Kale Chips & Other Dehydrator Treats

Recently on the MSSF list, someone asked about dehydrators.  As part of the vegetarian minority in the mycology world, I had a sense that a lot of folks only use the dehydrators for drying mushrooms.  When I looked at dehydrators, I wanted to make sure that I got one that was the most versatile and useful for many different uses.  I mentioned all the different sorts of things that I make in my dehydrator and had plenty of positive responses from folks who wanted some ideas for kale chips and flax seed crackers.

I started off with a round dehydrator with a warming element in the bottom, no fan - and realized that it didn't work very well for a lot of things.  Probably if I was just drying slices of mushrooms cut to fit in the shelves, it would be ok but it just didn't dry evenly and couldn't dry faster than mold could grown on some wetter fruits.

About three years ago, I bought my Excalibur Dehydrator as a factory refurb from E-bay, and I have never regretted it.  It can handle so much more than just drying mushrooms, fruits & veggies! 


Jenn's Dehydrator Treats Primer

Teriyaki Almonds

1. Sprout some raw almonds - make sure you rinse & change the water a couple times; of course it is better to use distilled water or water that has been boiled & cooled (I use what's in my teakettle) than straight tap but use what you have.
2. In your Cuisinart with an S-blade - mix up a nice batter of raw dates, ginger, garlic and nama shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce)
3. Mix that onto the almonds, put them on a teflex sheet (or parchment paper) 
4. Dry at 105 for several hours.  That's similar to the "I Am Spirit" recipe from Cafe Gratitude (super yummy teriyaki almonds - heck yeah!)

Kale chips:

1. Use any kind of kale - I prefer lacinato/dino kale; you can also use other greens like spigariello or chard - wash the kale and spin dry or spread on towels
2. Using scissors, trim out the biggest part of the stem/rib, then cut the kale into 2" pieces (more or less) 
3. Put all kale into a bowl, drizzle with a few tsp of olive oil and massage with your fingers til softened 
4. Mix up your "batter" - I do it in the blender - and it varies depending on what I have in the house, usually I will throw a small red onion, half a red bell pepper, several cloves of garlic, some minced ginger - all into the blender.  Add nutritional yeast & raw tahini, the juice of 1 or 2 lemons (or limes).  Taste the batter - it should be something you want to keep licking off your fingers - if it is too thin, add more nutritional yeast or tahini (raw cashew butter also works).
5. Taste and adjust spices - when the batter tastes  FINGER LICKING GOOD (I am not kidding!) - pour it over the kale chips - not all at once.  Use a rubber spatula to gently mix and work it in with your fingers so that both sides of all kale gets covered. 
6. Spread out the kale onto teflex sheets (or parchment paper) - in as much a single layer as you can.  
7. Dehydrate on 115 for the first half hour or so, then reduce to 105 - or just leave at 105.

If you have any batter left over - it's great as a base for salad dressing - or get out some other greens (chard & spigariello work great for chips too).  It's a great way to get your greens!

quick cooked kale chips - just rub kale with olive oil, mix with black pepper & sea salt and put in the oven on a cookie sheet at 200 - not raw, but they crisp up super fast and make a great appetizer for a dinner party - your guests will be shocked that they just wolfed down 2 whole bunches of kale in the form of chips!  :)

Raw Crackers - I confess, I grind up my flax seeds.   Our human teeth are not tough enough to break open the flax seeds to get out all the nutrients, so my crackers are usually something like this:

1. Grind up 1 c of flax seeds & soak in water - add water as needed - may take a few hours or overnight
2. Soak 1 c raw almonds til they sprout, rinsing & changing water as needed
3. When all flax & almonds are ready - grind the almonds in the cuisinart then add to the flax seeds and mix in 2-3 cups raw veg pulp from juicing carrots or other veggies, along with a little salt (I use my Kitchen Aid for this)
4. For more flavor - put red onion, garlic, tomatoes (fresh or sun dried), parsley/cilantro/rosemary into the cuisinart and chop the heck outta them - add to the cracker "dough"  - nutritional yeast is also yummy
5. Using clean, wet hands - spread onto teflex sheets - flaxseed crackers don't shrink as much as buckwheat crackers, so just make sure there are no bare spots on the teflex - about 1/4" thick is good
6. Use the back of a bread knife or some kind of spatula, score the wet cracker dough on the tray to the shapes you want - big or little, square or rectangle
7. Dehydrate 115 for first hour or so then reduce to 105 til crispy

I have made crackers with beet pulp mixed in with carrot and the cracker dough - with onions & parsley added in - looked just like meatloaf!

