Raw Chips

This post is dedicated to James who loaned me a dehydrator in January in hopes that it would help me test out a 30 day raw diet. Obviously that has yet to happen. In fact, I took the dehydrator home and left it at my door... until tonight.

I thought I would start slow and make something easy that I was pretty sure I would love. I have made kale chips many times in the oven. These are similar, but take a helluva lot longer. However, you get a better chip from it, so if you can spare the time, it is worth it. Since kale chips are pretty well known, I thought I would attempt to use a different green and see how it does in the conversion to chips. Tonight, I chose collard greens. They are super good for you and I love them. They are seriously one of my favourite vegetables... actually most leafy greens are on my fave list. I don't know if that is a vegan thing, but I know for me, before being vegan no dark leafy greens were on my fave foods list. I didn't hate them, more indifferent of them. Now, I find that I crave them.. I think my taste buds changed after cutting animal products.. Definitely for the better.

Back to collard chips... I did a little searching on the internet to see what recipes were out there. There are many recipes for a wide range of veggie chips. There are so many ways to make them... so if you like these, just Google raw chips and tons of stuff comes up. Normally when I do these in the oven I keep it simple with some olive oil and salt, but thought I would maybe change it up a little bit. For the kale I am making a herb cheeze chip and for the collards, salt and balsamic vinegar.

Herb Cheeze Raw Kale Chips

• 1 bunch of kale (any kind, I used curly)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 - 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
• 1 pinch each of salt and pepper

Salt and Balsamic Vinegar Raw Collard Chips

• 1 bunch collards, sliced into bite size pieces
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (I used white)
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp ground sunflower seeds

For each of these the steps are the same. First rip or slice the greens into large bite size pieces. They will shrink a bit when you dehydrate them, so don't slice too small. Next throw them into a large bowl and combine the other ingredients. toss and stir until everything is coated. lay out flat in your dehydrator and try not to let them over lap so they dry evenly.

This is the kale pre-mixed

Now to dehydrate, I think the temperature is somewhere around 120 F.. Mine doesn't have a temperature setting, so I just turned mine on and crossed my fingers. I left mine in for about 5 hours total. If you turn the temperature up, they probably would only need 3-4 hours. I have seen some recipes that need up to 10 hours to dry. First time making these, I would allow lots of time in case they need more than you think.

Kale ready to be dehydrated

Collard green chips, pre-dehydrated. I needed about 3 trays for each bunch.

So I tried both of these chips, and I tried to save some to bring for work snacks. First, they were awesome. I liked both, but I kind of like the collards flavour better, but the kale makes a better chip. Just holds together a little better than thing collard greens. If you are going to try and save these, don't use zip lock bags. I did and they kind of softened up on me. Paper bag or Tupperware would probably be better.

Like slow cooking, turn on the dehydrator and then in a few hours you have chips ready to eat.
Takes a while, but I think I prefer to the baking method.

These were so good, I ate so many, I didn't need dinner. Such a good snack. Healthy and tastes good. Can't really get better than that.

Quick snack avec collard greens

So.. ever feel hungry and have no idea what you want? That is pretty much the story of my life. At best, I will know whether I am craving something sweet or salty, but my brain likes to make me guess after that point. Tonight I was poking around in my fridge and seeing what needed to be eaten and found a half a bunch of collard greens. They probably had a day left before they would need to be tossed, so what ever I made for a snack tonight needed to include collards.

Wasn't sure what to call this concoction.... but here it is...

Earthy, salty and pretty healthy. Made in under 15 minutes

Collard-Shroom Bowl
*Serves 1

• Half a bunch of collard greens, stems removed, rolled length-wise and sliced
• 5-6 Mushrooms, sliced (any kind and use more or less depending on what you like)
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• Scant 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, ground
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat your pan to medium heat and add the olive oil. Chop the collards, mushroom and garlic. I think these could be added all at the same time, but I added garlic first and a minute later, I added mushrooms, then collards. Let this saute for 5-6 minutes. Add a little water if it looks dry. Now grind up the sunflower seeds if you haven't done this yet and then toss them in. Add salt and pepper and stir. Cook for another 5 minutes or so until everything is cooked through and tender. Add the nutritional yeast and serve.

