Viva le Dehydrator!

One of my challenges in moving into the raw food realm has been bread. I'm addicted to bread, especially yeast breads.

Discovering how to make crackers and flatbreads by drying the "batter" in a food dehydrator has opened a whole new chapter in my raw foods notebook. Using sprouted grains, fresh vegies, herbs, healthy oils and seeds and nuts make these wonderful bread stand-ins infinately variable.
I'll still have my yeast bread days (sour dough is my next project), but these types of crackers and flatbreads are definately here to stay.

Here's a before and after look at a basic very simple cracker. A cup of sprouted wheat (an overnight soak and 8 hours of sprouting is all it takes) is blended throughly with 1/2 cup of water, 1/8 cup of olive oil and 1/2 tsp. sea salt. The Vita-Mix makes short work of this chore. The batter is poured onto one "fruit leather" sheet of the dehydrator, spread thinly (1/4") then dried (on the top tray of the stack of 5) at 115 degrees for about 8 or so hours - checking frequently towards the end. I like to flip the big cracker over while there are still some areas of moisture showing, then cut it into wedges with my kitchen scissors. I put the crackers directly on the rack for the last bit of drying needed.

You don't need a big fancy dehydrator to do this (although I would never turn one down if the dehydrator fairy dropped one by). The most important feature to have is the thermostat to adjust heat range. To maintain a "raw" status, 118 degrees is considered maximum.

This "professional" model of a commonly found dehydrator is totally cool. It came with two smaller-mesh screens for those itsy bitsy things you might dry (small berries that would fall through the regular rack holes?), and most importantly, two solid teflex sheets for the leathers and cracker thingys. Well under $70, it has been a great tool for my drying projects. And I can pick up more packages of trays if I need them; it will handle up to 12.

So here's the after. These are crispy, tasty, substantial enough to build layers of goodies on and eat out of hand, and totally raw. How wonderful is that?!

A smear of nut/veggie pate', a slice of tomato from the garden, and a couple friendly slices of avocado. One is a great snack. Two makes lunch!

Day 1 - what's in the fridge?

To start the day, I cut up some watermelon and snacked on that as I puttered around getting my morning underway. Drank my usual glass of water and apple cider vinegar, and got the daily quart of nettle/dandelion/plaintain infusion going to drink throughout the day. Threw in some mullein at the last minute, that hadn't quite dried completely from the batch I took out of the dehydrators earlier this morning.

Again, it just felt like I was doing the "right thing", in pursuing this way of eating. It was what my body needed for now. For lunch, I chose one of several recipes I had tagged in Dining in the Raw, and after a quick jaunt through the garden I made Zuchinni Carrot soup. I'll be putting together some raspberry-banana frozen dessert after awhile, the berries and 'nanners are working on getting frozen so I can throw them in the Vita- mix.

Here's how the soup goes together: Blend 1/2 c. tahini (or in my case, lacking tahini at the moment, the last of my raw cashew butter), a cup of water, some Bragg's Liquid Aminos, some garlic and green onion. Grate a medium zuchinni, a carrot, add half to the blender. Blend smooth. Pour into a bowl, stir in the rest of the grated veggies, some chopped cilantro, sliced green onion, and more Bragg's to taste. After a taste test, I also stirred in 1/2 tsp. lemon juice. Chill, letting flavors blend.

This chilled soup is creamy but textured, fresh and crunchy and filling. I really enjoyed it, and will put it on my "make again" list.

Dinner. Hmmmm. Dinner. Well, I have some couscous in the pantry, and a ton more veggies waiting in the wings. We'll see what they decide to waltz across the stage.

Well, now! They didn't do too bad for a bunch of amateurs! They chose to present Garam Coucous.

Here we have couscous (bring water to boil, stir in couscous 1/1 ratio, take off heat, lid, and let set 5 minutes - wahlah!) in the pot, with some garam masala spice stirred in (one of my FAV spice blends); diced red pepper, grated carrot, sliced scallions, chopped cilantro, a couple of olives (escaped from their can), toasted ground cumin seed, with some Bragg's Liquid Aminos and Udo's Oil Blend to provide flavor, nutrition and moisture to marry the cast as a harmonious and delicious family.

Plated, it looks like they made a successful production! I could eat that. And with the spoon of veggie raita left from our Indian feast the other evening, it was perfect! The flavors are multi-layered, the textures varied for interest, and the warm couscous had a perfect counterpoint in the cold raita (cucs, onion, tomato, plain yogurt, ground toasted cumin seed).
There was plenty of coucous and veggies left to combine with the Bragg's and Udo oil and more ground cumin seed, for a lunch bowl I can look forward to tomorrow.

There's still dessert to come. The frozen banana-raspberry-goat milk icecream is divided into 1/2 cup dessert cups, safely stashed in the freezer for those moments of bliss we all need in our food.

My tummy is happy. My heart is happy. I would call this a good start.