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Does your dog love the taste of dehydrated whole foods like sweet potato chews or crispy green beans? Have you been surprised by the price point of these snacks at the pet store? Try making them at home!
Here’s exactly how to make dehydrated veggie snacks for your dog (and yourself) with the greatest of ease. If you don’t have a dehydrator or aren’t sure you’re ready to commit to one, you can use your oven on the lowest setting for similar results.
Dehydrating is an interesting method. All the work is upfront when you’re prepping and blanching your veggies. After that, sit back for about eight hours and wait for your tasty, healthy goodies to be ready.
Loading up the dehydrator
Dehydrated Vegetable Dog Treats
You can dehydrate any dog safe veggies you’ve got on hand – from pumpkin or squash to carrots, to zucchini strips. For this recipe we walk you through processing techniques for dehydrated sweet potatoes, green beans, and bell peppers, but you can use this recipe with all dog-safe fruits and veggies.
In a hurry? The blanching is totally optional. Mostly it just ensures the colors of your fresh produce stay beautiful.
Feel free to experiment and have fun!
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Total Time: 8 hours
- Yield: 5 trays 1x
- Category: Healthy Snacks
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1/2 pound green beans
- 2 red bell peppers
Equipment
- Oven or dehydrator. We used the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Dehydrator.
- Stockpot for blanching
- Ice for an ice-bath
- Cookie sheet and towels or paper towels to dry after blanching
- Optional: mandoline for slicing
Instructions
Fill a stockpot about three-quarters full of water and set to boil. If the water boils before you’re done prepping, just turn it down to medium-low until you need it. It will perk back up quickly.
Rinse all your veggies well.
Snap or snip the ends off your green beans and set aside.
Peel sweet potatoes and slice into 1/4″ pieces, rounds, or strips. If you have a mandoline, this step goes quickly.
Put green beans and sweet potatoes in boiling water to blanch for 4 minutes.
Add ice and cold water to a large bowl to drain blanched veggies when they’re ready.
Prep sweet bell peppers by removing seeds and white pith. Slice into 1/4″ strips.
Remove beans and potatoes when done by dipping a long-handled strainer into the boiling water, draining a second, then pouring veggies into ice-bath.
When all veggies are removed from boiling water, add the bell pepper strips and blanch for 1 minute, then add to ice bath.
When all veggies are cooled, proceed to the drying stage.
On a large cookie sheet or sheet pan, place a clean dry tea towel or two layers of paper towel.
Place cooled veggies onto the dry towel, adding another towel on top and another layer of veggies on top of that until are the veggies are nestled in. Pat or squeeze gently.
Layer dried veggies onto dehydrator trays, taking care to make sure nothing is touching.
Dehydrate between 110-140 degrees for at least 8 hours.
If you want your sweet potatoes chewier, you can pull them out and continue drying your other veggies to the crisp stage.
When fully dehydrated, allow veggies to cool to room temperature, then pack loosely in an airtight container or bag.
Notes
- For crisper veggies, keep in the dehydrator longer.
- You can use your oven instead of a dehydrator, set to lowest possible setting and start checking dryness at 4 hours and every 30 minutes or so thereafter.
- Veggies dried crisp will last longer than veggies dried to the chewy state.
- Chewy veggies should be eaten in the next couple days or kept in the fridge ideally.
- Crispy dried veggies should last 2 weeks in an airtight container.
- Check out these drying tips from the National Center for Home Preservation for the optimum longevity of your dried goodies.
Keywords: pumpkin, bell pepper, sweet potato, green beans, squash
Tasting Notes
If you try one of our recipes, be sure to let us know how it turns out.
