Raw Sesame Onion Wraps

I swear, this is the easiest raw, dehydrated wrap you'll ever make....and it's delicious as well! The original recipe was actually a curry wrap, also delicious, but I don't LOVE curry. So I decided that the same recipe might be tweeked a bit by omitting the curry and adding onion and sesame seeds....the result was a flavorful wrap that had added texture from the sesame seeds.

Here is the recipe:
1-2 cups water
1 cup cup ground flax seeds
1 apple, peeled and seeded, chopped
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1/2 cup dried, shredded coconut
1/2 cup raw, hulled sesame seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp turmeric

Technique

Start with 1 cup of water, lemon juice, onion and apple, blending in a high speed blender until combined.

Next add in coconut, salt, cinnamon and turmeric, again, blending until combined.

The ground flax gets added last, along with more water if necessary.


After a smooth, relatively thick consistency is achieved, stir the sesame seeds in by hand. Do not blend them in, because you want the texture that they yield in the finished product.


Pour out onto a nonstick Teflex sheet or parchment paper and spread out to about 1/2 - 1/4 inch thick.



Put in the dehydrator at 105 degrees and dehydrate for 5-6 hours. See the patches of light (still wet) and dark (dehydrated) "batter"...


After the first 5-6 hours, flip the wrap, placing it directly onto the dehydrator sheet, and dehydrate for about 2 more hours.


When it's dehydrated, it will look something like this and will still be pliable; note how the color is now homogeneous throughout the wrap.


Cut into the desired shape; I actually used a kitchen scissor to do so.


So now, wrap away or use as sandwich bread...
Here's a wrap I made with hummus (not raw), sunflower sprouts, hemp seeds, alfalfa and broccoli sprouts.

This wrap will become a staple in my house; it's too easy to not keep making. I'm going to play around with the taste of different spices in the future...I'll report back!
Enjoy and try something raw today!
Sharon

Raw Brussels Sprout Chips

Ok, who doesn't like a good salty, crispy bite? Right, I'm sure just about everyone does....so using the same recipe for kale chips, you can use Brussels Sprout leaves and accomplish the same thing!

Here are some fine looking Brussels Sprouts, from Stillman's Farm, Lunenberg, Ma....you've heard me toot their horn many a time :)
So, all you need to do is cut off the bottom, where the leaves come together, and simply peel off all of the leaves. I put them into a bowl of water to rinse them.
Then, the recipe is exactly the same as the kale chips - take about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, a generous pinch of salt and a drizzle of agave syrup, and mix it all in with the leaves, after they are rinsed and drained.
Put the Brussels Sprout leaves on to the dehydrator sheet and let 'em go...they don't need as long as an overnight dehydration, so check them after a few hours. It's OK to let them go overnight, but if you're hunkering for that salty bite, get them out earlier...
Before dehydration:
After dehydration:
Crispy and delicious....
Try this out. It's a neat way to eat your Brussels Sprouts.....if you don't have a dehydrator, cook these in a low oven, say 250-300 for 30 minutes, stirring half way through.

:) enjoy and try something raw today!

Raw Butternut Squash Apple Cider Soup

I LOVE butternut squash; it's probably my most favorite winter squash. Today I used it in a raw soup, with a base of raw apple cider and fresh squeezed orange juice. I adapted the recipe from VegNews Magazine, only making a couple changes from their base recipe.

The recipe called for butternut squash, apple cider, orange juice, celery, a bit of spice, a few dates for sweetness and that's about it. I added in a couple of things:, some beautiful white carrots that I had from the farm... a garnish of fresh dill and cilantro - the recipe did not call for any herbs at all...and the juice of a fresh lemon to heighten and brighten the flavor.

I grated both the carrots and the squash, chopped the celery and set them aside. Look at how beautiful the white carrots are :)...they are the sweetest carrots I have ever tried.
In my blender, I added in the apple cider, which I had made with my juicer earlier, some fresh squeezed orange juice, some water, the dates (to soften up), salt and pumpkin pie spice.

When I added all the ingredients together, they filled up the entire blender container - it was packed with goodness.
The resulting soup was really delicious. The carrots and dates sweetened up the delicious, earthy squash. The celery added some body and some saltiness. The pumpkin pie spice added some warmth; to add some zing, I added the fresh, chopped dill and cilantro. The herbs really freshened up each bite of the soup. Each bite was like fall in a spoon.
Here is my adapted version of the recipe:

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and grated
2 carrots, grated
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups raw apple cider
Juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup water
4 dates (soaked in apple cider and OJ to soften up)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
4 TBS fresh, chopped herbs
Juice of 1 lemon

Technique
Blend all ingredients together in high speed blender, except fresh herbs and lemon juice. Add the herbs and lemon juice as well as more S+P (if needed) after blending.

