When you’re trying to eat healthfully, it helps to have plenty of tasty, satisfying foods around. One method of preparation is to dry or dehydrate fruits, vegetables, herbs, fish or meat. They can be stored as snacks or as ingredients for quick meal preparation.
Dehydrating foods take the moisture out of them, leaving the nutritional content intact, extending shelf life, and making them crunchy, often tastier, without using additives that commercial foods contain.
Dehydrating was one of the earliest ways to preserve food, a necessity in times of scarcity, or when hunting or travelling. Early Man harnessed the natural power of the sun and wind to dry foods, and later used fire. Today you can use an electric food dehydrator, or an oven set to a low setting of 140 degrees. However, raw foodies dehydrate only at temperatures below 115 degrees. When the ancient fortress of Masada was brought down after six years under siege, the Roman soldiers were shocked to find vast storehouses of still unspoiled dried foods.
For those who would argue that food loses its nutritional value over time, Celine Beitchman, a chef instructor at The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, says when you dry foods under gentle conditions (low temperature and a reasonable drying period), you produce a high-quality food that will maintain its nutrients. She encourages her students to only dehydrate enough food to last for about three months, saying that turnover is good not only for healthful consumption, but also helps the food growers maintain sales levels. Although she labels herself an omnivore, she agrees high temperature cooking destroys not only many of the vitamins in food but also enzymes and vitamins that may be important to our health. She suggests not drying at higher than 114 degrees. Just remember you'll need to allow up to 1/3 longer drying time than the usual dehydration recipe will specify if you dry below 115 degrees.
Compared to canning, freezing or baking, dehydrating food is done at the least extreme temperatures. Beitchman points out that when dehydrating food, you’re giving it crispness equivalent to that of fried food without the negatives of oil and frying. Eating dried foods offers an opportunity to add more raw into your diet, as well as take in a greater variety of texture. Beitchman refers to this concept as “organileptic”; the pleasure in dining is taken in not only through eating the food, but also through your other senses like sight, smell, and touch.
To store your dried foods, Beitchman says to put them in a tightly sealed container. She also suggests buying natural silica packets to help inhibit moisture, which leads to spoilage.
To be energy efficient, Beitchman likes using the nine-tray dehydrator made by Excalibur, which has the ability to dry many foods at one time. She never leaves empty trays when using the dehydrator. Look around your kitchen and see what else can be put in. Take some fresh herbs, or a vegetable or fruit that might be close to spoiling and experiment. Not every item has to be recipe -oriented, but can serve as an ingredient down the line.
Ben Borkovitz is program director at Hawthorne Valley Farm. He has been growing, cooking, selling, and teaching about organic, natural foods for many years and believes that eating raw food is conducive to good health. He offers a few recipes below, including a make-your-own pizza that is truly delicious.
To Your Health!
Ben’s Fig Carob Toffee
12 Calmyrna Figs
2 dates, pits removed
Approximately 1-1/2 Cups of filtered water for soaking
2 Tbsp of Carob Powder
1 tsp of olive oil
½ cup finely chopped dried coconut
Optional: 2 drops of CO2 dark chocolate extract*
Soak figs and dates in water until figs are very soft.
Grind in Vitamix or blender until smooth, if needed add more water to help blend, but try to keep mixture as thick as possible. Or just eat as a delicious pudding!
Add the rest of the ingredients and blend again until well mixed.
Spread by tablespoon onto Teflex sheets or parchment paper and dehydrate at 114 degrees until chewy or brittle.
*Made by Medicine Flower, great extracts – chocolate flavor without Theobromine or caffeine
Shadrach’s Sunflower Seeds
Choose nicely shaped, clean looking organic shelled sunflower seeds.
Briefly soak in tap water; swish seeds in the bowl remove odd discolored or broken seeds and shells.
Drain water (Large colander is helpful, or can use a plate).
Add filtered water, enough to cover seeds plus extra so they stay submerged as they absorb water.
Let sit for approximately an hour – optimal time may vary depending on room/water temperature, size of seeds, and type of seeds. Could be up to 3 hours before seeds are at their best.
Rinse a few off and taste – they should be sweeter tasting than before soaked, and a small percentage of the seeds may have split open.
If they are delicious, drain, rinse with tap water, and drain out all tap water. If you have a colander or large strainer, pour all the seeds in here to rinse well and drain. Rinse the bowl you’ve used, dump out as much water as you can and return the drained seeds to the bowl.
Place on sheets of parchment paper in the dehydrator at 114 degrees for a crispy, shelf stable snack.
Ben’s Super Orange Sunflower Crackers
2 cups of Shadrach’s Sunflower Seeds
1-2 Sweet Bell Peppers – red or orange, cut into chunks
1 good sized carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
2-4 Tablespoons (or more if you like spicy!) of Raw Kim Chi ( I recommend Hawthorne Valley Farm), or Kim Chee Aid*
½ -1 tsp cold pressed olive or coconut oil (optional)
1 cup filtered refrigerated water, or enough to get blender to work properly
Salt to taste
Nori or dulse for topping
Optional: steamed broccoli for top, chia gel for crackers
Put first 6 ingredients into Vita Mix or other blender, and blend until mixture is very smooth
(Add more water if necessary)
Taste, if you like it now, it’ll be great dehydrated!
Spread onto teflex sheets – the more finely spread, the more fragile your cracker, but the less drying time.
One option is to make big circles that can be used as crusts for Raw Pizza*!
Add toppings – I like to put sea vegetables and a little salt right on top
Dehydrate at 110-115, when dry enough, flip em so you can minimize drying time
When dry thoroughly, allow to cool, break up into pieces that will fit into an airtight container.
*To make Raw Pizza – make a thick but spreadable tahini sauce with lemon juice, garlic, cumin, water, olive oil and raw tahini (plus a little cayenne powder if your body is asking for some heat). Spread on finished sunflower crackers, add chopped red bell pepper, steamed broccoli, etc. and dehydrate at least an hour. YUM!!
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