Confession - I had already started into this when I realized I hadn't photographed it.
Sorry - have to deal with lower quality cell pic :)

Even though this appears to just be a bowl of greens, the garlic and shrooms give it a bit more depth in flavour and the sunflower seeds give it some crunch and extra fat and protein. So it's like eating greens, except more filling and tastes more like a meal. To make this into a bigger meal, add tempeh, tofu, walnuts, quinoa. I think the options are endless because so many things could go with these flavours... even pasta... I think I might try that one next time!

Jamaican Feast! Vegan Style

I recently made some homemade seitan (Recipe here) and had no idea what to do with. I decided that I would make some more recipes out of the book I have been reviewing.. (which I can now actually write about, stay tuned for that!) Vegan with a Vengeance. I decided to make Jerk Seitan. Jerk really is a Jamaican style of cooking with a spice run or marinade that normally is used on meat. Traditional jerk contains allspice, hot, hot peppers, cloves, cinnamon, thyme, pepper. These days, people put their own spin on the classic jerk and Vegan with a Vengeance does just that.

Jerk Seitan
From Vegan with a Vengeance

The marinade:

• 1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 Tbsp ginger, chopped
• 3 Tbsp of fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp thyme, chopped or dried
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp of fresh nutmeg grated

For the seitan:

• 1 lbs of seitan, sliced thick into strips
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced (I used red)

Prepare the marinade in a food processor or blender. Combine all the ingredients and process until it is smooth, although some chunkiness is fine. Put the seitan into a shallow bowl or dish and pour the marinade on top. Cover and let it sit for at least an hour.

Prep - don't forget!

Now, once the seitan is marinaded, heat a large pan on medium heat and add the oil. Next add the onion and the pepper and cook for 5-7 minutes or until it is starting to brown. Add the seitan (reserve the marinade) cook for about 10 - 15 minutes. Then add the remaining marinade and heat it through.

With this I decided to make some coconut rice and although I have a good recipe, I decided to try Isa Chandra Moskowitz's version. The major difference in the two is that my recipe has raisins in it and hers has toasted coconut. Isa, you win. This was my first time eating toasted coconut and oh my, why did I wait this long?! Anyways, here is the recipe, cut in half because that was how I made it.

Coconut Rice

• 1 cup of rice
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 a can of coconut milk
• cinnamon stick
• pinch of salt
• lime zest of one lime
• toasted coconut flakes

Take the rice, water, milk, cinnamon and salt in a pot and bring it to a boil. Stir cover and turn down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. After this give it a stir, add the lime zest, cover and let it sit off the heat for 10 more minutes. While it sits, toast the rice in a dry pan over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve topping the rice with the coconut.

The last thing I made to make this meal complete was some collard greens. I sauteed them on medium heat with a little bit of oil and a splash of white balsamic vinegar.

OK, my review of this meal.. I will start with the seitan. Overall, this was really good. It has sweet, spicy, salty and sour elements to it and the seitan cooked up so much better than the store bought. My only criticism is that the jerk is really not traditional. I found it was really lacking in spice. If I made it again, I would up the spice big time because that is what I think of first when I have jerk. Spicy! I have to say though Isa is a master at combining spice.

The rice - simple, easy and tasty. I will make this again. I also will never forget to use a little toasted coconut on my rice when I want to sweeten it up a bit.

And, the collards... well I make these at least 2-3 times a week or some variation of it. I like them, they take 10 minutes from start to finish and it is a tasty way to get a serving of veggies. Oh and one last thing. It is a must to serve this meal with some Jamaican beer and preferably on the beach if you happen to be lucky enough to live on one.