How To Survive On Freeze-Dried Vegetables
Have you often wondered if you could survive on freeze-dried vegetables? Do you sometimes wonder how do they taste? What do they look like? Here’s the deal, with freeze-dried foods you can literally eat most of the vegetables right out of the can.
Get A Can Opener
Be sure and get a good can opener, friendly reminder. Yep, we need to be able to open those #10 cans. I think I have ten can openers stashed throughout my emergency preparedness stockpile. If you can cook from scratch you can cook with any of the freeze-dried vegetables.
You don’t need a special food storage cookbook because these vegetables are just vegetables with the water removed. Dehydrated foods must be cooked, but I will talk about them another day. You don’t need a special cookbook for them either.
Freeze-Dried Food
You can throw the freeze-dried vegetables in any soup base if you have rehydrated them with tepid water, you just drain them and add to your pot of soup. They cook faster than dehydrated vegetables, so therefore, we would use less power or zero power if we ate them directly from the can.
If you are using a water-based soup you can just throw the veggies into the soup without having to rehydrate them in water first. If you use a cream-based soup you will want to rehydrate them or the soup may become too thick.
Either way, they are easy to use and taste as close to fresh vegetables as you can imagine once we rehydrate them. They taste a lot better than canned vegetables, plus, the variety is endless.
Let’s be honest here, they are not exactly the same as fresh vegetables, but they taste great! Let me give you some ideas on the different ones I have and use regularly. The fabulous part about these is the fact we don’t have to wash the vegetables, cut, chop or slice them!
Plus the companies like Augason Farms, Thrive Live and Honeyville freeze-dried vegetables have a shelf life of 20-25 years unopened in optimal storage conditions. Please do not store any food storage in your hot garage. I only store my food storage in my home, and it’s a small home.
My favorite soup bases:
Here again, you can always make it from scratch, but if I have to feed 30 people dinner after a disaster, I want a soup base that tastes good and I just have to add water and heat them through, and then add the veggies. This is one of my favorite soup bases, do I like all the ingredients in them, no, but beggars can’t be choosers after a disaster.
One of the reasons I like to buy soup bases even though they have a short shelf life (5-10 years) is the fact I just have to add water and not use my dried butter or instant milk. The freeze-dried vegetables only have the vegetables in the cans, nothing else added in the brands I buy.
Augason Farms Beef Flavored Soup Base or Augason Farms Cream of Potato Soup Base
I have seen Augason Farm’s soups online and at Walmart in the food storage sections. All you do is add water and some vegetables and cook the soup.
Freeze-dried vegetables for soup:
The freeze-dried vegetables only have the vegetables in the cans, no other ingredients are added to the brands I buy.
Pros of freeze-dried vegetables:
They have a long shelf-life, typically 20-30 years, depending on the temperature of the room where they are stored. You can eat them directly out of the can. They cook up faster than dehydrated veggies. They will use less fuel to cook.
Cons to freeze-dried vegetables:
They cost more than dehydrated ones, which some people say are too expensive. I look at it this way, they use less fuel and last longer on my shelves.
My favorite freeze-dried vegetables:
Broccoli:
They are great for soups, omelets, and casseroles
Corn:
Kids love to eat this corn right out of the can, great as a side dish, in a soup, and in stews
Cauliflower:
They are fabulous in soups, you can make a skinny pizza crust with them, too
Celery:
I use these almost daily in stir-fry dishes, soups, casseroles, and in stews
Green beans:
These taste great right out of the can, in casseroles, soups, as a side dish, great in stir fry dishes
Green bell peppers:
These are great in casseroles, soups, stews or omelets
Green peas:
They taste great right out of the can, great with creamed chip beef on toast or biscuits, great as a side dish
Green onions:
I use these all the time, in my homemade salad dressings and any casserole that calls for green onions
Mushroom pieces:
The first thing that comes to my mind is pizza, casseroles, mushroom soup, omelets
Onions (chopped):
I use these every day, in stir-fry dishes, soups, casseroles, omelets
Potatoes (diced):
These are great fried in butter as a side dish, in soups, casseroles, cheesy potatoes and stews
Red Bell peppers:
These are great in casseroles, soups, stews or omelets
Spinach:
I don’t care for cooked spinach, but I use this in my spinach dip on the back of the Knorr’s Vegetable soup box.
