One of the easiest, cheapest and healthiest snacks I make my kids is dried banana chips. My son absolutely loves them! We buy a couple of bunches of bananas at Costco for $1.39, slice them up and put them into the dehydrator and at the end of the day we have enough snack food for a couple of months. They are great to store a sandwich bag of in your purse for those days when your kids are starving but you somehow have used up all of the snacks you have stashed in your car. This may happen to me on occasion. My kids are always hungry! I love keeping them in my purse instead of granola bars because dried bananas weigh a lot less and it helps keep my purse from getting too heavy.
Gather all of your ingredients. Just two ingredients here! Try not to look at the sad bunch of bananas on the right missing a few of it’s mates. We may have gotten a little impatient waiting for our bananas to ripen and eaten a few. Make sure your bananas are not overripe. The drying process intensifies the flavor and if you have any sort of blemishes when you are drying the bananas it can cause your dried fruit to go bad faster. I do not dry my bananas all the way to crispy since my son likes them a little chewy. I would not feel comfortable storing our chewy bananas long term so we eat them within three months. For long term storage they will need to be dried until crispy and kept away from moisture, heat and light during storage. If they go bad and you do end up throwing a few into the compost bin remember, the whole bunch of bananas cost $1.39 so you are not breaking the bank tossing questionable food out. Always err on the side of caution!
First things first, squeeze your lemon into a strainer that has been placed over your large bowl. This will catch any seeds or large chunks of pulp. I used a hand held juicer to get every last bit of lemon juice out of the lemons since they are a little on the older side.
Next add your cold water. I filled the bowl most of the way and left room for my bananas.
Lay out your trays and bowl in a way that optimizes speed. I like to have my bowl right next to the tray that I am working on so that I can quickly place my banana slices onto the tray. Not pictured here is my compost bag which I forgot to get out until after I had sliced my first banana.
I put a towel under my tray so that the extra liquid doesn’t spill everywhere. Lemon juice can stain towels so it is best to use an older one. I rinsed my towel in some water as soon as I was done to minimize any acid spots.
Slicing in progress! I put my banana peels directly into the compost bag for easy cleanup. My banana slices were a little thick this time but if that happens it is ok. They will just need to be dried for longer.
Place your bananas on the tray after swishing them around in your lemon bath. The banana slices should not be touching but they do not need a lot of room in between since they will shrink down quite a bit. Always rinse your hands thoroughly after placing your bananas so that you do not have lemon juice sitting on your hands. The lemon juice can be an irritant plus you do not want to spread it all over your knife and work space.
Once you have slices all of your bananas place them into the dehydrator. My almost two bunches of bananas made two and a half trays but I didn’t really place them optimally since I knew it wouldn’t fill the dehydrator. Make sure you leave empty slots between your trays if you don’t fill the dehydrator so that the air will circulate better.
Easy clean up! I make sure and scrub the counter really well after making anything with lemon juice so it won’t stain our awesome laminate counter top…
I usually check my dehydrator after a few hours and rotate the banana chips as needed. We got about a half of a gallon sized Ziploc bag out of our bananas. We eat them almost every day so they should last 2-3 months. I store them in the dark pantry away from moisture. Every time I open the bag I give it a little sniff and check to see if I smell anything funky. I also look over the bananas pretty frequently to make sure they are not changing color or growing anything obvious but you should be able to smell if they have gone bad pretty quickly. We haven’t had any problems with our bananas but I make sure not to make more than what we can eat in a few months.
If you are going to store your bananas for more than a few months you should dry them until they are crispy and store them in a vacuumed sealed container in a cool, dry place. It is important to get as much moisture out as possible and keep the oxygen out if you are planning on using them for long term storage.
Here are some websites with great tips for using your dehydrator for every day items and long term storage:
National Center for Home Food Preserving
What healthy snacks are you making at home?
Dried Banana Chips
Make these super easy banana chips for a healthy snack!
Ingredients
- 2 or more bunches of bananas
- The juice of 1 lemon
Directions
- Step 1 Juice your lemon into a strainer held over a large bowl. You can use cheesecloth as well.
- Step 2 Add enough cold water to the bowl to fill it most of the way but leave enough room for your sliced bananas.
- Step 3 Slice 3 or 4 bananas into the bowl and stir. It doesn’t matter how thick you slice them but the thicker they are the longer they will take to dry. It is more important that they are uniform in shape.
- Step 4 Stir your sliced bananas a bit then lay them out on your dehydrator trays. I place a towel under the trays to absorb any extra juice.
- Step 5 Repeat slicing and placing your bananas until you have either filled your trays or used all of your bananas.
- Step 6 Place bananas into the dehydrator at 135 degrees for about 8-12 hours.
- Step 7 Rotate and check the dryness of your bananas every few hours.
- Step 8 Place into a Ziploc bag and enjoy!
