How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (2024)

8/5/2014

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How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (1)

My Personal Experience with Making Cuke Chips

I decided to try making cucumber chips for two reasons:

  1. I love chips of any kind, the lower calorie, the better
  2. I have a cucumber population explosion in my garden


I did some research on dehydrating cucumbers because it's one of the few things I have never dehydrated before. It's not rocket science, it's pretty
straight forward. This is how I did it:

Updated 2019

How to Make Them:

1. Washed and dried 6 medium cucumbers
2. Sliced them with a sharp knife about 1/8 of an inch thick
3. The slices that I planned to make with the salt and vinegar recipe (for me was about half, since it is my favorite)
I placed in a covered bowl of red wine vinegar, over night.
4. I sprayed the trays of my dehydrator with cooking spray, because cucumbers are bad to stick. If you don't have cooking spray, then you can oil them with your fingertip dipped in olive or your preferred oil.
5. Place the slices on the trays, and sprinkle them with
the desired flavoring mix.

How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (2)How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (3)

6. Turn on the dehydrator to 135 degrees. Check after four hours. If they look fairly dry on top, flip each slice over and sprinkle with more seasoning. Mine were not ready for this until after dehydrating for six hours, probably because my dehydrator is kinda old. Your results may vary
7. At ten hours, I started checking about every 30 minutes. When they are crunchy, through and through when you bite into them. they are done.

Five Recipes to Flavor your Cucumber Chips

I decided to get creative when I was making the chips and flavor them. Salt and vinegar is my favorite potato chip variety, so that was definitely going to be the biggest part of them. I also decided to try some other flavors, just to see if they were good. I used the recipes that I had for making flavored potato chips. I tried all of them except the really hot one. I included the hot one here because I know a lot of people like hot stuff, but I cannot attest to how it tastes on cukes. Make it at your own risk! :P

Salt and Vinegar

  • Red Wine Vinegar or whatever vinegar you prefer
  • Salt


Soak slices overnight, then salt slices on the dehydrator rack

Spicy

  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Garlic Pepper

  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

Lemon Pepper

  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Smokin' Hot Chips

  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes

Sorry, I don't have a picture of this recipe, I didn't make it because we don't care for hot chips.



When the chips were done, this is what they looked like. Despite the cooking spray I put on the trays, some of them still were stuck.

How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (9)



This is the net product of seven trays. Four trays of salt and vinegar and one tray each of the others. These are sandwich bags.

If you are not used to dehydrating, it is a bit disappointing the net product that you get from all those trays. However, you have to remember what a large part water plays in vegetables. There is a good amount of water in cucumbers, so when it is removed, whats left is much smaller. The good news is, that my cucumber chips are a success! Both my husband and I like them. While they will never be as good as potato chips, they are crispy and tasty and will help with those salt/crunch cravings. They also will give us another avenue to use the cucumbers that continue to flood out of the garden!

Next I plan to try dehydrating some squash chips. I seem to have a proliferation of butternut squash, so after I freeze enough to last us the winter, I will be drying some chips. I will let you know how that goes.

Have a great week,

Jade :)

If you want to learn all there is about drying food, this is the book you want:

How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (10)How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (11)

I loved this book because it covered more than just dehydrating with a food dehydrator. It also covers sun drying, oven drying, air drying and even drying in the microwave. The author gives her opinion of the benefits and drawbacks of each method.

In addition to that, food storage is also covered in this book, as well as how to use dehydrated food and she even provides a lot of recipes for using dried foods.

This book is really all you need, if you want to learn to dry food. I highly recommend it.

Other Posts on Dehydrating

If you enjoyed reading about my adventure with dehydrating cucumbers, you may want to have a look at the posts I wrote about dehydrating bananas. That was an adventure also!

Yes We Have Some Bananas, We Have Some Bananas Today - Post 1
The Dehydrating Banana Update - Post 2

21 Comments

How to Make Cucumber Chips & Five Chip Flavoring Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you add flavor to cucumbers? ›

Marinate them:

Marinating cucumbers can infuse them with a burst of flavour. Slice the cucumbers and place them in a bowl with a mixture of vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and your choice of herbs and spices. Allow the cucumbers to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Can you dehydrate cucumbers as chips? ›

Dry at 135 degrees F for 6-10 hours. The time will vary based on how thick your slices are. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can make these in your oven using the lowest setting, usually 200 degrees. They will take about 2-3 hours but be sure to check regularly because they can go from done to burnt very quickly.

How do you make cucumber powder? ›

All you have to do is place your dry cucumbers into the magic bullet or a coffee grinder and grind them into a smooth, soft powder. Make sure your cucumbers are fully dry. Otherwise, the pieces might stick together, and your mixer will not powder it properly.

What gives cucumber its flavor? ›

C6 aldehydes and alcohols give cucumber its distinctive grassy, green aromas[9,10], while C9 aldehydes and alcohols contribute the typical flower-like qualities[11].

What makes cucumbers taste better? ›

Cucumber skin often contains more of the bitter compound than the flesh. Removing the skin helps to remove much of the bitter flavor as well.

Do dehydrated cucumbers taste good? ›

Cucumbers are easily preserved, much like plums or nectarines. As such, it would be logical that eating dried cucumbers would be just as tasty. You can put whatever flavor spin you want on the fruit too. Go savory or sweet, either works beautifully on cucumber.

Do cucumbers need to be blanched before dehydrating? ›

Vegetables that do not require blanching include onions, celery, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, zucchini, cucumbers and garlic and also herbs. Broccoli and cauliflower do not dehydrate well.

Why do Asians rub salt on cucumbers? ›

Cucumbers - rolling in salt

Doing so will remove the stipples (bumps) and refresh both the color and flavor. This preparation method is called “itazuri” in Japanese. The recommended amount of salt for 1 cucumber is about 1/2 to 1 tsp. After performing itazuri, quickly rinse off the cucumber and then cut up.

Can dogs eat cucumbers? ›

Can Dogs Have Cucumbers? Cucumbers are perfectly safe for dogs to eat, and offer a low-calorie, crunchy snack that many dogs love. Cucumbers only contain about 8 calories per one-half cup of slices, compared to the 40 calories in a single medium dog biscuit. Cucumbers are also very low in sodium and fat-free.

How do you make cucumbers happy? ›

Cucumbers will grow quickly with little care. Be sure they receive an inch of water every week. Make the most of your food growing efforts by regularly feeding plants with a water-soluble plant food. When soil is warm, add a layer of straw mulch to keep fruit clean and help keep slugs and beetles away.

How to make cucumbers crunch? ›

The secret to making sure the cucumber stays nice and crunchy is to draw out the excess water. Some people like only to use salt, but I find using half salt and half sugar help flavor the cucumber while ensuring that the cucumber stays nice and crunchy! Add 1 Tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of salt to the cut-up cucumber.

What does boiling cucumber do? ›

Cucumber water is a very hydrating drink. It has many potential health benefits, including weight loss, lowering blood pressure, helping bone health, and improving skin health. It is straightforward to make, and people can enjoy it at any time.

What not to mix cucumbers with? ›

Therefore, most of the time, the combination of cucumber and tomato is advised to be avoided. Additionally, they both have a completely different way of digestion, so this combination must be avoided as it can lead to stomach upset."

What Flavours work with cucumber? ›

Herbs: Cucumbers pair well with fresh herbs such as mint, dill, basil, and cilantro. Dairy: Cucumbers pair well with dairy products such as yogurt, sour cream, and cream cheese. Vinegar: Cucumbers pair well with vinegars such as rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and white wine vinegar.

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