Tag Archives: dehydrated food recipe

Wakame Miso Nut Crumble – a perfect salad tune-up!

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Another day with the same salad? Healthy snacks nowhere to find?
There is help! If you have a dehydrator or kind-of-modern oven this recipe will brighten your day!

Wakame Miso Nut Crumble
Makes about 4-5 dehydrator trays

  • 400g Almonds, soaked over night
  • 300g Pumpkin seeds, soaked over night
  • 300g Sunflower seeds, soaked over night
  • 300g Sesame seeds, soaked over night
  • ½ c chia seeds
  • 25g dried Wakame sea weed (1 bag), crushed and soaked for 2 hours
  • 3 T Tamari sauce
  • 4 T Brown Rice Miso
  • 1 T Honey or coconut flower nectar
  • 3 cloves of Garlic, minced (Microplane)
  • 2 t natural sea salt
  • ½ t mild chili powder
  • 1 lemon, juice
  • 1 lime, juice
  1. Rinse the soaked nuts and seeds. In a food processor pulse the almonds and pumpkin seeds into a coarse crumbly texture.
  2. Combine everything in a large mixing bowl and stir well. Let it sit for a while for the seaweed and chia seeds to soak up some of the moisture of the mix. That will help sticking things together when dry.
  3. Spread loosely onto Teflex sheets so that enough air can flow through the clusters and the wet mix does not touch the tray above.
  4. Start dehydrating at around 145°F, turn down gradually to 115°F and eventually to 105°F. If you have an Excalibur dehydrator make sure to rotate the trays horizontally from time to time and also rotate from the centre out to the top and bottom rack.
    Should the oven be your only gadget, set the temperature on low: 50°C, turn the fan on, leave the door slightly ajar and go for it! Yes, a few baking trays will do.
    Dehydrate till crisp and completely dry.
  5. Enjoy as crumble over your salads or as individual snack.

Miso Wakame Crumble dry

Miso is one of the few soy-based foods I would actually use. Tamari is the run-off/whey from the Miso production.

Enjoy!
René
🙂

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Apple Spice Granola Recipe – a staple in our house

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Ever been suspicious of what these supermarket breakfast cereals contain? Often less nutrition than the cardboard boxes they come in.

Here is a time proven raw granola recipe I was introduced to years ago by my good friend and mentor Chad Sarno. Not much tweaking needed to happen since. Some creations are just perfect. Saying that, especially this basic granola recipe is almost crying for some playful changes or addition of ingredients like Maca powder, chia seeds, cacao nibs, Sacha Inchi powder, freeze dried fruit slices etc.. Knock yourself out! 😉

wet nut mix for apple spice granola

Don’t be afraid to substitute or add other nuts and seeds like pumpkin seeds, coconut chips or brazil nuts. Just adjust the amount of date paste to obtain the desired sweetness.

I often use sprouted buckwheat for this recipe as it is a reasonably priced alternative to lot of highly priced nuts, like pecans or walnuts. Buckwheat also dehydrates beautifully into a crispy crunch. I believe the thick ‘slimy’ run-off from the sprouting grains also helps to bind the granola clusters together – similarly to what happens with flax and chia seeds when you soak them.

This brings us to another great little secret wit this recipe. By soaking and sprouting the nuts and seeds and then mixing the wet ingredients with date paste, apples and whatever spices and superfood powders you want to add, you achieve a natural clustered crunchy granola after dehydration. Adding wet and dry ingredients to nuts and seeds before dehydration and then dry the lot together in clusters, bars or any shape, will nicely attach the flavours and hold all other components together.

Now just pop your granola clusters into a bowl, add some banana slices and pour your freshly made almond milk or raw organic Jersey cow’s cream over it and enjoy!

