Raw Seed Crackers with Goat’s Cheese

I am loving my dehydrator!  Although I haven’t had a chance to do as much with it as I would like as yet, I am already supremely grateful for it.

One of those recipes I had previously made note of, then written off, is this one from The Raw Food Mum for crackers.  There are times when you just want something quick, light and savoury to munch on.  One thing I had been missing with raw food was that texture of bread, crackers or baked goods.

These more than satisfy that craving.

Although for the purpose of this post I have coupled them with a non-raw cheese, the crackers themselves are fully raw, and would go very well with a raw hummus, dip or cashew cheese.

Original Recipe from the Raw Food Mum

Ingredients

• 2 cups of ground flax seeds
• 1 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 yellow onion chopped finely
• 1 1/3 cups of sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup of sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup of nama shoyu (optional)
• 1 3/4 cups of water

Method

• Place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined
• Slowly add nama shoyu and mix through, then slowly add water until there is a nice consistency.  You should be able to easily spread this over the dehydrator sheets.
• Dehydrate at 43 degrees C for four hours, then flip and dehydrate for another 1-2 hours

 

My Notes

I didn’t include the nama shoyu, as all soy has been banned from our diet

I used a french shallot rather than a yellow onion, as I find the flavour is a little milder

I don’t think I made my mixture quite wet enough, as the crackers are quite brittle

Otherwise, very yum!

 

Goat’s Cheese

I have made goat’s curd cheese several times since removing cow’s milk from our diet years ago.  It is quite ridiculously easy – if I can do it, anyone can!  It has a lovely mild flavour, which you can dress up by adding other ingredients after it has drained, such as chives, pepper, lime and chili etc.

Ingredients

• 1 litre goat’s milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• Salt to taste

Method

• Heat milk in a large saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to bubble and looks foamy on top – do not boil!
• Turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar – you should see the milk split immediately
• Allow it to settle and cool slightly, add the salt, then pour through a cheesecloth-lined strainer
• Leave to drain for several hours, overnight if possible
• Remove the curd from the cheesecloth and place into a bowl and add extra flavourings if you like
• Keeps for about a week – if it lasts that long!

Raw Blueberry Pancakes – Recipe

I was ecstatic recently to have won an Excalibur dehydrator.  I’d been eying them off, but couldn’t bring myself to purchase one.  I didn’t really have a spare $500 anyway.  And for me, who doesn’t win anything, this was a huge event!

Whilst waiting for its arrival, I went hunting for all of those recipes I’d previously written off due to not having a dehydrator.  I have them all lined up ready to go, though have only made three so far.  The first were a batch of lemon cookies.  They were a little hum-ho, mostly I think because I didn’t have the thermostat high enough.  I also forgot to take a photo, so will post those when I retry them.

Next in line were raw blueberry pancakes – yummo!  Whilst not the light, fluffy traditional pancakes, I found these still to be pretty darn scrumptious, and will definitely be making them again!

Original Recipe from Alissa Cohen

Morning, Noon and Night Pancakes

Ingredients

Makes 10 pancakes

• 2 cups pecans, soaked for 4 hours
• 2 cups pine nuts 
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 cup agave nectar
• Seeds from 2 vanilla beans
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups blueberries, muddled

Method

• Put the soaked pecans and any remaining soaking liquid, pine nuts, bananas, agave, vanilla, salt, and ½ cup water in a high-speed blender
• Blend until smooth
• Using a spatula, fold in the muddled blueberries.
• With a ladle, drop ½ -cup measures of the batter onto Teflex-line dehydrator racks, leaving at least ½ inch between the pancakes.  They should be thick like pancakes, about ½ inch thick, not thin like crêpes
• Dehydrate for 8 hours
• Flip the pancakes onto clean Teflex sheets and dehydrate for 8 more hours.
• Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days.

My Notes

Due to the pricey ingredients, I quartered the recipe and made 4 pancakes.  They’re quite filling, so 1 is ample for a serving

I used vanilla extract rather than seeds

I had to research what ‘muddled’ means, as I’m relatively new to the world of fine cuisine 🙂  Basically, lightly mashed

I ate my pancakes with coconut butter, and a little raw honey drizzled over the top mmmmmm

I kept the last pancake until day 4 and it was still fine.  Not sure how they lasted that long though….