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How to Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves

Dehydrating pumpkin leaves is one more way to help preserve your pumpkin harvest and use it all year long!

Pumpkin leaf and green pumpkin powder on a wooden surface with small pumpkin and serving dish

If you grow your own pumpkins (or any squash for that matter), you don’t have to simply preserve the pumpkin itself and let the leaves die!

Pumpkin leaves are perfect for making green powder to add to the rest of the green powder stash you generate from things like spinach, kale, etc.

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In fact, many garden leaves are perfectly edible and can be added to your green powder ingredients list:

Vegetable Leaves That are Edible

Aside from lettuce, spinach, kale, and other greens grown specifically for their edible leaves, there are vegetable plants that have edible leaves, as well.

Just a few are:

  • Beets
  • Broccoli / Cauliflower
  • Carrot / Parsnips
  • Celery
  • Onion tops
  • Pumpkin and other squash
  • Radish
  • Sweet Potato
  • Turnip
  • Zucchini

Tips for using edible leaves from vegetables

Pick young, tender leaves. As the leaves mature, they tend to turn bitter, tougher, or, as in the case of squash, spikier.

The vein of a pumpkin leaf showing fine hairs

How to Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves

Equipment Needed

  • Knife
  • Dehydrator – I happen to use an Excalibur Dehydrator, but any dehydrator will work. And if you don’t have one, look below for instructions to dry pumpkin leaves in your oven.

Instructions

  1. Pick tender, young, soft leaves
  2. Wash thoroughly
  3. Remove stringy veins if necessary
  4. Roll into a cigar
  5. Cut into strips
  6. Place on dehydrator trays
  7. Dry at 125°F / 52°C until crisp
  8. Condition.
  9. Store in an airtight container for up to a year.

Oven Drying Instructions

  • Place leaves on cooling racks over cookie sheets
  • Set your oven at its lowest temperature (preferably 170°F or less)
  • Dry for 3-4 hours until crisp
Dehydrated pumpkin leaf powder in a Nutri Ninja blender cup

How to Make Green Pumpin Leaf Powder

  1. Once the leaves are dry, place them into a blender of your choice
  2. Pulse until broken down
  3. Increase grind to create a powder.
  4. Place back onto dehydrator trays (a muffin cup or coffee filter helps) and dry for another hour -or- put into a warmed oven for 15-20 minutes to dry.
  5. Store in an airtight container.

How do I use Pumpkin Powder?

Much in the same way that you use other green powder.

  • Sprinkle in smoothies
  • Add to your morning scrambled eggs
  • Use as a seasoning in a rice dish

Dried Pumpkin Leaf FAQ’s

What does a pumpkin leaf taste like?

Less bitter than even kale, surprisingly. I don’t find them bitter at all. The texture is denser than spinach but less leathery than mustard or collard greens. Using younger leaves will get you best results.

How to use dried pumpkin leaves?

Use them like you might dried spinach or kale. Flake for dishes like rice or a casserole. Larger pieces can be used in soups and stews.

Do I need to blanch pumpkin leaves?

No. While it is helpful to blanch pumpkin leaves the way you might eat spinach or kale fresh in a dish to help remove the oxalic acids that keep your body from absorbing key nutrients like calcium and iron, the dried leaves will be cooked in the dish of your choice, accomplishing the same task.

More Ways to Use Pumpkin

Dehydrating Basics & Journal book and ebook mockup
Pumpkin leaf and green pumpkin powder on a wooden surface with small pumpkin and serving dish

Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves and Make Pumpkin Powder

How to make the most of your pumpkin harvest by dehydrating not only the flesh or seeds, but the leaves as well, to add to a nutritious green powder.
Print PIN THIS! Rate
Course: Preserved Food
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegetarian
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Drying Time: 7 hours
Total Time: 7 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 1 Cup
Calories: 7kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

  • Pumpkin Leaves

Instructions

Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves

  • Pick tender, young, soft leaves and remove stringy veins if necessary
  • Wash thoroughly
  • Roll into a cigar
  • Cut into strips
  • Place on dehydrator trays
  • Dry at 125°F / 52°C until crisp
  • Condition
  • Store in an airtight container for up to a year

Oven instructions

  • Place strips of pumpkin leaves on cooking racks
  • Dry in a 170°F degree or less oven for 4-6 hours until crips
  • Condition
  • Store

Make Green Pumpkin Powder

  • Once leaves are dry, place into blender of your choice
  • Pulse until broken down
  • Increase grind to create powder.
  • Store in an airtight container for 4-6 months

Video

Darcy’s Tips

Use pumpkin leaf (any kind of edible squash plant works as well as sweet potato vines) as you would any green powder. This helps boost nutrition without adding extra flavor.
  • A small scoop into any casserole or stew/soup
  • Add 1-2 tablespoons to tomato sauce
  • Add a scoop to your morning smoothie
  • Add a scoop to scrambled eggs. Work your way from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon until you find the blend you like best.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 7kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.2g | Potassium: 170mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is an estimation only. Nutrient information for dehydrated foods is based on fresh. Use 1/4 of the servicing size for the same nutrient information. Thus 1 Cup of fresh fruit has the same sugars as 1/4 dried.

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