If bananas don’t grow well in your area of the world, you might like some of these dehydrated banana chips ideas. Although they are cheap and plentiful right now, once the supermarkets no longer exist you’ll be stuck eating only the food that grows in your climate. If you’re in the upper Midwest like me, you can kiss bananas goodbye unless you preserve them now.

Dehydrated banana chips are the easiest option for storing bananas longterm. They are a great source of vitamins and minerals. Plus, they are more versatile than you might think!

If you want to watch someone make dried banana chips, this video from is a great step by step demonstration. The video is only a few minutes long so you can get a quick overview of how it works to dry bananas.

 

How to Make Dehydrated Banana Chips

You can make dehydrated banana chips with a dehydrator or even in the oven. Either way, chill the bananas in the refrigerator for a while before you slice them. Make sure to cut them evenly and don’t overlap them, which makes it harder for them to dry.

Spritz them with lemon juice before you start dehydrating. The process will take between 6 to 12 hours. If you choose an oven, set the temperature at about 130 degrees. If you’re dehydrating more than one type of food, don’t mix them in the same batch or else you’ll get overlapping flavors and uneven drying.

For more tips on dehydrating, check out this article: Precautions For Dehydrating Food

http://www.patriotheadquarters.com/precautions-dehydrating-food/

 

Variations on Dehydrated Banana Chips

●    With peanut butter

Spread the peanut butter over the banana slices or put them in a bag and add a little water. Shake gently until the peanut butter covers the banana, then dehydrate them like normal.

●    With nutella

Same as with peanut butter. It’s a lot easier to keep the bananas from getting mushy if you have chilled them before coating them.

●    With cocoa

Sprinkle cocoa on the bananas or completely coat them in a bag. You might like to add a bit of sugar to the cocoa for a sweeter taste.

●    With cinnamon

Don’t completely coat the bananas in cinnamon because the taste is a little strong. This method works best if you load the bananas in the dehydrator like normal and then sprinkle a little cinnamon over them. Try mixing in a bit of nutmeg or cloves for different tastes.

●    With coconut

Mash up the bananas in a bowl and mix in dried coconut flakes. Line your dehydrator with plastic wrap and spoon out the mixture by the teaspoon. Flatten the lumps a bit with the back of your spoon and let them dry like normal.

●    Glaze with honey

Mix some honey with some water in a small bowl and load the bananas in the dehydrator like normal. Then brush them with the watered down honey for a candied effect.

●    Fruit leather

If dehydrated banana chips aren’t your thing, you can puree them and dry them as fruit leather instead. You may need to add water to the mix at first to get it runny enough to lay flat in the dehydrator.

●    Dried fruit salad

Once you’ve got dried banana chips, you can mix them with other types of fruit for a dried fruit salad. Just make sure you don’t put all the fruit in the same batch to dry out, or else the flavors will get all mixed up.

●    Mix in trail mix

Dehydrated banana chips are great in trail mix. Mix with nuts, chocolate chips, and other dried fruits for a delicious snack with a great shelf life.

●    Eat with yogurt or ice cream

You might not have access to fresh yogurt or ice cream in a survival situation, but in the meantime, dehydrated banana chips are delicious with a scoop of vanilla or chocolate.

●    Chop or grate and add to cookies

Bananas can be used in place of eggs in vegan recipes because they help give baked goods structure. Vegan might not be your thing, but if you don’t have a coop out back it might be hard to come by eggs in a survival situation.

●    Trail mix energy bars

Mix trail mix, dried bananas, peanut butter, oats, and honey for easy energy bars.

●    Banana Pudding

Add some water or milk back into the dried bananas and let it reconstitute for instant banana pudding. Eat it plain or bake it into a pie!

Storing Dried Banana Chips

For long term storage, you can keep dried banana chips in a jar or can with an oxygen absorber. As with any sort of food storage, keep them in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. A mylar bag is a good choice to for storing foods in medium or long term storage.

This video uses cranberries that were purchased from the store, but the principles of how to store the dried fruit are the same. Notice she uses a mylar bag with a great zipper plus an oxygen absorber for the best results.

How Long Do Dehydrated Banana Chips Store?

If you properly dry can dried banana chips with an oxygen absorber, they can last up to 15 years.