Shelf Reliance Leaders: Shelf Reliance Freeze Dried Vegetable Review

Product Review: Vegetables

Things to know about Shelf Reliance Vegetables:

Vegetables rehydrate well in simmering water. They take between 7 and 10 minutes. It is possible to rehydrate in cool water but it takes much longer (15-20 minutes) and who wants to eat cold veggies?
There are a few vegetables that rehydrate very quickly. Mushrooms, spinach and onions all rehydrate very quickly (20 -30 seconds max).

My Favorite Vegetables:

1. Freeze Dried Spinach—if I could only have one freeze dried vegetable this would be it. I love how easy it is to use and how true it measures. If you need 1 cup of cooked spinach, like in lasagna, then you need one cup of freeze dried spinach.
2. Freeze Dried Broccoli— ugly but delicious. Rehydrates fabulously, taste terrific.

My Non-Favorites Vegetables

1.     Garden Vegetable Seeds—were a huge disappointment. I really wanted these to be amazing but they aren’t.
2.     Green Beans—this is a personal preference, but I don’t really like them I think they are kind of tasteless. With that said I have a lot of customers that LOVE them. So try them for yourself.
3.     Freeze Dried Tomatoes—every time I have cooked with these they have disintegrated. I also think they are kind of pricy.

Freeze Dried Broccoli

· Freeze dried broccoli is ugly. The florets are very small and the can is mostly full of stems. But it is delicious.

· It has a clean fresh broccoli taste.

· It cooks up soft. I have never had it go tough or be woody.

· My favorite recipe: Vegetable Risotto

Carrot Dices

· Carrots don’t freeze dry very well. Luckily carrots do dehydrate well. These carrots are dehydrated.

· The carrots come in a brunoises or tiny cubes, about 1/8^th of an inch. This is the perfect size for adding carrots to soup or casseroles.

· Because the carrots are dehydrate the “grow” quite a bit with added to water. They also take a long time to rehydrate.

· My favorite recipe: Food Storage Carrot Cake

Freeze Dried Cauliflower

· Freeze dried cauliflower is ugly. The florets are very small and the can is mostly full of stems. But it is delicious.

· My favorite recipe is: Baked Cauliflower Ziti

Freeze Dried Celery

· I LOVE freeze dried celery. It is one of the first items I purchased from Shelf Reliance and it is fabulous.

· It is pre washed and precut (all the freeze dried products are) so when I am making dinner I just grab and handful and throw it into whatever I’m making. No more buying an entire stalk of celery and just using one or two pieces then letting the rest go bad in the fridge.

· My favorite recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup
1 cup FD Chicken
1 cup FD Chicken
1/4 cup FD Celery
1/4 cup FD Onion
1/4 cup dry Carrots
1/4 cup FD Potatoes
4 cups water
4 tsp. chicken bouillon
Add all to soup pot. Heat over medium heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Freeze Dried Sweet Corn

· This is my kids’ favorite. They love to eat it dry out of the can as a snack.

· Rehydrates very well. Tastes much like fresh corn.

· My favorite recipe: Silken Corn Soup by Chef Todd

Garden Vegetable Seeds

· These were a big disappointment. I bout a can, stored it for a year and then used the seeds to grow my garden. The seeds did not grow well, only about ¼ of them germinated.

· You can read more about what comes in the can here.

Freeze Dried Green Beans

· I think these are kind of plain to eat dry but when rehydrated they are good.

· I have a lot of customers comment on how they think these taste just like fresh.

· My favorite recipe: Garden Salad

Freeze Dried Mushroom Pieces

· These mushrooms are like magic. They rehydrate in about 2 seconds and you can use however many you want. This is great if you have both mushroom lovers and mushroom haters at your house.

· My favorite recipe: Spinach Mushroom Quesadillas

Freeze Dried Onions, Chopped

· Tiny puffs that rehydrate quickly

· In soup freeze dried onions float, this is kind of weird.

Onions Chopped

· Finely chopped onions that take a few minutes to rehydrate.

· Milk onion flavor.

Freeze Dried Green Peas

· Great for snacking. When rehydrated taste much like fresh peas.

· My favorite recipe: Creamed Peas and Potatoes

Split Green Peas

· Very green and very clean. They are prewashed and sorted so you don’t have to worry about finding stones.

· My favorite recipe: Crock Pot Split Pea Soup

Crock Pot Split Pea Soup

1 lb. pkg. split peas

1 onion, diced

2 qt. water

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

l tsp. salt

2 Ham hocks

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Remove ham bone, cut off meat and dice. Return meat to soup. Makes 8 servings.

Freeze Dried Green Bell Peppers

· Large slices of green pepper. Rehydrate nicely for cooking. Not crisp enough to use for dipping when rehydrated.

Freeze Dried Green Chili Peppers

· LOVE the freeze dried green chilies. They are super flavorfully and cheaper then purchasing green chilies in the small cans.

· My favorite recipe: Chicken and Spinach Taquitos and Thrive Green Chili Dip

Mixed Bell Peppers

· These are dehydrated. It is a mix of red and green peppers that are finely chopped. Many customers LOVE these.

· My favorite recipe: Mango Chicken Stir Fry

Freeze Dried Red Bell Peppers

· Large slices of red bell peppers. They rehydrate nicely for cooking. They have a true red pepper taste.

· My favorite recipe: Pasta Florenitne

Potato Beads

· Instant mashed potatoes. They come in small “beads” and you just add hot water. These are very similar to “potato pearls.”

· My favorite recipe: Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes

Potato Chunks

· These dehydrate potatoes are a small dice (about ¼ of an inch square). They work great for soup.

Freeze Dried Potato Dices

· Freeze dried potatoes, are soft and can be eaten without cooking. They cook up nicely.

· My favorite recipe: Potato Gnocchi

Freeze Dried Spinach

· I LOVE freeze dried spinach. I put it in everything. I love that it is washed and “preshrunk” meaning that the water is already removed so when you cook it doesn’t shrink down like fresh spinach. It is in small pieces. Not appropriate for salads.