by Barbara J. Willenberg
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
University of Missouri-Columbia
Dried vegetables and fruits provide convenient and delicious additions to family meals. They can be used alone, in combination with other foods, or served for an accent to add flavor. Most uses require that the food be rehydrated, usually referred to as refreshing. Refreshing is done by soaking or cooking (or a combination of both) the dried food in water until the desired volume is restored. The amount of water and the length of time needed to refresh 1 cup of dried food can be found in Table 1, page 2.