Fresh vegetables in most cases have low keeping quality. A shopper can buy them in times of abundance at a low cost only for them to spoil. A good way to save on these is to buy dry vegetales during periods of glut since the prices are lower and they are likely to last longer. Some people even purchase fresh vegetables and dry them.
I've purchased dried tomatoes before (although I suppose technically that's a fruit?) and dried onions. I don't tend to purchase anything else dried, though. I prefer fresh where possible. I also grow my own fruit and vegetables though so I have a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. That means I don't feel the need to buy much dried overall. I will purchase dried herbs though. I find they can be just as good for the few herbs I seem to really struggle to grow myself (such as basil, which always wilts a lot because of the gas in my house I think).
I really don't purchase dried vegetables but if I really wanted some dried vegetables I would be apt to either dry them in the oven or possibly purchase a food dehydrator. They last a long time so that is one perk of these vegetables. I do sometimes buy dried fruits and eat them in cereal. I have also dried some of my own fruits. You can easily make banana chips and they are really good.
We don't have that many dried vegetables options here or maybe I'm just forgetting or not noticing but we do have a lot of dried fruits which I do buy a lot and I most of the time buy them for a healthier option as snacks. It's one of my favorite things to snack on especially when I find myself buying too much junk food and feel like I have to tone it down a little and start eating a little healthier. We live in a tropical area so we do have lots of fruits and vegetables available to us so dried fruit is somewhat popular here though regular ones are still way more popular.
Fortunately as I grow all my own produce and always have an abundant year round supply and any excess I generally much prefer to freeze rather than dry as they taste way better preserved that way - apart from peppers and tomatoes which are delicious when dried and stored in olive oil - buying dehydrated vegetables is not something that I ever have to consider doing. That said - although I agree that having a stock of dehydrated vegetables would obviously be extremely useful for major disaster emergency/survival situations - for everyday use - considering that not all vegetables taste too good when dried and if looking to save money - there are much cheaper, easier and less time consuming ways of preserving vegetables - than dehydrating them and also that they take way longer to prepare than fresh, canned or frozen vegetables and of course that if buying them - the majority of store bought dehydrated foods are not particularly flavorsome or healthy - especially as they are generally loaded with chemical additives, salt and sugar - there are way better options. For example - bearing in mind that - as all fresh produce can be frozen and stored for up to a year in a freezer and also that the majority of produce can still be dried even if its previously been frozen - should you wish to - a much healthier, tastier, easier and more cost effective alternative to regularly consuming dried vegetables - would be to bulk buy fresh seasonal vegetables and freeze them yourself - as not only is most produce at its best and in plentiful supply at those times - but more importantly - as all vegetables and fruit are generally sold at much lower prices when season - the savings made from doing the latter - would be considerably greater than they would have been - had you chosen to dehydrate the vegetables instead of freeze them.
I'm not even sure I'm familiar with dried vegetable LOL I just tried to refresh my memory, but couldn't remember ever seeing them anywhere. So I guess the answer is, no I don't buy them. I don't know how I feel about the idea, but I'm curious. I'm nipping into town shortly, so I'll keep an eye out. The one thing closest to that I've ever bought is sun-dried tomatoes, but they were in olive oil.
We are choosy with the quality when it comes to food but we are somewhat frugal. Like the fruits, we buy fruits in season because they are cheap so why buy fruits that are rare (not in season) and expensive? With vegetables, there are also cheap vegetables depending on the season. During the rainy season, the cost of tomato is jacked up while lettuce and other greens are cheaper. So why buy tomato instead of broccoli and lettuce? In other words, we only buy cheap vegetables unless it is an important ingredient in the dish that want to cook. One good example is the fern which is so good when mixed in the sour soup. But it is only cheap during the rainy season so we seldom buy fern during the hot summer.
I've never seen many dried veggies at the store, do you go to a specialty shop for these? I tend to buy a mix of fresh veggies and frozen. Sometimes I will buy canned tomatoes or corn but the majority of veggies I don't like canned. Frozen ones seem to come out much tastier, I just wish I had a bigger freezer!
I have a dehydrator. It's way better to just leave that on overnight and dry some stuff out, but I like keeping vegetables raw because I juice them too
I haven't bought any dried veggies unless veggie potato chips count as dried veggies. I like frozen to dried veggies. I have eaten dried fruits like cranberries, dates and figs they taste very good and no sugar added but sweet so we like them at our home.
^ Definitely recommend getting a dehydrator if you want veggie chips. You get to control what goes on them and they are insanely cheap when you're buying your own veggies. We're talking average of 50 cents per lb of veggies, dehydrating to $1-1.50 a lb, vs 8 oz's of chips costing $4-5 worse quality.