Fresh Fruit Salad with Granola

You are still waiting for the actual recipe, right?!
Here it is:

Apple Spice Granola
Makes 4 cups

  • 1 c pecans or walnut pieces, soaked10-12 hours
  • 1 c almonds, soaked 10-12 hours
  • 1 c sunflower seeds, soaked 10-12 hours
  • 1 c hulled buckwheat, sprouted for 1-2 days
  • 1-2 c date paste
  • 1/2 t vanilla extract
  • 2 T chia seeds
  • 3 apples, diced small
  • 2 T cinnamon, ground
  • 1 T maca powder
  • t natural sea salt
  • 1/2 t lemon juice
  1. Keep the sprouted buckwheat aside. Using the food processor, pulse all other nuts and seeds until coarsely ground. Add in a large bowl to the sprouted buckwheat.
  2. Also using the food processor blend the dates with a small amount of water until it becomes a smooth paste. Dry dates will require soaking over night.
  3. Toss the paste along with the diced apples, chia seeds, maca powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt with the nut mixture. Hand mix well. Adjust flavour with lemon juice.
    wet nut mix for apple spice granola
  4. Continue by crumbling the ‘wet’ granola onto Teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 145 F for 2 hours. Over the next hours turn the temperature gradually down to 115 F. Turn trays periodically. After 6-8hours flip over and remove Teflex sheets. Dehydrate at 105 F for 12 more hours or until crisp.
    wet granola ready for dehydrator
    This process is important to stop the granola from fermenting during the dehydration process. Not that it would be bad for you, yet the flavour would be slightly different 😉 It would definitely clear up any phytic acid remnants after the soaking and sprouting.

    Spaced granola clusters on dehydrator tray

    Notice the space between the clusters when wet!

  5. Store in sealed glass jars.

4 dehydrator trays of granola

Enjoy!
René
🙂

Almond Lime Cookie recipe – a versatile sweet raw treat

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You would never think these little darlings are raw, would you?!
Trust me, they are 🙂

A cookie jar of Love

Among the White and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart and Amy Levin’s Candied Hazelnut Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting they almost disappeared at last week’s Divine Desserts class. Yet… try them! The flavour and texture is pretty close to marzipan, well worth the effort of hot-soaking, peeling, soaking, dehydrating… Double the batch and have your family help you peel the almonds. They might get a cookie for it 😉

And here is how:

Almond Lime Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies

  • 3 c almonds, hot-soaked, peeled, soaked for 6-8 hours, dehydrated until crisp
  • 4 T agave nectar or light honey like clover
  • 1/4 t natural sea salt or to taste
  • 1 T lime juice
  • 1 t lime zest
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  1. Process all of the almonds in a food processor until coarsely ground.
  2. Add the other ingredients and process into a firm dough.
  3. Form dough into a ball and flatten between two teflex sheets into 0.5cm thickness. With a cookie cutter cut out heart-shaped cookies and place on dehydrator sheet.
  4. Dehydrate at 42° C for 8-12 hours or until crisp.

Enjoy!

René
🙂

A lunchbox full of sweet Love

Dry it, you will like it! A comprehensive class on dehydrated raw foods.

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Yes, we are teaching a

Dehydrated Foods Class
Wednesday, April 11th, 7 – 9.30pm,
Wise Cicada Cafe, 23 Crowhurst Street, Newmarket
Auckland, New Zealand

Join us and come along!

The investment is $60/person including all samples (I’m working on them :-)) and a comprehensive recipe booklet.

Selection of Dehydrated Raw Foods

Our menu for the night will include a basic flaxseed cracker recipe, breakfast granola and a lovely raw porridge, spiced nuts and seeds (great savoury snacks this time!), pizza crusts, wraps and an idea for trail bars. And what do you do with all that pulp from making almond milk??? Precisely! We’ll deal with that one too 😉

If you have a dehydrator and you want to use it more come along!

If you are thinking of getting one come along too! René will share some advice on what to look for in a good dehydrator.

Either way, you will come out of this class with more confidence and knowledge around dehydrated raw foods.

Spaces are limited to 20 people and bookings are essential.
Book your space today!

You can contact us directly to book your place, either by clicking here and leaving us a note or by ringing René directly on 0275551622.

We are looking forward to having some good fun together!

Happy Easter,

René

🙂

PS: More classes are coming up. Please see our Teaching page!

