooking in an electric or gas oven. First, it is washed and cut in a way convenient for you.
The optimal solution would be to cut into small cubes, which, when dried, will not fall through the dryer rack.
Once the finished pieces have been sterilized and dried on a towel or sieve, you can proceed to cooking. Place all the pieces on mesh trays for drying vegetables, leaving a small space between them.
Set the mode to moderate, leaving the lid ajar, and dry the product 3-4 hours, stirring the pieces occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the grate. As soon as all the pieces have decreased by about 1.5-2 times, this signals readiness.
You can learn how to dry pumpkin in an electric vegetable dryer from the video:
Features of whole drying
How to dry a whole pumpkin? It will be possible to dry mostly whole decorative varieties. They are small and easy to cut out the core with seeds. First, the pumpkins are washed, then dried for about a week in a dry, dark room until the peel is completely hardened.
Further almost six months The pumpkins should dry in a well-ventilated, dry place without touching each other or walls.
It is better to place a wooden pallet with a lattice of thin boards under the pumpkins so that air circulated freely.
Every few days, turn and check the fruits, removing rotten specimens.
Recipes
Some recipes indicate the need blanch pieces of pumpkin in not salted, but in sweetish water. This will help highlight the natural taste of the product. To do this, add 2-3 tablespoons to a small saucepan of boiled water. Sahara, after which the pumpkin is boiled in it for no longer than two minutes.
To get a sweeter pumpkin, dilute 3-4 tablespoons of sugar per 1 liter of water and boil soak pumpkin slices or cubes in them for about 4-5 minutes before drying.
If you follow all the processing and drying steps correctly, you will definitely succeed. high quality and nutritious product, which will last about a year.
Choose the right variety that won’t take much time to cook, and don’t forget disinfect pumpkin from bacteria.
Dried pumpkin has many advantages over fresh vegetables: it becomes more appetizing and sweeter, is stored much longer and saves space.
Dried pumpkin: recipe for chips with honey and lemon in this video:
Pumpkin chips - photo:
And why was Cinderella so upset when her carriage turned into a pumpkin? Well, what a sweetness in that pompous carriage - a piece of wood, the only joy is that it is gilded! That's what pumpkin is: unpretentious, productive, tasty, healthy, nutritious! One drawback - the berry is too big, just as big as a carriage!
So we, like hardworking Cinderellas, on the threshold of winter, have to urgently creatively process the failed carriage into compote, jam, marmalade, freeze it or pickle it. But when it turns out that all the jars, bottles, cellar pantries and other freezers have already run out, and the pumpkin is still gone, the only option left is to dry it! And the fastest and most effective way to dry pumpkin is, of course, in an electric dryer.
TO How to dry pumpkin in an electric dryer
To begin with, you need to open the pumpkin, at least just halve it, then it will be easier. For this purpose, it is advisable to choose not the sharpest, but the most durable knife, because the rind of a good autumn pumpkin is no softer than a carriage door made of bog oak. We may have to fiddle with a thick knife longer, but we’ll save our fingers!
Finally, the pumpkin is opened, and inside there is a bonus - seeds. Do not throw them away under any circumstances, they are incredibly beneficial for health in general, and especially for men! Sort through, rinse, dry (do not fry!) - and click with benefit and pleasure!
And we will continue dissection. The most convenient sequence of operations is as follows: after the pumpkin has been divided into two parts along the meridian, we cut off both “polar half-caps” to the thickness of the pulp. Next, we cut the resulting two semicircles and one half-cylinder into convenient slices 2-3 cm wide, from which it is quite easy to cut off the crust without risking being left without fingers.
Well, after that, you can safely take a sharp knife with a wide blade and carefully cut the pumpkin flesh into a medium cube (a centimeter or slightly smaller). It is recommended to blanch or at least scald some fruits and vegetables before drying, but this is not about pumpkin; it will dry perfectly without any additional tricks.
Place the pumpkin cubes evenly, in one layer and not too closely, on the trays of the electric dryer, turn it on to maximum temperature - and begin to wait.
You will have to wait a long time, at least 12 hours, or even more, it all depends on the type of pumpkin and its degree of ripeness.
Alas, no matter what super-sophisticated electric dryer we have, simply “set it and forget it” like a homing missile will not work: from time to time the trays will have to be swapped, the pumpkin cubes must be mixed so that they do not stick together, but dry evenly. It is extremely undesirable to leave the dryer running unattended at night; just in case of fire, it is safer to turn it off, so that in the morning we can start our miracle unit again and continue the dehydration process further, until the bitter end.
Well, the cherished hour has finally come, the hard, heavy pumpkin cubes have turned into elastic, light pads, which we must immediately seal tightly before they absorb moisture from the surrounding air.
It is best to use plastic containers with screw caps or special “self-sealing” bags, from which we will pour a little into the “operational jar” as needed.
Dried pumpkin is ready! Glory to us, hardworking (and modest) Cinderellas! Now, before the new harvest of carriages, sorry – pumpkins, we will be able at any moment, without fear that something somewhere has defrosted, or gone sour, or has become moldy, or has gone rotten in some other way, – to get a handful or two of dry and light pumpkin shavings and cook from them whatever your darling desires: even soup, even pie, even compote!
