19 Tasty Things to do with Freeze-Dried Pineapple

When I first began my venture into food storage, I was met with a dizzying array of choices, among them freeze-dried and dehydrated produce. I didn’t have a ton of money to spend and had to give some serious consideration as to what I should buy.

I decided that I would buy canned, dehydrated, and freeze-dried versions of fruits and vegetables that I used most often and/or were next to impossible to grow in the Phoenix climate. Pineapple met both those criteria. I buy mine from Thrive Life, which has it in 4 different sizes, including a small snack-pack.

My kids love a good, juicy pineapple any day of the week, but the freshest ones aren’t always available. Freeze-dried pineapple has a light, sweet taste, and a nice crunch and is ready whenever you are! Even better, there’s no waste — no inedible core, no prickly outer skin, no spiky stem. Just chunks of pineapple ready to eat or include in a recipe.

Here is what I’ve discovered I can do with this tasty, tropical fruit:

1. Add it to oatmeal cookies! Yummm! You can rehydrate it first or just add a half cup or so directly from the can.
2. Add it to Oatmeal Pecan Bars! Double yummm!
3. Rehydrate the freeze-dried pineapple, and use it in a sweet-and-sour sauce for chicken or pork.
4. Add some pineapple to a chicken and veggie stir fry, along with some cashews!
5. Include it in a snack mix with other dried fruit, nuts, freeze-dried yogurt, and mini chocolate chips. Surprisingly, pineapple and chocolate go very well together, my friend!
6. Add to your favorite bran muffin mix.
7. Mix in a half cup or so with zucchini bread batter!
8. Rehydrate a cup or two. Drain and add to butter and brown sugar for a tart-yet-sweet topping for Pineapple Upside Down Cake (or muffins).
9. Mix a bit of freeze-dried pineapple in with cream cheese for a bagel topping.
10. Add a cup or two to a super simple party punch recipe: equal parts lemon-lime soda and citrus juice.
11. Mix up some pineapple cocktails for a luau!
12. Toss it into a salad, either rehydrated or not. The crunchy texture is a nice addition to a salad of greens.
13. Rehydrate half a cup or so and sprinkle it over vanilla ice cream.
14. Add it to yogurt. It tastes great with vanilla Greek yogurt.
15. Use it for a tropical-tasting smoothie.
16. Use it in place of fresh or canned pineapple in any recipe with “Hawaiian” in the title!
17. Add it to any granola recipe.
18. Sprinkle rehydrated freeze-dried pineapple over pizza, along with some chopped ham or bacon!
19. Eat it straight out of the can for a healthy, no-sugar-added treat!

Most of us can’t grow pineapple in our backyards, so having a supply of freeze-dried pineapple on hand is a great way to add a new dimension to your food storage pantry, but it’s so good, I think you’ll find many other ways to enjoy it!

Learn More About Freeze-dried Foods

If you’re new to using freeze-dried foods, you’ll want to watch my video lesson to learn the basics. But after that, check out some of these tutorials about using freeze-dried foods:

• chicken,
• cheese,
• yogurt,
• ground beef,
• and sausage crumbles.

Learning how to use freeze-dried pineapple is simple; they’re a super versatile and tasty product that I recommend.

What freeze-dried foods do you like to use? Please share with me in the comments!