To see the Excalibur dehydrator I currently use, click here. For a complete collection of dehydrators offered by Amazon, click here.
Today I’m sharing a video with you on how I use my dehydrator to make my own instant rice. This saves me lots of time AND money, and I can have rice ready to go with a meal in just a few minutes.
Links to all products mentioned in the video are below. Thanks for watching and be sure and subscribe to my Youtube channel by clicking here.
Using a dehydrator to make your own instant rice from bulk rice.
Wanna see how I dehydrate frozen veggies to save freezer space? Click here
- The dehydrator sheets I use can be purchased at 9 for around $10 by clicking here.
- I am using an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator with a timer. You can read more about it by clicking here.
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To see the Excalibur dehydrator I currently use, click here. For a complete collection of dehydrators offered by Amazon, click here.
“There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.”
~Calvin Coolidge
Yum 
Amazing tip Christy! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much Vonnie!
I never would have thought of doing this in my dehydrator. What a tremendous ides. It will save me a lot of time. Thanks so much for your creative ideas Christy..
Thank you so much for sticking with me, Bev!
Christy, do you salt the rice when you cook it before dehydrating?
I don’t because I never know how I’m going to use it. I just salt it if need be while rehydrating or after.
What a great idea! Don’tcha think this will work the same for brown rice? We try to eat more brown than white, but the brown rice can take up to two hours to cook. I’m not always THAT on top of the dinner game to think about starting rice around 3:00 🙂
I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I love brown rice, too! I just use white rice mostly because it stores indefinitely but brown rice is amazing!
Thanks Christy for the tip. i often wondered if I could do this myself. by the way I love how little Katy Rose is peeking through the window behind you with her little hands on the window as if to say I am here too, what a way to start a video with a picture of your beautiful little sidekick.
Thank you for taking the time to make the video. What a great idea!
Hey Kristy, great Idea, and I might try it, although I don’t eat a lot of rice because it spikes my blood sugars so badly.
I have another thought for you try taking a rolling pin and rolling the dehydrated rice lumps and they should crumble down finer. The reason I say that, is I have limited storage space, and if I can get more in a jar or whatever its better.
I have dried local berries and used them later, works great, but you do have to dry them further than leathery stage, like hard marble stage, so they take a bit longer to reconstitute but they work just fine.
You are a genius Eva!!!
Thanks for these great tips you are showing. Some of these ideas I’ve done myself, but others I haven’t thought of. I’ve never used a dehydrator, but I think that’s something I’ll be trying.
I love mine Noreen, I hope you will enjoy one just as much.
Have you done this with brown rice?
I haven’t tried it with brown rice yet but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Oh Christy, the Corelle dishes in the video, are the same pattern my parents used for everyday. Now my husband and I use them! Thank-you for all of your help with the dehydrating tips too. It’s something we’re thinking about purchasing so, we will appreciate any recipes in the future. You’re such a sweetie too!
Oh my goodness, don’t you just love those dishes?!! They are some of my favorites!
I’m sorry, but these videos don’t work for me … I get a lot of starting, stopping, and pausing. All of which mean I don’t see a coherent message. Is there any chance that you could just go back to using written words? Or more written words to go with the video?
Hey Joan! My mother has the same problem where she is. In her case it is the Internet connection. I’m afraid that’s the one thing we can’t remedy. However, I continue to do my recipe posts and stories in print at the same pace I usually do. These videos are just in addition to that.
Hopefully you’ll still hang around for those because I love having you here!
Gratefully,
Christy
Thanks for the videos, Christy! One thing about this one: the CC is wacky and some words show up that I know you didn’t say (a little vulgarity here and there O.o ).
I much appreciate this idea, though. And the one about the veggies was a “duh” moment for me. I never thought about dehydrating already frozen vegetables – only fresh. Thanks again and have a wondrous day! 😀
Whew! I didn’t realize this would even have captions available- eek! The last one, I spent over an hour typing them myself. I didnt hear from anyone that they were particularly helpful so decided not to caption others. Thank you for your faith in me 🙂 I definitely don’t talk like that!
I’m glad you still got some useful info but I’m sorry you had to wade through that to get it. I’ll see if I can disable captions today.
I have the same problem. It’s a Google Chrome issue. Unfortunately there is no real way to fix it. It is really bad if you have Win7 Professional. What is happening behind the scenes is Chrome or Win 7 Pro will take your CPU to 100% making it next to impossible to watch any sort of youtube video. And it is only a youtube issue. other video hosting sites work fine.
Wow, Christy,, GREAT idea! A food dehydrator has been on my wish list for this spring. I plan on drying tomato sauce and putting up in jars to make a ton more room on my canning shelves! Now I will try this one also and use the brown rice.
Hi Christy,
How much water do you add when you are reconstituting the rice? Is it 1 cup water to 1 cup rice? Thanks for the dehydrator ideas. I have one but hardly ever use it but am going to dust it off now!