Tomatoes diced:
These can be used in an omelet, casserole, soup, stew or salad dressing
I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use freeze-dried vegetables in your kitchen. I don’t use all my freeze-dried vegetables every day, but the ones I use the most are, onions, celery, green onions, green bell peppers, and red bell peppers.
When I buy these they last longer than fresh and it keeps me out of the store, which I think saves me money in the long run since I’m not tempted to buy stuff at the store while there.
Final Word
I’m surprised how much the cost of all food storage continues to escalate, but we don’t want to be dependent on others after a disaster. Please buy one #10 can or pantry size can a month, or more often, as your budget allows. May God bless our country and world at this time. I see some rough times coming and I want all of us to be prepared for the unexpected.
My husband is a backpacker and we have been using freeze dried for years. I love buying single ingredients and creating my own meals to our tastes. Love the long shelf life and ease of use.
Hi Liz, I love the long shelf life as well. I love to hear you cook from scratch with the ingredients. Linda
Since most likely I’ll just be preparing meals for two post event (unless more family comes by), I have a large selection of freezer zipper top bags and rechargeable food grade desiccant packs. So when I open up a can of FD food and need to save the rest, I can pop in a desiccant pack and put the rest of the food in the bag before storing it in the can (with lid of course.) This will give me the most flexibility using cans of FD food since I won’t have to be playing beat the clock on the food going bad due to exposure to moisture or bugs….I use the freezer bags since they are thicker which means better quality and less likely to puncture.
And a solar oven makes it easy to recharge the desiccant packs in a grid down event, just have to make sure the oven doesn’t get too hot.
Hi Dmwalsh, see how prepared you are! I love it! I store a lot of freezer bags as well, they are so much stronger. Linda
Many of the freeze dried foods can also be found in smaller mylar pouches that hold 4 – 12 servings. This has been a welcome way for the two of us to build a surplus, as well as customize menus in our long term food storage totes. We can add what we like, not waste our funds on meals or foods we don’t like.
The company we deal with the most has monthly specials and then twice a year extra deep discounts on case lots of single freeze dried foods. We are now at a place where we can save up to take advantage of the really good discounts offered at these times to add extra proteins and extra drink mixes,fruits and vegetables. On our next purchase this fall, we will be concentrating on adding extra freeze dried beans and rice.
Hi BDN, please share the name of the company you like using! I know my readers would love to know about specials! It’s so awesome when you sign up for company emails you find out about the bargains. No pressure, just share if you are comfortable telling us. Linda
I just ordered your book off Amazon. You are such a blessing to us all with the information you gather and share all of the time. I gladly purchased the book to have the info at my fingertips. Thank you for all of your work.
Hi Pam, you just made my day! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, this means so much to me. Hugs from Utah, Linda
I am interested in the “dried” butter…you can’t freeze dry butter so I am very curious. I have been freeze drying my own stash of emergency food. I recently did a good bit of vegetables from frozen. Love reading your helpful messages and have made some of your recipes.
Hi Martha, I have yet to try a butter I like in a #10 can for food storage. Some of the companies say it tastes like Land O Lakes, I don’t think it does. It’s fine for baking but that’s about it. Is this what you are talking about when you say dried butter? Linda
Linda, the company I was talking about is based in Utah. It is called My Patriot Supply. Their website is : mypatriotsupply.com
We first bought from them about 6 – 7 years ago. We started by ordering their 72 Hour Sample kit. I chose to buy from them because they used produce & ingredients that were non GMO, ingredients were produced in the US. Servings were generously sized. The meals were easy to prepare, tasted like real food. The meals were not full of salt or fillers. The food was reasonable in price.
We prepared several of the meals and served them to family and friends when we had get togethers while camping. No one could believe that they weren’t eating homemade from scratch soups, casseroles or crockpot surprise!
This company carries a lot of different preparedness supplies. There are long term freeze dried food kits, even a really great freeze dried coffee. There are case packs of the smaller mylar pouches of freeze dried foods, as well as #10 cans of the freeze dried foods. There are books, triple sealed non GMO heritage seeds and many other preparedness & survival supplies.
I’ve ordered a lot of seeds from them… many were organic, all were Non GMO heritage varieties. The seeds were in larger quantities than what I found at other online vendors and were very reasonable in price. The packaging was superb! I am using 5 year old seeds and still getting very good germination rates.
Anyway, I think My Patriot Supply is worth a look.
