Dehydrating Onions and Make Onion Powder

Today it’s all about homemade dehydrated onions and onion powder. These are so easy to dehydrate, no pre-treatment is necessary. Make sure you buy heavy onions for their size, in other words, they will be meatier. Keep reading to discover the secret to homemade dehydrated onions and onion powder.

The best ones to dehydrate are White Bermuda, Red Creole, Downing Yellow Globe, Southport White Globe, Southport Red Globe, Sweet Spanish, and White Creole. What I love about onions is that you can use them for so many different recipes.

Homemade Dehydrated Onions and Onion Powder

I’m not sure of the variety I used today. I purchased them at Costco and the only thing the bag said was “sweet onions.” So there you have it. I buy a lot of frozen chopped onions, but I like some dehydrated ones as well.

And there is nothing better than homemade onion powder. It’s called fresh, need I say more? It hasn’t been sitting on the grocery store shelves for months or years. It’s the best, I promise.

Dehydrated Onions

You may not know how people use dehydrated onions in their recipes. The truth is that you can use dehydrated onions in anything you’d use regular onions in. It’s great because you can use the onions for a longer period of time. If you have onions going bad, you can easily dehydrate them.

Dehydrated Onion Powder

I use onion powder in almost every single thing I cook that isn’t sweet. I think that dehydrated onion powder is great to have on hand because it brings extra flavor to so many dishes. If you are on the fence about dehydrating onions, then go for making this to find out how great a product it is!

Kitchen Items Needed

Dehydrator I have one like this: Excalibur Dehydrator
Nesco Dehydrator (more economical)
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Mason jars
FoodSaver
Accessory Hose with Lids (FoodSaver Accessory

Step One

This is how I cut onions when I buy fresh ones. I think I saw this trick years ago on some fancy food channel. It looked easy enough and I’ve been cutting them like this ever since. Cut the ends of the onions off first, then cut them in half.

Step Two

Then peel the outer skin off and discard.

Step Three

Now your onions are ready to slice and chop as desired. Please note, my eyes are not watering at all. It’s the cutting technique, I swear.

Step Four

Next, spread your chopped onions evenly on the dehydrator racks.

Step Five

If you have ever dehydrated onions, you know how strong the smell gets in your house. So, I’m dehydrating them outside on my back patio.

I have four racks to dehydrate today. I have an Excalibur Dehydrator and my dehydrator book states to set the temperature at 155 degrees.

Step Six

These took about 10 hours to dehydrate today. The length of time to dry your fruits and veggies will always depend on the humidity of the room where you are drying the food.

How To Condition Your Fruit or Vegetables

If you live where it is HUMID: “To condition the fruit, take the dried fruit that has cooled and pack it loosely in plastic or glass jars. Seal the containers and let them stand for 7 to 10 days. The excess moisture in some pieces will be absorbed by the drier pieces. Shake the jars daily to separate the pieces and check the moisture condensation.” https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/pack_store.html

I live in the DRY DESERT: I set my fruit and vegetables on my countertop for 5-7 days. Ten days is even better to make sure everything is dry before using your FoodSaver unit.

Can I dehydrate onions in my oven?

Yes, you can. Lower your conventional oven as low as you can. Place a piece of crumpled foil to keep the oven door ajar. You will follow all of the steps above as directed.

Place your chopped ovens on a cookie sheet, no vegetable spray because the onions will not stick.

You must constantly watch them while dehydrating them because they will dry faster. I would check them every 15-20 minutes because they will tend to dry out faster than you may expect.

How to Make Onion Powder

It’s really easy to make onion powder if you know how to dehydrate onions. You basically dehydrate the onions, then use a blender or Magic Bullet to pulverize the dehydrated onions.

Once you try making this fresh onion powder, there is no going back to store-bought powders.

How Do I Store Dehydrated Onions?

I use a FoodSaver to seal my dehydrated onions. As a Master Canner and Preserver, I can safely say these jars will be good for one year in your pantry.

Please do not use your FoodSaver to seal the powders, the powder may get sucked up into the accessory hose and ruin your unit. Here are the accessory hose and jar lids for regular and wide mouth jars for the dehydrated onions.