Hi Christy,
I am having the same problem as some of the other ladies with the video showing all the way through. I was so excited about seeing it as I just now bought the very same dehydrator as you have, and I am anxious to use it. Dehydrating rice is brilliant!!! I am going to see if I can find the written message about the method. Thanks so much for all you do, and God’s blessing on you new book.
Hi Christy,
I do not like the sticky rice that you are showing coming from your rice cooker. I have a rice cooker and use it all the time!!!! I always, always wash my rice before I cook it. All you have to do is use a mesh strainer and rub your rice together and rinse it until the water runs clear. It is the only way that I use regular rice for a meal. It sounds hard but it is very easy. I always add about 2 tablespoons butter after I have washed the rice and have it in the rice cooker. Let me know if you have any questions.
I rinse mine a few times too. The problem here is that I had to let it sit so I could go get the kids from school and then do the video. So I did it for yall;)
Is the dehydrator recipes (making your own instant rice, dehydrating frozen veggies, etc) in any of your cook books? Great ideas, Thanks
No Ma’am, I’m afraid they aren’t. I was really taken aback (and thrilled!) by the interest in my dehydrating! I’m enjoying sharing it with all of y’all but I just didn’t expect folks to be as interested as they are! lol
Christy, I for one would love some more dehydrating recipes. Drying frozen vegetables, imagine that! All that hamburger meat will no longer take up so much room in my freezer. Please, keep’em coming…I really enjoy your site, family stories, recipes and words of wisdom. God’s blessings on all of you.
I am going to work on a few more Sharon, I never dreamed they would be such a hit! Blessings to you and your family!!
Gristly,
Just wondering how dehydrating affects the Vitamin content of the food.. wouldn’t the Water soluable ones be gone??
Oops… Christy, ….
hee hee, that was funny. I’ve been called a lot of things.. lol. Vitamin A and C do tend to decrease somewhat when dehydrating but you can add in vitamin c powder to counteract it being diminished. Otherwise, just think of it as you would the raisins you purchase in the grocery store.
When I’m dehydrating for long term food storage solutions (I don’t think you’re talking about this right now though), I do tend to also put back additional vitamins should there be a time in which we are not able to have such a varied diet.
The other night, we had fabulous casserole using wild rice which took 1 hr. to cook. Think I could
dehydrate so it would become “instant” wild rice? Thanks, Christy.
I can’t see why it wouldn’t work! While I haven’t tried it…it should!
Hi Christy, thanks for sharing this with us, its a great tips! Do you think this will work for flavored rice and pasta too? Thanks. 🙂
I can’t see why not!
Christy – thanks for this video! I have used instant rice in the past because I travel an hour each way to work & time is short when it comes to supper time! I will be putting my dehydrator to work on this one! Thanks again!!
From the comments, this is an amazing video. Problem: No speakers or headphones (yeah, im too cheap to buy more). Maybe add a transcript to the video tips for others like me?
Two questions: I have a cheaper model (round trays, white) dehydrator that I’ve had for years and want to try to use, do you think it will work for this? Yours looks way nicer than mine, not sure if there’s a lot of difference in the type of machine. Second: have you tried to ‘dry can’ this rice in the oven in small batches? I’m thinking I could make a bunch and store it this way for a really long time. Thanks for the video, this is such a great idea!
Hey! Absolutely, your dehydrator would work just fine. I used one like you are talking about for years and years. As far as the dry canning goes, you can certainly do that but it really isn’t necessary. With dehydrated foods, as long as the jar is clean it will keep for a very long time. I am comfortable having dehydrated cooked rice like this in regular jars for well over ten years, and I won’t hesitate to try it after 20 should there still be some around! 🙂
I just love you, and your awesome web page and recipes ! I have gotten so many good ideas, and so many tried and tested and approved dishes, well lets just say, my family loves your recipes as well. Thank you Christy. P.S. Oh yes. I really enjoy your blogs. and the fact you are not afraid to include the Lord as well.
Thank you so much Kathi, I am so glad y’all are enjoying the recipes!!! I hope you have a blessed day.
Can you dehydrate fresh peas and if so, do you blanch them first? What is the process?
I would lightly steam or blanch them and then dehydrate them. They dehydrate beautifully!!
Pro tip: Learned from cooking a lot of fried rice in my day. lol. Before you cook your rice; use a fine strainer and rinse your rice several times. You want to continue to rinse the rice until the water is no longer milky colored. What this does is that it will prevent the rice from sticking together once it is cooked.
Thanks for sharing your tip Brian!!!
Christy, will dehydrated rice keep it it’s sealed in one of those food saver machines ?
Sealed with a food saver machine ?
Did u add any oil or butter when cooking the rice? What temp for the dehydrating? THANK-YOU