Waste Not, Want Not: Why and How To Preserve Microgreens
Life comes and goes in seasons. Has that been your experience? It’s sure been ours! Everything ebbs and flows and staying afloat in the midst of life’s peaks and valleys is a goal for many! To even things out as much as possible, it’s often helpful to preserve what’s good when what’s good is also abundant. Along those lines, preserving food when high quality food is available in abundance is like budgeting. Budgeting is a valuable life-skill. We’re of the mind set that preserving is a valuable life-skill as well! Less waste, extended shelf-life and usefulness in a variety of new ways make preserving microgreens a responsible process to learn and incorporate into your household and kitchen.
Eating healthy should taste amazing!
That’s what we believe, and we want to help you improve your health by sharing nutritious recipes that are mouthwateringly flavorful.
Sign up below to join our mailing list where you’ll get imaginative ideas and helpful information related to nutritious home cooking that pleases the palate!
Sign Up Now!
When to Preserve Microgreens; In Times of Plenty!
Regardless of what season it is outside, our greenhouse is pumping out microgreens. Abundant microgreen yields, along with herbs harvested from our family’s garden this past season have provided us with lots to preserve lately, and now that the herbs have dried, we figured it’d be a great opportunity to dehydrate fresh microgreens along with our harvest of herbs.
If you’ve got microgreens in your fridge and a dehydrator in your pantry, now is as good a time as any to test out making a microgreen powder to preserve and save these nutritious, colorful, and tasty foods for later.
How To Dehydrate Microgreens
Making a microgreen powder is simple, and quick—compared to other things you might dehydrate, like meats. We recommend purchasing a dehydrator, but there is plenty of info available on the internet about using an oven to dehydrate, and there are folks that air dry microgreens as well. Do what pleases you! If, you use a dehydrator, since every dehydrator is different, it’s important to get to know the one you’ve got—and follow the recommended instructions that are specific to your dehydrator for the most appropriate temperature and length of time necessary to complete the drying process for microgreens. If there is no guidance on microgreens in the manual for your dehydrator, look for guidance on herbs and that will get you off to a good start. In our experience, a few hours on the lowest setting—around 110° F—does the trick.
Here are a few notes that may be helpful:
Spread out the microgreens so there is as little overlap as possible. This will help ensure an even dry for all of the greens.
Check in on the microgreens to make sure they’re drying evenly. If you need to rearrange the greens to break up clumps, etc., do so to make sure everything gets dried.
Some greens, like broccoli or mustard, are so small (especially when dried), that they’re likely to fall through the open spaces of the trays. Lining each tray with parchment paper will keep the dried greens on the trays. This is helpful if drying different greens on different trays and aiming to keep the greens on each tray separate. NOTE: DO NOT USE WAX PAPER!
The Finished Product: Microgreen Powder
The end game of dehydrating microgreens is a microgreen powder that can be stored for later use. Once the greens have been dehydrated, it’s time to turn them into a powder. How? All great options, but the choice is yours: by hand, mortar and pestle, or a food processor. Our mini food processor created the texture shown in the photos, which is super-fine. By hand or with a mortar and pestle will be a much more coarse texture.
Keep in mind, before storing microgreen powder, it must be dry!
Drying the greens completely is the job of the dehydrating process, however, leaving the power open in a dry environment for a day or so after dehydrating may be helpful. Moisture content leftover in the microgreen powder is a problem. Do not store microgreen powder in a closed container until you are confident the powder is dry!
What To Do With Dehydrated Microgreens
The options are endless! Add dehydrated microgreen powder of sweeter greens—like pea shoots or cantaloupe shoots—to smoothies. More savory microgreen powders—like mustard or radish—can be added to soups or sauces just as you’d add dried herbs. Looking to create your own customized seasoning blend? Add a variety of microgreen powders to your salt shaker! The options are limited only by your imagination. Experiment and have fun with trying out new ways to incorporate the powder into your meals!
Preserving fresh produce is responsible in so many ways. Fiscally. Environmentally. And… it creates shelf-stable foods that extend the useful life of abundant crops. If you’re of the waste-not-want-not mentality, you’ll love microgreens fresh, and preserved as well! To make the most of your microgreens, dehydrate them, create a powder, and explore the new world of nutrition, flavor, and color dried microgreens has to offer.
Smoothies, soups, sauces, seasonings… look out!
Are you as healthy as you want to be?
We want to help you eat healthy.
We also just so happen to grow local, nutritious, organically-grown food.
Now is the time to take action—to prioritize good health!
It’s as simple as that.
What are you waiting for?