Flax seed cracker recipe – one that works

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Yes, yes, yes! Another one of our favourite recipes and a staple in our pantry (top shelf, second jar from the left, right beside the chocolate walnuts – yum!, Maca/apple spice granola, buckwheat pizza bread, and the almond bread croutons).

Our pantry top shelf at night

This recipe came about after a bit of trial and error. Nothing fancy but it works – as long as you keep the ratios approximately in proportion. I encourage you to experiment with other ingredients too. Try other nuts or seeds instead of sunflower seeds, or some other vegies that are in season when you make these crackers. Zucchini or bell peppers will be fine.

Flaxseed cracker ingredients

As you can see in the pictures that follow, we are using the good old Excalibur dehydrator. This recipe will work equally well with any other dehydrator. The linseeds don’t have to be golden if you can’t get them. The brown ones will do just fine.

I use the terms ‘flax seeds’ and ‘linseeds’ alternatively. They are the same.

Here we go:

Golden Linseed Crackers

Makes 8 trays or 288 crackers

  •  4 c golden linseeds, soaked in 6-8 c filtered water for 12 hours
  • 2 c sunflower seeds, soaked for 6-8hours
  • 1 c golden linseed meal
  • 3 tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, pureed
  • 3 T fresh chives, minced
  • 2 t lemon juice
  • 2 ½ t natural sea salt
  • ¼ t cayenne pepper
  1. Set the soaked linseeds, linseed meal, and chives aside. In a food processor, combine the other ingredients and process until smooth.
  2. In a bowl combine with chives, linseed meal, and soaked linseeds. Hand mix well.
  3. Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture onto Teflex dehydrator sheets, forming eight 25cm squares about 0.5cm high.
  4. If your batter mix is thick enough score the tray into individual crackers with your spatula now or dehydrate at 145° F for 1 hour, then with a pizza wheel or carefully with a big knife score into crackers of equal size.
  5. Rotate the trays regularly both horizontically and between the different slots in your dehydrator (Excalibur). Turn down the temperature gradually to 115° F as the crackers dry.
  6. After 4-6 hours flip the cracker sheets and remove the Teflex sheets. Continue to dehydrate at 105°F for about 12 hours or until crisp.
  7. Store in sealed glass jars (see picture above).

And here is the whole story in pictures. Enjoy!

soaked flax and sunflower seeds

4c of flaxseeds turning into 8c when soaked, 2c sunflower seeds require more space too

Flaxseed cracker ingredients

The remaining ingredients apart from your natural salt

Flaxseed cracker batter

A thick and moist mix.

Batter ready to spread

about 2c of batter per tray, get yourself one of these cranked spatulas!

Spread batter

all evenly spread out, with straight edges

Scored into crackers

If the batter is thick enough score the crackers before dehydration. These are the default break lines. 24 crackers/tray. Use your spatula, preferably not a knife. Your Teflex sheets will thank you 😉

Dry enough to flip

This tray is dry enough to flip onto another mesh tray.

Flipped upside down

Place a mesh dehydrator tray on top of your pre-dried cracker tray. Hold both trays together and turn over. You see the previous bottom tray now on top here. Teflex sheet is pointing up.

Peel off the Teflex sheet

Now carefully peel off the Teflex sheet and put the tray back into the dehydrator to finish drying for approximately another 8 hours on 115-105 degrees F.
If batter still sticks to Teflex sheet. Reverse the last steps and dehydrate longer on the Teflex sheet.

Pictures of the finished product is coming tomorrow morning. They are still drying.

Finished drying

Here is a finished tray. Just break them apart and store in a sealed glass jar.

The final product

Voila! The final product after 24hours!
Pass the guacamole!

Enjoy!

René

🙂

Moroccan Spiced Carrots

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Here is a beautiful alternative to the good old carrot, apple, lemon juice and raisin salad, ok ok, beetroot is cool too 🙂

You might have been lucky to see me sampling this salad at Remuera New World this afternoon. If not, here is the recipe. Needless to say that organic is best! New season’s organic carrots are on the shelves now. Go get’em!