Hi BDN, thank you! I will check out their website! I just signed up for their newsletter. The website looks awesome! Thanks for the tip! Linda
I wanted to say that I tried some freeze dried strawberry ice cream many years ago. One of my uncle’s offered it to me and my two brothers and while it tasted good, I thought it had the consistency of styrofoam, but crispier. It didn’t diminish our enjoyment, but it’s very different.
Like I said, it tasted good, but I was wondering if all the freeze dried foods were the same in texture and crispiness or chewiness, etc?
And another question for you Linda is how long can one expect well stored dehydrated foods to last? Can we expect even 5 or 10 years?
Hi Frank, that’s a really good question. Commercially processed dehydrated food has a much shorter life. It’s so frustrating to me when people write about storage times and they are dead wrong. Now, I was told by a reader I was dead wrong on some storage times. I do a lot of research and yes, I could be wrong occasionally and I will own it, trust me. BUT, I 69 years old and I have my Master Canning and Preserving Certificate that took about 12 weeks to pass. Now, I’ve been canning food for 60 years or at least when I could handle putting fruit in jars. Here’s the deal, if we use a FoodSaver the food we store has a shelf life of one year. The bottles we can or pressure can have the same shelf-life. Have I eaten bottled peaches that were three years old? Yes. The food value goes down but it is edible. Now another thing we have to consider is the temperature of where we store our food storage. My garage gets up to 110 degrees so I cannot store any food outside. I also can’t afford to keep my A/C in my house to 60 degrees so that 25-30 years goes way down. Maybe even to 15 years. Frank, let me tell you one thing about freeze-dried food. I did not care for the ice cream sandwiches. Yes, they tasted like sweet crunchiness but not ice cream. I wish you lived closer, Frank, Thrive Life and Honeyville sell the best freeze-dried foods. Let me say one more thing, I do not buy meals, I only buy freeze-dried fruit, vegetables, (I do buy some dehydrated potatoes), freeze-dried meats, cheeses, etc. Would you please send me your address to: foodstoragemoms@yahoo.com I want to ask you some other questions. You have followed my blog for a very long time and I want you to know what good freeze-dried food tastes like. Linda
Linda, once you open the can or bag a BDN was talking about, how do you store what is left. We are simi beginner preppers. So I always read your news letter /blog for help and info.
Thank you for all your wisdom
HI Angela, thank you for your kind words. If I open #10 cans I remove the oxygen absorber and place the contents in an airtight container. I have used OXO containers and even 2 or 3 wide mouth quart size mason jars. I would do the same with any bags. I hope this helps. Keep on prepping. Good job! Linda
We have used the spinach in smoothies and crush and toss into pasta dishes, the kids don’t mind it in their mac and cheese.
By soup bases, do you mean the soups from Augason Farms that say they have a 25 year shelf life? We only have 1 but its good to know if the shelf life is really shorter.
Hi Megan, do the new ones show 25 years? I just saw this: ( Potato-Shelf-life up to 10 years), (Chicken noodle-Shelf-life up to 25 years). I only looked at two soups. I need to try it in pasta salad, a great idea!!! The mac and cheese is a great idea!! Awesome! Linda
Maybe it just depends on the type. The Hearty Vegetable one I bought says 25 years.
I haven’t thought of using spinach in a pasta salad, we’ll have to try that. Chicken alfredo is another dish we add it to a lot. We did learn that if you aren’t going to use the FD cans up in a couple of months its better to put them in another container so they don’t absorb the moisture.
Hi Megan, I thought you said you used spinach in pasta dishes. LOL, I misunderstood. Anyway, I always put my FD food into other containers and remove the oxygen absorbers. I’m really glad you let me know about the soups from Augason Farms. I would love some that have a longer shelf-life like 25 years. Linda
I think the shelf life depends on the amount of fat in it and how cool it is kept. Canned food will last a long time, past the best by date. The nutrition is less than freeze dried. Some of these replies I do not agree with, as for the date on canned items. I do have a freeze dryer and package most of my things in mason jars and use a vacuum sealer. I have done this for years with FD food. No problems. I have sealed in jar meals that are 7 years old, good seals and they are just fine. Canning, you need to know what you are doing. Avoid using anything that is bulging, leaking or doesn’t smell right or look good. Botulism, you can’t smell and can be present without any of these signs. Pressure can any low acid food. Veggies and meat.
Hi Sandy, it really does depend on the kind of food and the amount of fat and temperatures it’s kept at makes a lot of difference. Botulism is scary, we can’t take any chances that’s for sure. Linda