Enjoy! Try something raw today :)

Rawkin' Raw Chili

Today I made a raw chili recipe that Dee Charboneau posted on Road to Raw. The Road to Raw is a great website that runs raw food cleanses and offers a TON if information on raw food and healthy living. Dee posted a recipe called Penni's Rawkin' Raw Chili...I'm not sure who Penni is, but my guess is Penni Shelton, a well versed raw food enthusiast who runs the website Raw Food Rehab.
Regardless, I decided to make it because it seemed fitting on this cold, blustery, rainy fall day.
Here is the recipe - don't get turned off by the amount of ingredients. It actually comes together quite quick...I will indicate where I made adjustments to the recipe.

Penni's Rawkin' Raw Chili
1 cup soaked almonds (walnuts would also work well) - I used almonds
1 cup carrots
1 med portabello mushroom (or 6 shiitake) - I used shiitake and I soaked them in Liquid Braggs before using them in the recipe to flavor them up and "cook" them a bit
1/2 cup finely minced red bell pepper
1/3 cup finely minced red onion - I used scallions
1-2 finely minced jalapeno, without the seeds - I used a serrano
1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked (reserve 1 cup soak water)
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
1/3 cup soaked golden raisins
2 T fresh leeks (yellow or white onion would work) - I used a small shallot
3 T chili powder - I used Powdered New Mexico Chiles
2 cloves garlic - I used 1 garlic clove only
1 T olive oil
2 t Alder Smoked Sea Salt (Celtic is also fine) - I used Himilayan Sea Salt
2 t apple cider vinegar
2 t dried oregano - I used Mexican Oregano
1 tsp. cumin
1 handful chopped cilantro, stirred in at the end, prior to dehydration

Technique
Put nuts and carrots into a food processor and run until well blended. This will be your "meat base," so don't over process. Once ground, place into a large bowl and set aside.

Either on a cutting board or in your food processor, chop the mushroom (I marinated the mushroom in Liquid Braggs, see picture. I drained the mushrooms prior to processing them), red bell pepper, scallions and serrano. Add this to the bowl. I used my food processor to do this step.

In a high powered blender, such as a Vita Mix or Blend-Tec, add all of the remaining ingredients and blend until you have everything well combined and liquefied. Stir this mixture into the bowl with the existing ingredients to complete the chili.

The recommendation was to place the chili into a dehydrator set at 145 degrees for about one hour, stirring the chili every 15 minutes will help to warm it evenly. (Although your dehydrator will feel hot, the temperature of the food will not exceed 110 degrees in this amount of time). I didn't have the luxury of being able to stir the chili every 15 minutes, so I stuck it in the dehydrator @ 115 degrees for 1 hr, then 105 degrees for 1 hr and ate it after that. It wasn't as warm as I would have liked it to be, but it was delicious.

Here is the bowl of chili, with cilantro, prior to going into the dehydrator
And after
You can see it got a little thick on the edges (that was the best, most yummy part!!). Overall, delicious. Tomorrow, when I eat more, I'll try the 145 degree dehydration with stirring every 15 minutes, and I'll garnish it with avocado. Already looking forward to it!!
Try something raw today!

Dried Apple Chips

Fall is apple season and I'm feeling the apple love. After becoming inundated with apples from a visit to the apple farm, I needed to use them up. I decided to make some apple chips in the dehydrator.
I used my spirulizer to make ultra thin slices, using the flat blade.

I sliced up 5 apples. To the apples I added the juice of a lemon, a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice and a short drizzle of agave syrup.
The pumpkin pie spice from Trader Joe's is a mix of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, lemon peel, cardamom and nutmeg. It goes nice with the tang of the lemon and the sweetness of the agave and the apples. The lemon juice keeps the apples from turning brown when dehydrating.

I laid the apples out on the dehydrator trays, not worrying too much about getting a single layer and dehydrated the apples for about 20 hrs.
Here is what the finished apples looked like:


The apples were crispy and delicious with a hint of spice. My kids ate them up, so there's proof that they tasted good :)
Enjoy - try something raw today!

Thyme To Cook wins a Raw Food Recipe contest!

I'm proud to announce that I've won a raw food recipe contest!
I usually do not enter anything (I'm a party pooper)...

