Part of my job as a homemaker is to find ways where we can stretch a dollar so that we can continue to live our lives the way we believe we should. It’s not easy living off of one income, but by the grace of God and the wisdom He gives, we are able to pull it off. I want to share with you some of the practical things I have learned to help us save money, and one of those ways is to learn to preserve food so that we can save money on groceries.
We do grow and forage some of our own food but I like to keep an eye out for good deals while grocery shopping as well. I shop at multiple stores in our area to try to find the best prices on items and one of the stores I go to is a local discount grocery store. I often find great deals there, and today I found a wonderful deal on leeks! I don’t typically eat leeks very often because of their price but they were selling them 2 bundles for $1, so I impulsively bought 4 bundles, which came out to 8 leeks. They looked like they were getting ready to go bad but I already knew how I was going to save them: using my dehydrator.
Preparing the leeks:
Some of the leaves on the leeks were started to wilt, so before I did anything else I removed those bad pieces by taking off the outer 2 layers of each leek. I also chopped off about an inch of the bottom at the roots; which can be kept in the freezer for making vegetable broth later on.
Once that was out of the way, I trimmed off the some of the dark green tops. The tops are typically considered to be tough, so how much you take off is up to you. Most people recommend taking off all of the dark green, while I usually only take off about half of it.
I then washed my leeks and started to chop them up how I wanted them. I simply chopped them as if I was going to throw them in a soup; but you can chop or slice them however you would like. Keep in mind the thicker the pieces are, the longer it will take to dehydrate.
After that, I put all of my chopped leeks onto a bowl and covered them with water, letting them soak a little before draining; this is to help remove some of the sand that leeks tend to have because of how they’re grown. I then put my leeks in a salad spinner and rinsed them once more before spinning them again, just to make sure I got as much of the sand off as possible. If you do not have salad spinner, you can use a colander to drain and rinse your leeks a few times to remove the sand.
Getting them in the dehydrator:
I pulled out the racks from my dehydrator and spread the chopped leeks over them, making sure to break apart any clumps that didn’t come apart in the rinsing.
I like use the book The Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook* to guide me on my dehydrating adventures, and it recommends drying at 125° Fahrenheit, for 8 to 10 hours. My dehydrator is weird and skips from 122° to 131°, so I set it to 122° for the leeks. Everyone’s dehydrator is different, so you will have to use your manual to adjust your temperature accordingly, if yours is adjustable.
If you don’t own a dehydrator you can always use your oven by preheating it to its lowest setting, for my oven that would be the “warm” setting which is about 170°, and drying on a cookie sheet for 4-5 hours or until they crunch when crushed. Be sure to flip them occasionally, to make sure all sides get dry.
Storing the dried leeks:
The next morning, once my leeks have dried, I stuffed them into a quart size jar. I really had to squish them in there, so yours may take up more or less space depending on how small or large you want your pieces. For the 8 leeks I dehydrated, I ended up with 2 very full quart jars. You can also use a container or bag to store your leeks in, whatever you have on hand. If you are limited on space or would prefer a powder, you can do so using a blender, coffee grinder, or an old fashioned mortar and pestle. I like to keep my leeks and other veggies like them in larger piece, so that I can use them like that or grind them into a powder whenever I want.
They will be fine to store just like this for a short amount of time or you can use a oxygen pack to keep them fresh longer. Alternatively, you can do what I did here and use a jar attachment on a vacuum sealer that has a canister option to remove the air and seal the jar.
Congratulation! You’ve just saved some money and a little time in prepping a few meals in the future. If you continue to learn to preserve food when you find an irresistible deal while out grocery shopping, you can save a lot of money in the long run; and not to mention how satisfying it can be to have a cabinet full of foods you preserved.
What are some ways you like to save money by preserving food? Leave your comments down below, I’d love to hear from you!
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