And if we add a little imagination to the dried pumpkin, a little dried fruit, a spoonful of honey and nut butter, a pinch of spices, then in just half an hour we can easily prepare an incredibly tasty, tender, healthy, aromatic and absolutely dietary dessert, like Cinderella at her first ball I never tried it.
This is all because she used her carriage incorrectly! 😉
As you can see, drying pumpkin for the winter is easy and simple. Tasty and easy preparations for all of us!
Dried pumpkin is a flavorful dessert that keeps well in the cold until spring. The treat can be prepared with sugar, cinnamon, lemon or orange juice.
Dried pumpkin is cooked in the oven at a temperature of 50-80 °C.
- Number of servings: 4
- Preparation time: 15 minutes
- Cooking time: 8 minutes
Dried pumpkin in the oven
The sweet treat can be served with tea or coffee.
Preparation:
- Remove seeds from the pumpkin and cut the pulp into slices.
- Place the pieces on a baking sheet and place them in an oven preheated to 180°C for 1 hour.
- Boil syrup from water and sugar, pour it over the slices.
- Bake the pieces for 10 minutes at a temperature of 100 °C. Drain the syrup and place the pumpkin pieces on parchment paper. Dry them at the same temperature for another 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle the pumpkin with cinnamon and dry them in the oven at 50°C for 6 hours.
- Transfer the blanks to clean paper and leave them at room temperature for 3 days.
Store treats in the refrigerator in a plastic container.
Recipe for dried pumpkin with thyme and garlic
The aromatic treat goes well with salads, hot dishes and side dishes.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin – 1 kg;
- vegetable oil – 200 ml;
- garlic – 3 cloves;
- thyme – 1 tbsp. l.;
- fresh or dried rosemary - 1 tbsp. l.;
- salt and ground pepper - to taste.
How to cook:
- Cut the pumpkin pulp into cubes measuring 2 by 2 cm. Mix the preparations with 30 g of butter, salt, pepper and thyme.
- Place the preparations on parchment and place them in the oven for 3 hours. Cook the pumpkin at a temperature of 80 °C.
- Cut the garlic into slices and mix it with rosemary. Place food in the bottom of a glass jar. Place the pumpkin pieces on them and pour the remaining oil over them.
Store the jar tightly closed in the refrigerator.
Dried pumpkin with orange and sugar
This delicacy is sweet and has a pleasant aroma.
Ingredients:
- pumpkin – 1 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- orange – 1 pc.;
- water – 700 ml;
- cinnamon stick – 1 pc.;
- dry cloves – 2 pcs.
Cooking steps:
- Cut the pumpkin pulp into small cubes.
- Boil syrup from sugar and water, add cinnamon and cloves. Pour in orange juice and add zest.
- Place the pumpkin in the syrup, boil it and cook for 5 minutes. Cool the workpiece. Repeat this procedure 2 more times.
- Place the pumpkin pieces on parchment and dry them in the oven at 50 °C for 6 hours. The oven door should be slightly open.
- Transfer the preparations to a flat dish and leave them at room temperature for 3 days.
Before serving, the treat can be decorated with powdered sugar.
Dried pumpkin is served as a dessert, added to salads, and used for baking.
What are the benefits of dried pumpkin? Pumpkin - natural vitamin and mineral complex. The fruit is considered a champion among other fruits in terms of its content gland. In addition to iron, the product contains:
- beta-carotene;
- cellulose;
- vitamins - C, E, B1, B2, PP;
- macro- and microelements - potassium, calcium, copper, magnesium, cobalt, fluorine, silicon, zinc.
Vitamin E and zinc salts, which pumpkin is especially rich in, help prevent premature aging of the body.
Pumpkin - product dietary. Due to its minimal content of coarse fiber and acids, the vegetable is acceptable for consumption by people with inflammatory diseases of the digestive system.
Pumpkin brings great benefits to people with... iron deficiency anemia, since it contains a mineral complex that takes part in the process of hematopoiesis. Regular consumption of dried pumpkin has a positive effect on liver.
The pumpkin itself is a product low calorie, and when drying it without adding sugar, the calorie content is 28 kcal/100 g. However, if you dry the pumpkin, keeping it and blanching in sugar, its calorie content increases to 110 kcal/100 g.
Read about that in our article.
Basic Rules
How to dry pumpkin at home? All varieties of pumpkin are suitable for drying. You can learn about this from our article. Before you start preparing the vegetable, it needs to be prepared:
After carrying out the preparatory activities, the pumpkin can be dried.
Methods
Typically, the drying process takes place outdoors or in an oven or electric dryer. You can learn about this from our other article.
On air
For air-drying, the prepared pieces must be placed on a sieve in a place with good ventilation where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight.
A few days later the pieces needs to be mixed and leave for another 2 days. After this, you can take it out into the sun, leaving the pumpkin in such conditions for 2 days. Air drying usually lasts 5-7 days.
If you chop the pumpkin at the preparation stage not into cubes, but, for example, stripes, then they can be dried by hanging them on a nylon thread.
You can learn how to dry a pumpkin right in your kitchen from the video:
In the oven
The process of preparing pumpkin is faster if you produce it in the oven. To do this, the prepared product is scattered onto a baking sheet in 1 layer and placed in a preheated oven. up to 80-85 degrees for half an hour.
How to make dried pumpkin in the oven sweet? You can learn how to cook oven-dried pumpkin with sugar in the video:
