Patent ID: 7438943

Claim:
A method for preparing roasted vegetables and fruit, wherein the method comprises: (a) cutting at least one cleaned, whole vegetable to produce vegetable parts; (b) drying the vegetable parts with a fixed bed convection dryer to reduce the moisture level from 10% to 65% from the starting moisture level of the vegetable to produce partially dehydrated vegetable parts; (c) roasting the dried vegetable parts with a flame for between about 0.25 seconds to about 15 seconds to produce dehydro-roasted vegetable parts; (d) branding the dehydro-roasted vegetable parts with a branding device by contacting the surface of the dehydro-roasted vegetable parts with a branding device for less than or equal to about 2.5 seconds, to produce a dehydro-roasted vegetable food product; and, (e) further treating the partially dehydrated vegetable parts using a process selected from the group consisting of freezing, drying, freeze-drying, treating with preservatives, placing in an acidified solution and canned, placed in an acidified solution and refrigeration packaged, and combinations thereof.