Making Homemade Raisins

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If you want to engage your kids around healthy food in the kitchen, give them something fun to make. Oftentimes, you can make something fun by simply repurposing a scrap material that would otherwise end up in the trash.

For example:

  • Kids might enjoy using dried citrus peels to make a homemade household cleaner or blending it with other dried herbs to make an herbal tea.

  • Another fun project for the kids is to turn old bread into croutons or bread crumbs.

  • A more dramatic project is turning old plums into prunes or old grapes into raisins.

Homemade Raisins: Fun for the Kids

We made raisins recently. Homemade raisins are larger, plumper, sweeter and moister than store-bought raisins. The flavor absolutely takes over your senses!

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Rather than throwing away some organic Scarlet Royale grapes that had gotten soft and squishy, we dehydrated them for 40 hours into glorious, magnificent tasting raisins. Our one regret in this process? We did not make nearly enough!

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How To Make Homemade Raisins

  1. Thoroughly wash and de-stem the raisins

  2. Blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute

  3. Immediately soak them in cool water for about 10 minutes

  4. Dry them very well with a towel

  5. Place them on a dehydrator rack in a single layer

  6. Dehydrate for 24-40 hours at 120°F-140°F (or until they are dry enough)

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This was such a fun project! The kids and I got to see how one staple fruit of our household could be transformed into another, seemingly different fruit.

Plus, we also got to dehydrate some soaked almonds, walnuts and pecans at the same time as the raisins.

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How to Use Kitchen Waste Materials

Of course, carrot tops can be boiled to make soup stock. The stems and leafy greens of beets and kohlrabi can be thrown into smoothies, added to a quiche or eat in a salad. 🥗 And cauliflower leaves can be dehydrated into cauliflower chips. (They taste like a milder substitute for kale!)

If you really want something the kids will enjoy, though, making raisins is high on the list.

What are some fun ways that you have transformed potential waste materials in your fridge into a new dish or snack?

Direct message me on Instagram or Facebook with your culinary ideas!