[Weston grower]

I'm going to try drying some onions in the oven - was successful doing this with tomato glut.

Has anyone tried putting the dried result thro the food processor to crumb them so that they take up less space in jars?

Regards WG

[Annen]

I dried a few slices in the dehydrator, didn't try them crumbled but used them in soup and they seemed okay.  The only thing I didn't like was the whole house seemed to smell of onions for ages after 

[New shoot]

Not done it with onions, but have with dried garlic slices (dehydrator not oven) and it was a success.  If you find they are not easy to process, bag them up and freeze them, then process while frozen.   Some dried foods go more leathery than 'rattle in a jar' dry and the processor struggles to get a grip on them 

[Trillium]

I've done many items like that - tomatoes, mushrooms, ginger, lemons, garlic, parsley, etc. You do need a good chopper for the job, preferably electric. I got a dandy at a charity shop for little money and I dedicated it to powdering these veg. Onions will be easy if they're very dry, almost crispy.

Once ground, they need a tight seal or they tend to clump.

[Weston grower]

Just seen someone on the net suggesting roasting the onions to give them some colour & flavour before you dry them. Sounds interesting. I suppose that I would need to give them a mist spray of oil before I did this?

[Trillium]

I'm puzzled how that could be done, westongrower, because oil won't dehydrate as such. Any such film would leave the onions tacky and subject to bacterial growth, not to mention how bad aging oil can smell. Better to dry the onions plain then do the fancy stuff after they're rehydrated.

Frankly, I'm amazed at how many new 'know-it-alls' are out there advising people on 'how to do things' but don't know squat, and risk the health of others.