Any Raw Foodies in the House?

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by RedPanda

So my questions are:

* What other uses do you guys have for dehydrators?

* Is it hard to get the hang of using one?

Thanks in advance!

I have a 9-tray Excalibur, and I highly recommend it.

I use my dehydrator for:
marinating veggies (mix with oil, something acidic--like lemon/orange/lime juice or a vinegar, and a bit of optional salt and put the veggies in the dehydrator for about an hour. Gives them a cooked texture and intensifies the flavors. I've done this with mushrooms (with oil and Nama Shoyu, an unpasteurized soy sauce), a mix of red pepper/onion/mushrooms/zucchini/chopped spinach and olive oil/chili powder/cumin.

Reducing sauces (put in an open container and let dehydrated for about 1-2 hours to thicken and intensify flavors.

Making crackers/wraps/cookies/burgers.

Warming foods (20-30 minutes at 110-115 degrees), especially soups.

Fermenting nut 'cheeses' and 'yogurt'.

After soaking nuts and seeds (I think the 'no-diet' guidelines prevent me from commenting on why I do this ), I dry them in my dehydrator. You can also make seasoned nuts by adding herbs and seasonings and/or oil/soy sauce.

Homemade fruit leathers are yummy! I made some just out of ripe bananas buzzed in the blender (with the intention of using the 'sheets' as wraps for another recipe, but it was so good, I ate it as-is!).

You can also use it to dry garden produce (like if you have an overabundance of tomatoes) or herbs (and you can save money by buying things in season and drying for later use).

You can also dry flowers in them.


I find they are easy to use, though it takes a bit of practice to get the right consistency and spread for things like wraps. But once you know how to do it, it's easy to come up with your own recipes.

Another benefit to a dehydrator: it's pretty easy to figure out how to make some raw foods that you can buy in the stores, once you try out some techniques. The store-bought stuff is pretty pricey, but making it yourself is much less costly (though it takes prep and drying time). I just found some organic daikon radish, and I plan to try making some "sour creme and onion' chips with them, using a recipe similar to the one I use for cheezy kale chips (inspired by some that I bought):

Cheezy kale chips:

Advanced prep: soak 3/4 cup raw cashews in 1 1/2 cups water for 4-6 hours, then drain and rinse well. (You can also use pine nuts, or even macadamia nuts, but they don't need soaking.)

Prepare the kale.
Use one bunch of dino kale (also called lacinato: it's the non-curly, dark, flat type of kale. I've also used curly kale for this recipe, and it's tasty, but doesn't have the same 'chip' texture). That's approximately 15 leaves.

Remove both sides of the leaves from the stem by cutting along the side of the stem with a knife or kitchen shears.

Cut each side leaf into 2-3 'chip' size/pieces (just cut across the leaf in 1 or 2 places). If there is thin leaf material left where the bottom of the stem was, save these as scraps to add to a green smoothie (see my recipes for ideas) or to chop and add to salad or soup.

Put the kale 'chips' in a large mixing bowl.


Prepare the sauce:
In a high-powered blender or food processor, blend together:
1 cup of the nuts or seeds
1 1/2 T. lemon juice (about 1 lemon's worth)
1 T Nama Shoyu (unpasturized soy sauce. Can use other soy sauce, or miso and water).
1 tsp dried onion powder or flakes (if not using a Vitamix or other high-powered blender, it might be best to grind the flakes up beforehand, either in a small personal blender, like a Magic Bullet, or with a mortar and pestle, to make sure the onion will distribute evenly though the sauce. You can also use about 1 T chopped fresh onion, but I have not tried that version yet.)
1 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, or 1 T nutritional yeast powder.

Blend or process until smooth, adding water as necessary to get a 'cheese sauce' texture.

Taste and adjust flavors as necessary, to suit your tastes (more nutritional yeast? a bit more lemon juice for tartness? a dash of salt? Caution: the onion and salt flavors will intensify with dehydrating, so they should be a bit milder than you like.)

Pour 1/2 the sauce over the kale then (this is where you get to 'play' with your food!) work the sauce into the kale with your hands, using a massaging or kneading motion. You are both coating the leaves with sauce, and breaking down the fibers of the kale a bit through the kneading action, the heat of your hands, and the lemon and soy sauce from the sauce.

Once the sauce seems evenly distributed, add the rest and repeat.

The kale should have decreased somewhat in volume (a sign the fibers have broken down a bit), and each piece should have a light coating of sauce on each side.

Place the leaves on dehydrator sheets (no teflex sheet--solid sheet--needed) and dehydrate at 105 degrees until the chips are crispy. I dehydrated mine for about 36 hours, but dehydration time varies depending on ambient humidity, and how much water you added to the sauce (and, I suppose, how 'juicy' the kale is).

[Pat58]

I keep reading the updates to this thread with interest and am going to try some of the recipes - but to do this full time sounds like so much work! It seems like having a part-time job!

