Make Dried Pineapple with Zucchini

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Do you have an abundance of zucchini and have run out of ideas on what to do with them? Do you have some large ones?  Well try this Mock dried pineapple, It taste just like dried pineapple at a fraction of the cost.  Plus it is super easy to make, and the kids love them. Every time my nephew comes over he heads straight for the jar with these in them.

All you  need is a large zucchini. The smaller ones don’t work as well for this.

Frozen concentrated pineapple juice do not add water. ( It has to be frozen concentrate. Canned juice is watered down and you won’t get the pineapple flavor,)

1 cup of sugar per can of juice (optional)

Powder sugar or corn starch

Start by peeling and getting the seeds out, they should look like this.

Then slice each half into 3 slices.

Then chop into 1 inch chunks they dehydrate way down.

Pour the juice and sugar into a large pan, you do not have to have the sugar, but it does make them a little sweeter. Add zucchini chunks.

Cook down until translucence then cook down about another 30 minutes. They will start to look like pineapple chunks. Put the chunks in a colander that is sitting inside a bowl, to drain the extra juice off.

Put on your trays and dehydrate at 130 for about 12 to 18 hours depending on the size of your chunks. If you don’t have a dehydrator put in your oven on the lowest setting and prop the door open just a bit until dried.

As you can see they get a lot smaller. Take off the trays and put into a bag with a little powder sugar to keep them from sticking to each other.

You can also use any fruit juice or Kool aid ( the koolaid does need to be double strength eg. 2 packs instead of one)  for fruit flavored fruit snacks. 

I reused the juice to make another batch, you can store the juice in the fridge until ready to reuse.

These are a great snack for the kids, they are getting a vegetable and don’t even know it.

 

9 Replies to “Make Dried Pineapple with Zucchini”

  1. Vicky in Ky

    That is an awesome idea! I usually have tons of zucchini and my husband doesn’t really like it. I want to try this, however I’ve not ever seen frozen pineapple juice concentrate around here. I wonder if you could just use regular canned pineapple juice, that are sold on the shelf with other canned/bottled juices.

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      Vicky,
      I am sure you could use canned, I also have a Apple pie recipe using zucchini that if you don’t know you would swear it was apples, and a jam recipe, I will be posting these in the very near future. I have also thought about using different flavored juices instead of just pineapple, I didn’t have very much zucchini last year so I am hoping I get a lot more this year so I can play around with it a little.
      Have a great day
      Connie

  2. Vicky in Ky

    Can’t wait for the other recipes. I had so much last year. I shredded and froze the majority of it, but there’s only so much zucchini bread you can eat! Haha. I do have a great frosted brownie recipe that even my picky adult children did not realize had zucchini in it. It’s one of those, “if you don’t tell them, they won’t know” recipes.

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      Vicky,
      HaHa that is the way the apple pie is if you don’t tell them they wont know. Would you mind sharing your recipe for brownies. I would love to do a post on those while I am doing the zucchini stuff.
      Have a great day
      Connie

  3. Vicky in Ky

    I got the brownie recipe online, allrecipes.comzucchinibrownies. I have it printed out but it’s very lengthy so I think you can just google zucchini brownies on allrecipes.com if that’s not the exact address. I’m not very techy, but I google everything on my phone. Haha. Your zucchini pineapple has triggered quite an interest with me. I was talking to a coworker and found out she has canned “zucchini pineapple.” She said you can use it in any recipe calling for pineapple. She’s done it shredded or chunked. I’m thinking like wow, how much money you could save from buying those little cans of crushed or chunk pineapple. So I googled that too, and sure enough I found it and it’s water bathed canned not pressure..,even better! I’m not sure how much lemon juice her recipe calls for but she said she had cut back just a little in lemon juice and subbed with more pineapple juice because it would taste a little to lemony. So anyway, you may want to check this out in your quest for using up excess zucchini.

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      Vicky,
      Thanks, I have also canned the zucchini (pineapple) chunks, It works wonderfully, I haven’t tried shredding it though I will have to try that. Can’t wait to try the brownies.
      have a great day,
      Connie

    1. watkinsranches@yahoo.com Post author

      Monica,
      They are so good. Thanks for stopping by.
      Have a great day,
      Connie