With the crackers - it's ok to go crazy with fresh herbs - but be careful with dried herbs and salt - you don't want your crackers to be too salty or taste too strongly of one particular dried herb (or maybe you do...  just keep in mind that dried herbs & salt don't reduce in volume like fresh herbs/veggies).

Feel free to drop a line and I'll be happy to talk you through anything.  I'm going to make a big batch of flaxseed crackers later this week if you want to come over and check out the process.

Flaxseed Crackers - the latest experiment

THERE IS NO WAY you can screw up flaxseed crackers if you have a good blender, soak the hell outta your nuts, and use good fresh or dried ingredients and don't abuse salt or any powdered spices.

This week's experiment in sweet flaxseed-almond crackers was an attempt to make a raw biscotti.

Orange-Cranberry Almond Flaxseed Crackers
2 c. orange pulp (from juicing) & zest from as many oranges as you have patience to zest with your microplane
1 lb frozen cranberries, defrosted and pulsed in the blender or food processor
2 c. raw almonds, soaked and sprouted and pulverized into med (smaller than coarse) pieces
2 c. flax seeds, pulverized in your blender and soaked with 4-5 c. water
1 c. agave
1 t. sea salt of your choice (I like pink)

Mix it all together - add some raw cacao powder if you want to get fancy. Spread it out on your dehydrator sheets and put it in the dehydrator. Make sure you pop any unbroken cranberries (makes nice red splotches).

Yum. Pictures coming if I can manage to take any before I eat all these.

New Theory of Flaxseed Crackers

FLAXSEED CRACKERS are yummy. No two ways about it. I have been looking at recipes and instructions over the last several months but didn't get off my duff to actually make any until I had some crackers at my friend Kiera's house on New Year's Day with some of my own persimmon chutney. She bought these tasty crackers from Trader Joe's - but I thought, "Hell, it's a LOT cheaper to make them."

So, off and running. I read up on some recipes, checked out my Cafe Gratitude and other raw foods cookbooks and put together my first few batches of flaxseed crackers. One batch was flaxseeds and black sesame seeds with tomato curry catsup that I made (I know, not entirely raw), the other batch was full of hot yellow curry powder and garlic powder. Both batches came out really well.

Third batch, I went a little crazy - I used raw cacao powder, sprouted the hell out of some almonds and mixed it together with ground flaxseeds (soaked after grinding) and agave and turned out some crazy delicious thin, crispy flaxseed cookies.

Fourth batch - I really went nuts. Not only did I juice 10# of carrots and 5# of beets, but I used the pulp from my Breville juice fountain in the flaxseed crackers. Here's a list of the ingredients I combined for this batch of crackers:

Garden Veg Flaxseed Crackers

• 2 c. beet pulp
• 4 c. carrot pulp
• 3 c. flaxseeds ground and soaked with as much water as you need to use
• 2 c. almonds, soaked and sprouted
• 1 c. dried tomatoes, soaked and pulverized in blender or food processor
• 3 jalapenos
• 1 red onion
• 10 garlic cloves
• 1 c. nutritional yeast
• 2-3 Tb of Miso Master mellow white miso (this stuff rocks!)
  
• Fresh rosemary, oregano, thyme, cilantro and parsley from the garden, pulverized in blender

Really, for this you can pretty much add any vegetables you have in the house. I recommend soaking dried veggies so that they pulverize more nicely, but as long as you can mix and spread the mixture - and taste it! - you will have yummy crackers. Don't add salt - sprinkle a tiny bit on top of the crackers at the end if you want to add some because you have to remember that this is all going to dehydrate and any salt will be intensified greatly.

Long after pulverized the ingredients in my Breville Die Cast Blender and trusty ole Cuisinart, and blended them in my Kitchen Aid mixer, I realized that the mixture looked exactly like meatloaf.

After 36 hours on low - they crisped up nicely. I know I saved some photos of the finished crackers somewhere, so I will dig those out and update this posting later.

My theory? You just cannot screw up flaxseed crackers. There's no way.