These days I dry as many vegetables as I freeze or can, and then use up every shriveled squash or tomato by winter’s end. Cooking with dehydrated vegetables is an everyday thing at my house, with quite a bit of variation from year to year, depending on what I manage to put by. In a typical summer, I will dry several quarts of tomatoes and summer squash, two pints of peppers, and smaller amounts of celery, kale, mushrooms, leeks, herbs and other random tidbits.

Then what? How to cook with dehydrated vegetables is the first question asked by gardening friends, and it deserves a thoughtful response. Most of us are not accustomed to cooking with dehydrated vegetables, which is easy and fun.