Hose Accessory Set and my favorite Ball White Lids

Health Benefits of Onions

Think about the health benefits of onions. I love the taste of onions, but I also love that there several health benefits! There are actually several health benefits from eating these, some of them I never even knew about.

Can benefit the heart and make your heart healthy
So many antioxidants
Help boost digestive health
Cancer-fighting compounds
Onions can help control blood sugar.
Onions can help boost done density

How Can I Use Dehydrated Onions?

You don’t need to hydrate them, just toss them in the recipe you are going to cook or bake.

Any casserole
Omelets
Soups
Stews
Spaghetti
Chili
Sloppy Joes

How Can I Use Onion Powder?

Basically the same as the dehydrated onions. But you can sneak the powder into food items for the picky eaters who do not like the feel of onions in their mouths.

Sandwiches
Casseroles
Soups
Stews
Chili
Spaghetti
Sloppy Joes

Are Dehydrated Onions Good For You?

If you are going to enjoy dehydrated onions, you might as well know whether or not they’re good for you. The answer is yes because dehydrated onions are low in fat, calories, and even sodium. Dehydrated onions are great in flavor, but can help you keep your nutritional goals in check.

Dehydrating Onions & Powder

Dehydrating Onions and Onion Powder by FSM

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

10 hrs

Total Time

10 hrs 10 mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12 people

Author: Linda Loosli

Ingredients

1-10 onions, peeled and chopped

Instructions

Cut the ends off the onions, then slice the onions in half, remove the outer edge of the skins. Then slice and chop into desired pieces. Set your dehydrator on your dehydrator models suggested temperature. My Excalibur Dehydrator states 155 degrees. These took about 10 hours to dehydrate them. The time will always depend on the humidity of the room you are using to dry your food. Dehydrate them until they are leathery. Let them dry another two weeks until totally dry before placing them in mason jars to seal by using use your FoodSaver. These will keep for one year in your pantry. Use the dehydrated onions to make onion powder. Place a small amount of the dry onions in a blender to pulverize them into powder. Only make powder for the month you will use it because it will lose the strong onion flavor rather quickly.

Here are the other Dehydrating Posts I have done:

Final Word

There is something awesome about knowing how to dehydrate fruits and vegetables. Have you dehydrated onions before? I would love to hear.

Let’s teach the world to preserve food, and while we’re at it, teach them to make vegetable or fruit powders. Life is so good when we’re self-reliant, right? Stay well, my friends. May God bless this world, Linda

Dehydrated Mushrooms

Mushroom Powder

Dehydrated Green Onions and Powder

4 Comments

leanne long says:

February 21, 2020 at 8:55 am

I have DH onions before and the smell is awful! It is pretty humid here in the PNW so dehydrating outside on my balcony is the only way to go but for most things (onion/garlic, other powerful smelling things) that takes a lot longer. I did really like the powders though.

I have several coffee grinders for various things – 1) coffee! 2) herbs, 3) onions/garlic 4) sugars (to powder them). I find that just grinding these things as I need them allows me to store the dehydrated items longer in sealed jars. If I am only going to use 1-2 teaspoons of herbs or onions/garlic, I don’t want a jar of the ground product and will grind as I need.

1. Linda Loosli says:
  
  February 21, 2020 at 3:15 pm
  
  HI Leanne, I totally agree. This way they are so fresh! Linda
  
Linda says:

August 3, 2022 at 11:01 am

Thank you for all the tips and I’m going to do my first batch. I was wondering, do you know what the equivalent of dried chopped onions is when a recipe calls for 1 chopped onion?

1. Linda Loosli says:
  
  August 3, 2022 at 11:32 am
  
  Hi Linda, that’s a great question. It would all depend on how small you chopped the onions to dehydrate. This is my guess, one onion would equal about 2 tablespoons of dehydrated. There are so many variables because is it a large, medium, or small onion? I would start with less and add more as needed. I hope you’re dehydrating them outside, I learned the hard way the first time I dehydrated onions in the house. LOL! Everything in the house smelled like onions!!! LOL! Linda