question, I'm new and need advice - Raw Food Chat

lovethesea · 01-05-2008

Hi, I'm fairly new to eating raw foods. I am 90% raw now. But my question is this. I do miss not eating crunchy chips, and crackers. I think I cannot make them because I currently do not have a Excalibur dehydrator, I only have one of the round dehydrators. I am saving my money for a excalibur though because I know I would use it alot.
Any ideas for crunchy food that I could make in my round dehydrator for now? Or any thing else that might be crunchy to eat?
Right now I live on green smoothies, all kinds of fresh fruit , veggies, and some nuts.
I would appreciate any help or ideas you could give. Thanks.

RawFoodGrl · 01-05-2008

You can make crackers and everything else in a round dehydrator! Thing is, you just have to experiment and figure out how to do it without the ease of the temperature controls.

I'm in the same place you are, saving up to buy an Excailbur, but in the meantime have an inexpensive round one. For months I've been trying to get info about how to convert recipes, but no luck, so I'm going to start experimenting. I'll share with you what I learn!

Also, many health food stores seem to carry more and more raw products, including crackers. Perhaps you could just buy some in the meantime.

lovethesea · 01-06-2008

Thank you for the advice. I think I will try some cracker recipes in my dehydrator, to see if I can get it to work. I have thought about buying some off line too. We have very limited things at our Health food store here in town and have to drive 2 hours to a health food store that even might carry them. Let me know what you find out in your trials.

RawFoodGrl · 01-06-2008

I will definitely let you know what I figure out. We have plenty of food on hand for the moment, but in a week or two I definitely want to make some crackers (maybe even some cookies!) and I will let you know how the experiments go.

One of the things we want to do is order that plastic sheeting that comes with the Excalibur. It's available online, and would help dehydrate some things that are a little drippy (like warming up that raw lasagne I had last night), or things that would help to really smooth out like tortillas. I don't mind lumpy crackers or cookies, but a flat tortilla would be helpful!

Also, please post what you figure out! Together we can make it work!

lovethesea · 01-07-2008

Thank you. I will let you know if I can get it figured out too.

RondaMc · 01-08-2008

Hi, I'm new here too. Welcome to you! I can't help you with the dehydrator issue because I don't have one of the round ones and don't know how they work. I have an Excaliber dehydrator. When I first went raw, I missed crunchy things too! Some people would say well vegetables are crunchy. True, they are but not like chips, cookies, etc. While I was saving for my Excaliber, I ate celery with hummus dusted with either paprika or cayenne depending on my mood. It was just something I tried one day and it worked. The crunch of the celery and the spices helped eliminate my cravings for the other stuff. Maybe in the interim it might work for you until you get the dehydrator thing worked out. Be careful with the cayenne though! Best wishes to you.

Double Helix · 01-09-2008

Jicama (pronounced Hick A mah) is a great root veggie, just peel and slice, very crunchy and refreshing. Many people do things to it but I find the flavor carries well on its own, or used as a guacamole dipper.

healthyme · 01-09-2008

I like the idea of raw veggies w/spices. I will try that, I love nuts so I have to watch myself with those. I could go overboard. Thanks for the tip.

lovethesea · 01-11-2008

I will try that. Sounds good to me! Thanks for the advice.

RawFoodGrl · 01-20-2008

Well, I'm experimenting with my round dehydrator and this is what I've found so far:

1. You can use plastic wrap or parchment paper in place of the Teflex.

2. If only using one tray (as I've been, doing small experiments), the food should be on the bottom tray closest to the heating element. I'm assuming with more trays being used they'd have to be rotated regularly.

I've been having the settings at Upper Vent 3, Lower Vent 2, as my manual recommends that for things like eggplant (used in the Raw-violi recipe) and fruit roll ups (which I considered to be similar to crackers).

The recipe book I'm using often recommends dehydrating at a higher heat first, then a lower one, such as 145 degrees for 2-3 hours, then 115 degrees for 6-8 hours.

Putting the food in the middle of the stack, I found it easily took twice that amount of time. But now that I now to put it at the bottom, perhaps the time will be similar.

I made my entire batch of crackers, but still have some Raw-violi. I will make the Raw-violi with what I now know and see how long it takes compared to what the book says. I will let you know what I find out.

Having some kind of "flooring" for the food (plastic or parchment paper) is critical for crackers. I found it was not really necessary for the Raw-violi, and in fact made the dehydrating time longer.

As I learn more, I will update here! Together we'll figure it out!