[RedPanda]

Thanks Kathryn! Those dehydrator ideas sound yummy!

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by Pat58

I keep reading the updates to this thread with interest and am going to try some of the recipes - but to do this full time sounds like so much work! It seems like having a part-time job!

It's really not that much work, it's just that it's different from what we're used to, so there is a learning curve.

It can be as time-consuming as you want it to be: there are several raw-food recipe books out there that have more complicated recipes that take more time and planning, though there are many others that have recipes you can throw together in about 10 minutes. And once you get down the 'how-to' for certain things, you don't even need the recipe anymore, and can make it even faster.

Also, it takes more time in the beginning as you get used to things (probably just like learning how to cook did, but we did that so long ago, we don't remember).

I've found that it's good to have some free time to learn some of the techniques and get into a pattern (I'm a college prof, so I have summers off of work, which is when I was learning all these things). But if you aren't going all-raw (or high raw, which is about 80% or so, depending on whose loose definition you go by), you can easily start with one thing at a time (like learning how to make nut milks, and getting into the habit of soaking nuts ovenight and making the milks (and whatever you make with the pulp) the next day, twice a week.

And there's no cleaning ovens or cleaning baked-on food off of pots and pans, LOL!


Here's a goji-berry sauce I just made (and made up!) for a vegan potluck I'm going to (and it's delish!) (sorry no exact measurements, but that's how I roll, LOL!):
Soak about 1 cup goji berries in just enough water to cover for 2-4 hours. At the same time, soak 3 pitted medjoul dates in juice of 1/2 large orange. (next time I do this, I'll just soak the dates and berries together, and just use o.j. and not water, for more of an orange flavor).

After soaking, put the berries, dates and their soak liquid in a food processor along with a pinch of salt, 1/2-1tsp orange zest and about 1/2-1 tsp pumpkin pie spices (start with the lower amounts, blending, then tasting and tweaking.).

This is good as-is, but what REALLY makes it pop is putting it in the dehydrator in an open container (like a Mason jar) at 105 degrees for about 4-8 hours (I did this overnight because my sauce was too runny to begin with. I was afraid it would be too long, but it was perfect, and made the sauce both thicker and more flavorful...I had to quickly put it away in the fridge, because it was too tempting to keep on 'taste testing'!)

[rubyspirit]

Originally Posted by Pat58

I keep reading the updates to this thread with interest and am going to try some of the recipes - but to do this full time sounds like so much work! It seems like having a part-time job!

I soak a week's worth of nuts overnight one day a week. I let them dehydrate the next morning while I'm out for my run. Then on Saturday morning I do all my prep and fill the dehydrator. Two hours top! By Sunday afternoon, everything is ready. I may check the dehydrator and flip a few things but it works on its own. This way I can make a meal in 10 mins or less, all week long. Clean up is a breeze.

I raw foods.

Edit: Most of the food is fruits, fresh salads and dressings. Veggie wraps and smoothies. Easy.

[Kathryn]

Update on the goji berry sauce:
It was a big hit at my vegan potluck yesterday (though people were confused at first, since it's more the color of salsa than a regular cranberry sauce: they weren't sure 'what to put it on' or how to eat it. After they tried it, though, many said it was 'delicious').

[fuzzie]

I just found an interesting raw food blog with lots of delicious-looking recipes. Check-out this gorgeous vegan, raw Apple Cranberry "cheesecakes": http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/app...ry-cheesecake/

[TuesdayTaylor]

This thread is motivating. You've given me some ideas for my dehydrator. I'm definitely interested in the fast and easy raw foods.

I've been eating a 75 percent to 80 Percent raw diet for several months. I'm not fussing about being 100 percent raw - once I relaxed the raw thing became much easier to achieve. Since sticking to this raw food thing, I've lost over 10 pounds. (And I'm doing a lot of kundalini yoga - the two things seem to go hand in hand.)

The neat thing for me is usually by this time of year, I'm craving warm fatty food (I live in Ontario, Canada). This year I seem just fine with my mostly raw fruits and salads.

I was curious - has anyone gained weight from a raw diet? I ask because last year I started to try recipes from raw food cookbooks. Having a sweet tooth, I naturally started with dessert recipes. I found between trying a few date & nut based desserts and some nut milks - I started to gain weight.

Of course, the nuts and my weight gain could have been unrelated.

[Kathryn]

Originally Posted by fuzzie

I just found an interesting raw food blog with lots of delicious-looking recipes. Check-out this gorgeous vegan, raw Apple Cranberry "cheesecakes": http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/app...ry-cheesecake/

OMG, that looks delicious!

ETA: I just looked around that site a bit: really good looking recipes. Thanks for finding it, Fuzzie!

[bubbles76]

This all sounds so wonderful! Although I don't know if I'll go all raw foodie, it definitely gives me some alternatives. Keep the advice coming!