How to Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves
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Dehydrating pumpkin leaves is one more way to help preserve your pumpkin harvest and use it all year long!
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.
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.
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
- Pick tender, young, soft leaves
- Wash thoroughly
- Remove stringy veins if necessary
- 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 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
How to Make Green Pumpin Leaf Powder
- Once the leaves are dry, place them into a blender of your choice
- Pulse until broken down
- Increase grind to create a powder.
- 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.
- 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
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.
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.
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
Dehydrate Pumpkin Leaves and Make Pumpkin Powder
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
- 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
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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