Dehydrator Madness
Grey is the new black and dehydrating is the new cooking. On a Monday last week I spent 8 hours prepping, marinating and blendering items to be dehydrated in a friends brand spanking new Excalibur Dehydrator. For nearly 2 years I have been reading about the most incredible raw recipes. I would drool over pictures in my favorite raw cookbooks and would often be left disappointed to get to the word dehydrate and stop reading. I am not against dehydrating. I just didn’t have one. I needed one! Why? In two words… KALE CHIPS. Those crispy pieces of green leaf are my kryptonite, my vice, natures crack if you will, and ever since I had my first crunchy bite, I have been obsessed with getting the device that makes these.
The dehydrator exposes food to low temperatures for long periods of time to remove the moisture from the food. The food is exposed to air current which does not go about 140 degrees F, leaving the food uncooked, or raw. Dehydration is used to preserve food which can later be rehydrated or to create raw foods such as fruit bars, vegetable chips and crackers. It can be used for other non vegan things but these (obviously) don’t interest me.
Dehydrated foods are a great way to transition to raw food, and even as a great gluten-free treat. Most of the dehydrated foods can replace the textures and tastes of the most addictive foods like bread, cookies, and chips. Crunch, Yum!
Raw Macaroons, So effing good.
Zucchini chips are like crack for me. Here I am working away laying out each chip for dehydration perfection.
Raw Chocolate Macaroons
1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup Agave
1 heaping tablespoon of coconut butter
pinch of sea salt/Himalayan salt
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well.
Using an ice cream scoop; scoop rounds of macaroon batter onto a teflex sheet. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6-8 hours (6 is probably all you need). If you don’t have a dehydrator, just leave them in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.