Moroccan Spiced CarrotsCarrots with Moroccan Spices

Serves 4

  • 4 carrots, very thinly sliced or grated
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  •  ¼ cup chopped walnuts
  •  ¼ cup sultanas
  •  2 Tbsp lemon juice
  •  1 Tbsp olive oil
  •  ¼ cup fresh orange juice
  •  dash ground cumin
  •  dash cayenne pepper
  •  dash cinnamon
  •  ¼ tsp natural sea salt or to taste
  •  fresh ground pepper to taste
  1. Combine the carrots with the lemon and orange juice, olive oil, and sea salt
  2. Massage or toss well.
  3. Add the other ingredients and toss well to combine.

Note: Alternatively to using the individual spices Cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cumin and black pepper I like to use 1/2 tsp of a brilliant North African ‘Ras El Hanout’ spice blend by chef Greg Malouf. His blend contains also cardamom seeds, turmeric, coriander and many others. It just gives this salad an even more exotic and rounded flavour. You can buy this specific spice blend form New World Remuera. The salad is available there too – at the deli counter. Yes I will restock tomorrow – beside doing a Sauerkraut food demo! See you in the afternoon!

'Mandolined' carrots

A good workout on the mandolin

Have fun playing and watch your fingers!

René

🙂

Raw Snack Recipe – Chocolate Walnuts

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With our “Dry it, you will like it!” class coming up here a little teaser and one of my favourite raw snack recipes. Should you prefer pecans over walnuts use them! For a different twist try sunflower seeds. They have a lighter yet nutty base flavour and dry in handy clusters. See the yummy picture below!

Raw snack - chocolate walnutsChocolate Walnuts

Makes 1+ dehydrator tray

  • 3 c soaked walnut halves
  • 4 T date paste
  • 2 T agave nectar
  • 6 T organic whole fat cocoa powder, raw if you choose
  • ½ t cinnamon
  • 1 t vanilla essence
  • 3 drops butterscotch flavour or maple essence
  • pinch natural sea salt
  • ¼ t lime juice (I always add a few drops of citrus juice to chocolate – as it balances the flavours nicely)
Method
  1. Mix everything thoroughly in a big bowl.
  2. Spread on Teflex sheet.
  3. Dehydrate at 105F for 12 hours. Turn over and remove Teflex sheet. Dehydrate for another 12 hours or until crisp. Turn trays by 90° periodically.
  4. Store in sealed glass jars (what’s leftover from snacking during dehydrating :-))

Enjoy!

Raw Chocolate Sunnies

René

Dry it, you will like it!

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Here it is, a raw food class fully dedicated to dehydrated foods!

The menu for the night contains a lot. I will make many things in advance so you can taste everything. As the dehydration process takes more than 12 hours we will not be able to sample what we make in the class. Yet we are going to prepare most of the dishes until they go into the dehydrator so you get a feel for the process and the flavours before dehydration.

Here is the menu:

  • Apple Spice Granola with Almond Milk
  • Chocolate Walnuts
  • Golden Linseed Crackers
  • Chilli Sunnies
  • Lydia’s Focaccio Bread
  • Buckwheaties
  • Zoom Burgers with condiments and caramelised onions
  • Almond Butter Cookies
  • Pizza Alive
  • Wraps and Turnovers

Phew! That will keep us busy and happily fed 🙂

We are truly looking forward to it. Why not join us?! There are still about 4 places left in this class. Get in touch with us to secure your space!
(Yes, check out the testimonials first! ;-))

We are going to play with our Excalibur dehydrator. They truly are the best on the market. They are available here in New Zealand from Pure Wellbeing. Of course, you can use what you have or what you can easily get.
Years ago when living in Norway I built one of these beauties: http://www.dryit.com/
Check it out!!! They work. I recommend you get the book and the heating element from them – in case you are planning on building your own dehydrator.

Here is a picture of the one I created in 2003

Alternative Fair Kongsberg, Norway 2003

My home made dehydrator to the left

René