I entered my Raw Creamy Gazpacho into the Raw Food Naturals/Raw Way Bar raw recipe contest; the criteria was to use 3 in season produce items in a raw recipe.
Here is the link the announcement on FB: Yea for Gazpacho!

Here is the recipe I submitted:
Gazpacho
4 tomatoes, rough chopped
4 tomatillos, tough skin peeled off, rinsed and rough chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, then rough chopped
1/2 - 1 cup coconut water from young Thai coconut
1/2 cup packed coconut meat from young Thai coconut

1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 sweet onion, rough chopped

1 red pepper, rough chopped
1 handful cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp Sea Salt

Garnish
Kernels from 1 ear of corn, removed from cob
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced

Technique
1. Place all ingredients for Gazpacho (tomatoes->salt) into a high speed blender or food processor and pulse to liquid texture. Give it a taste and correct seasoning if necessary.

2. Pour Gazpacho into a bowl and add the ingredients from the Garnish section (corn->cucumber) and stir them in.
3. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

That's it :) I chose this recipe for a couple reasons, with 1 being you don't need fancy equipment for it. It can be made in an ordinary blender, food processor or high speed blender. Secondly, it really uses the bounty of what's in season: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, tomatillos, corn, jalapenos, onions, garlic, you get the idea....it can be made without the coconut water and meat as well. It just will be less creamy, but still excellent.

Try something raw today!!! :)

Raw Sesame Kale Salad

I love the late summer when kale becomes abundant...it lasts, and lasts and lasts long into the fall even winter...Last week I made a raw kale salad with arame and carrots and a sesame dressing. It was quite good.

The secret to eating kale in it's raw form is in the massage. Yup, the massage. You have to massage it, rubbing the leaves in between your fingers in order to soften up the texture and to release some of the moisture. I massage the kale with lemon juice and a pinch of salt. The acid of the lemon juice almost "cooks" the kale and the salt will draw out the moisture. You'll see that you can start out with a huge bowl of kale and after rubbing the leaves with the lemon juice and salt for just a couple minutes, the volume is drastically reduced to at least 1/2 the bowl.

So here's the recipe:
1 head of kale, cut into thin stips
2 carrots, grated
2 handfuls arame, soaked 20 minutes and rinsed
2 lemons, juiced and juice divided
2 TBS tahini, room temp
2 tsp unrefined sesame oil
2 TBS sesame seeds

Technique
Take your kale and put in a bowl. Pour juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of sea salt over the top. Mix the juice and salt into leaves and then start to rub the leaves between your fingers, massaging them for a couple minutes, until wilted.

Add in the carrots and soaked/rinsed arame then mix so all ingredients are incorporated.

To make dressing, whisk the room temperature tahini, sesame oil, juice of lemon and a pinch of sea salt until combined. If necessary, add a touch of warm water to thin out.
Pour over the kale mixture and combine to dress the salad.
Garnish with the sesame seeds.

I put some into romaine lettuce leaves and made little boats out of them.
So, try out the kale massage and see how you like it. It just might change your mind about eating kale in it's raw form. :)
Try some thing raw today!

Raw dehydrated corn tortillas

It's corn season!!! I belong to a CSA and I get 6-12 ears of corn each week. What to do with all that corn?!? Well, 1 thing you can do is make corn tortillas, or chips or tostadas or wraps....this recipe can do all of those. By varying dehydration time you can achieve the different textures.

First off though, the recipe....

Ingredients
4 ears corn or 4 cups corn kernels
2 small garlic cloves
1/3 sweet onion
1-2 cups water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
handful cilantro - optional, nice addition
1/2 cup ground flax seed

What to do:
First off, if using fresh corn, remove the corn from the cob and put into high speed blender along with garlic, onion, water, salt, cumin, coriander and cilantro (if using). Blend ingredients until nice and smooth.

Add in flax and blend until flax is incorporated.


So now it's decision time about what you're going to make. To make tortillas or tostadas, pour out rounds onto the teflex dehydrator sheets. To make chips, pour out a big square, as big as the dehydrator sheet. For wraps, either do rounds or a couple large rectangles.
Put in the dehydrator at 105 degrees. For tortillas and wraps, set it for ~6hrs, then flip them and let it go for another 2-6hrs. For tostadas and chips, set the dehydrator for 8hrs, flip it, then let it go for another 8hrs or so.

Here are the tortillas at the half way point, before flipping.
After dehydrating for ~10 hrs.
All done :)
I used one of the tortillas to make a taco with a sunflower seed pate, pine nut cheese and sunflower sprouts.
Try something raw today!!
Sharon