Raw Cauliflower "Popcorn"

Cauliflower went on sale this week and I thought of this idea I'd seen floating around on the internet. It's a good thing I had three heads of cauliflower to work with! We polished this off with some baby carrots and pitted dates for a nice raw supper tonight. Pass the cayenne!

Raw Cauliflower "Popcorn"

1 head cauliflower, washed and cut/broken up into small pieces
olive oil
salt or seasoned salt
nutritional yeast (not raw, but often used in raw cuisine)
other seasonings, as desired

The only directions you need are simple. In a bowl, drizzle the olive oil over the cauliflower. Add in the seasonings and stir well until evenly coated. You can vary this with your choice of seasonings. The only thing that is standard with the recipe is the cauliflower. It was very much like seasoning the usual corn variety of popcorn. Except there is no popping happening. Eat right away or see below for a dehydrated version.

Food dehydrator option: Mix up as usual, making sure not to over season. Put onto dehydrator trays and dry until desired, about 8-10 hours. The flavor will be much more concentrated when you do this as opposed to how it tasted freshly mixed before dehydrating. This option makes it even more crunchy.

Coconut "Bacon"

 When we first went vegetarian, we used a lot of those vegetarian "bac'uns" (soy based "bacon bits") for salads and for flavor in other dishes. We decided to try them in the organic version and it turned me off completely. I did not like them at all.

We aren't using tvp (textured vegetable protein made with soy) anymore and use very little soy foods these days. Every now and again though, I get a hankerin' for a flavor like bacon...

One of the things that other people may also miss when going vegetarian are certain meats. For some reason, it always seems to be pork based products. Bacon is one of those that come to mind.

Enter a book by Ani Phyo, "Ani's Raw Food Essentials" (2010) and some young coconuts in my fridge...and you've got the makings of some real flavor. Ironic that I would post this after my weight loss posts, but it is what it is....=)

This is not soy free, but you can play with the recipe a little. Experiment on your own. It does call for a food dehydrator, but you can work around this, if you don't have one, by using your oven set on a low temperature with the door ajar. 

Raw Coconut Bacon

2 cups coconut meat (from 3 to 4 Thai baby coconuts)
3 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu or Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 Tablespoons olive oil
a few drops of liquid smoke flavoring (optional, not raw)

When scraping the meat out of your coconuts, try to keep pieces as large as possible. Clean the meat by running your fingers over its surface, picking off any pieces of hard husk. Rinse with filtered water as a last step, and drain well. (I also patted them dry with a paper towel.)

Place the coconut meat in a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Toss to mix well. Lay the meat in a single layer on two 14-inch square Excalibur Dehydrator trays.

Dehydrate for 6-8 hours at 104 degrees F. The length of time will depend on how thick your coconut meat is. Check it and dry it to your liking. Don't over-dehydrate, because the more you dry it,the more it will shrink, and you'll be left with only a small amount of bacon.

Options: Replace the smoke flavor with herbs and spices to make different flavors. Try chipotle powder, garlic, dill, or oregano.

I would add here... the liquid from the marinade that will be leftover can be used for another batch of coconut or used otherwise in dressings or other sauces, etc. So please don't throw it out...very little will actually soak in. Make sure to use it up within a few days.

Almost Raw Carob Chip Cookies

Here's another recipe from the "Everyday Raw" book by Matthew Kenney that I adapted. Again, in the original recipe, he uses raw cacao powder. I use carob powder instead.

Grind your own cashews and rolled oats for the flour called for in the recipe. I used my Vitamix to blend them to flour. Measure the flours after they are ground.

Almost Raw Carob Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups cashew flour, fine ground
1 3/4 cups oat flour
1/2 cup carob powder
1/4 water
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup carob chips
optional extra carob chips

Mix all ingredients together, except carob chips. Then stir in the 1 cup carob chips. Form into 3" cookies and press a few extra chips (if desired) into the tops of the cookies. Dehydrate on screens overnight at 118 degrees. Yields about 2 dozen, more if made smaller.

These taste great warm just out of the dehydrator. They are also great after getting cold in the fridge or freezer (where we put them so a certain little girl in our house doesn't help herself to too many!). =)

Homemade Carob Chips

This is a recipe adapted from the book "Everyday Raw" by Matthew Kenney. In the original recipe he uses raw cacao powder, made from raw cacao nibs (raw chocolate).

This was a fun recipe to make. It takes a little time to get the chips made, but the effect overall was worth it. We later used them to make double carob chip cookies. Yum!

Homemade Carob Chips

(Ready to go into the dehydrator)

1 3/4 cup cashews, soaked 1-2 hours
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup carob powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Place all ingredients in Vitamix and blend until smooth. You may need to add some water a little at a time to get the blades to move freely. Place mixture into a piping bag (I used a zipper type quart bag, and then cut a corner off) and pipe out small chips onto a teflex sheet. Dehydrate overnight at 118 degrees. Keep in refrigerator in sealed container until ready to use. Makes about 2 cups or more.

(Dehydrated carob chips)

Dehydrator Flax Bread

This recipe comes from the Hallelujah Acres magazine, Health News. I was pleased, when I made this the other day, how well it turned out. Flexible enough to be used as a wrap if not dried too crispy. And yet can still be dried a little more for a less flexible option.

No grain, no gluten, no yeast. The term "bread" meaning more about how you use it than what it contains. High in fiber, raw, and high in omega-3 fatty acids, it helps sweep out your colon for better health. Great as a new addition in our house. I can't wait to play with the recipe a little to have other flavor options. Spread with a little raw nut butter and roll it up. Mmmm.

Flax Bread

Mix together, making sure there are no lumps of raisins sticking together and set aside:
2 cups ground flax seeds
1 cup raisins

Put into blender separately:
2 cups water
2 apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Stir all ingredients together. Let stand for about 30 minutes. Spoon 1/3 of the mixture onto a teflex sheet for your dehydrator. Spread it out with a spatula (approx. 1/8" thick, without holes). Push any raisins on the edges more into the center. Repeat with the other portions of the mixture.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees F. for at least 2 hours. Then flip bread over onto the mesh sheet and peel away the teflex sheet from the bread. Leave bread in for another 2 hours depending on how dry you like your bread (make sure there are no more wet looking areas). The thicker the bread, the longer it will take to dehydrate. Don't let it get too crispy. If left more flexible, you can use it as a wrap.

My notes: I put the mixture on parchment paper, as I don't own the teflex sheets (yet) for my Excalibur food dehydrator. I didn't follow the 1/3 mixture idea in the recipe, but rather did more "individual bread slices" amount by eyeballing it (about 4x5" size roughly). This to me was helpful, because when I went to flip them over, some needed more drying time than others. Made this way, you can get about 12 "slices" from one batch.

Initially, I thought it would have a more cinnamon raisin bread flavor. It is not that strongly flavored. It did smell good when dehydrating though. Next time I might add more cinnamon. Pleasantly sweet without overpowering in that department.

I used the darker brown flax seeds, so it looked more like a dark bread. If you used the golden flax seeds, it would be lighter in color. Hard to tell it's made out of flax seeds once you eat it. A plus for people not into the "health" aspect of this bread. Taste? Great!