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!

The Clever Rabbit - New Vegan Restaurant in Edmonton

Not too long ago, a new vegan / vegan friendly restaurant opened up in Edmonton. I don't know how it took me so long to get there, but I finally went this past weekend. I dragged my ass out of my apartment before noon and headed out for one of the first vegan brunches at restaurant.. possibly ever.



Clever rabbit is on 124th Street and just north of 107th Avenue. It is only open for breakfast and lunch which for me means that I will only be able to get there on the weekends. Walking in at noon on a Saturday, I was welcomed by a display of vegan baked goods. For vegan people in this city... you know that this is a big deal.

The menu was pretty simple, but had a number of good options. As someone that has no friends that are vegan, what I was most impressed with was that they default all items on the menu to vegan, but will sub in non-vegan on request. What a nice change! I never really thought that I minded that every time I go out to eat, I have to ask for things to be substituted or taken out of dishes... It is really nice to have things vegan by default and people can add when they want something more... carcass-y. Why can't all restaurants be that way?

Vegan donair - and yes, it is good! No meat necessary here

 So my thoughts on Clever Rabbit? I love the name and the casual atmosphere inside. They don't seat many in there, so I really hope that they promote the vegan baking and get some take-away traffic in addition to sit down. I was a little worried when I walked in as the place was pretty empty, but it seems that everyone was just sleeping in and within 30 minutes of getting there, the tables were full. The staff was friendly and prompt. I had a coffee which was really good. I normally wouldn't even comment on the coffee, but it was just a good brew. The kind where you don't need milk and sugar. They also have smoothies there, which I did not try, but may next weekend. One drawback for me was they had juices, but they were all canned and carbonated. Since they are doing the breakfast thing and the smoothie thing, it would have been really great to have fresh juice... but pretty minor I think. The carbonated raspberry lemonade was awesome.

This is what a garden salad SHOULD look like!

My sister, who came out with me, had tofu scramble and it looked and smelled really good. For the $9.00 price tag, you got a lot. She barely got through half of it. I decided to try the vegan donair. First time I had seen one of these and it was so good. Good enough that I wish these guys were open at 3:00 am for post bar munchies. Since they're not, I can wait patiently for the next morning. I had a salad with my donair and though just a garden salad, it was more like the salads I make at home. Lots of seeds, nuts, fruit and veggies. So much better than most restaurants where a garden salad is romaine/iceberg and some carrots and onion.

Why we went here in the first place - Vegan breakfast!
Behold scrambled tofu.. even better than non-vegan scramble

After brunch, we got some homemade vegan donuts and they were so, so good! A little on the heavy side (often happens I find in vegan baking), but the flavour was bang on and it cured a two year craving for donuts. I really wanted a cinnamon bun, but the last one was taken while I was there. Another reason why I need to go back. I have really struggled to find good decent vegan baking in this city. There are some fabulous cupcakes and muffins out there (Pure muffins, so good!), but beyond that, I have to make my own. Sometimes, I just want someone else to do the cooking and cleaning.

In short, vegan or not... Go give Clever Rabbit a try. I think you will be impressed!