Raw Juice Pulp Crackers

I have been eating raw vegan foods a couple of times a week now. I absolutely love the flavors and I am very surprised about the creativeness that goes into preparing some of these foods.

As tasty as this diet can be I don't think - at least not yet - that I'll ever fully convert because I don't necessarily agree with the all claims in health benefits and feel adequate research and proof is lacking. But I hope to maintain being 15-20% raw. Primarily because raw vegan foods feel light, refreshing and healthy plus I do agree with some of the health claims :-) and because I love the challenge of learning new techniques and coming up with or trying out new recipes.

I have been juicing for about two years now. I was instantly inspired from this movie which you can watch free on netflix and on hulu. I immediately got a juicer from Amazon the very next day. This particular Breville juicer is very compact, powerful, affordable and therefore suits me very well. I have a small kitchen, a ton of cooking related stuff and a looong wish list of stuff that I want. Anyway back to the juicer, its awesome! I LOVE all the juices I can make and am very much in love with it. On the flip side I am very unhappy about the pulp that I have to throw away. I don't have a need to compost so I make patties or add the pulp into soups but mostly it goes down the garbage disposal.

So basically the concept behind these crackers is something that I borrowed from the net while searching for ways to utilize leftover juice pulp. These seem good because you can store them for a long time.

I am making these raw and the guidelines tell me to "cook" them under 118 degrees to preserve all the nutrients. You will need a dehydrator for that. However, if you don't care about the whole raw deal then you can bake them in your oven at the lowest setting (170 or 180 for most people) until they feel crispy.

I am very pleased to share with you my very first raw recipe :-)
You can find hundreds of very creative recipes out on the net :-)
I hope to get better at these and will gladly share my experiments with you. These were pretty good with or without dip. I added no salt or extra spices but surely the addition of those will make for even tastier crackers.

Method

Pulp from:
2 small granny smith apples
1 whole bunch of celery

I added to this pulp:
1 Tbs of flax seed (I didn't soak them)
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions
2 green chilies thinly sliced

I pretty much mixed every thing up, spread the dough very thin on a tray and dried them on my Nesco 700 Watt dehydrator set at 115 degrees. After about 8 hours they were still a little soft (perfect texture for breads and wraps!) I flipped them and continued to dry them for another 6 hours to make them perfectly crunchy.
Total of 14 hours :-)

 

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Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ummmm very good :-)
Chewy, moist and delicious.

(makes about 20  2"cookies)
(prep time 10 mins)
(bake time 15 mins)
Ingredients

All purpose flour 1 1/2 cups
Baking soda 3/4 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Sugar 1/2 cup
Brown sugar 1/4 cup
Clover honey 1/4 cup
Butter 4 Tbs (melted)
Chunky peanut butter 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs
Large egg 1 (room temp)
Semi sweet chocolate chips 1/4 cup (I used Nestlé Toll House)

Method

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together the sugars, honey, melted butter, peanut butter and egg in a large bowl.
Add to this the dry ingredients and fold in.
Scoop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet and bake for 13-15 mins or until light golden brown. They will feel soft when they come out the oven. Let them cool down completely and the centers will become nice and chewy.
Enjoy
:-)

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Jackfruit Seeds

I recently found out that ripe jackfruit seeds are edible and are considered a delicacy in South India. The idea sounded lovely and made me very curious about the flavor. I had to cook it. I searched for a few recipes and learnt that they need to be boiled for a while to get the skins off.

I saved up some seeds from the jackfruit that I had slayed earlier and following is the way I made it. I didn't want to make it into a curry, just something simple that I could eat atop a leafy salad. I selected some Pakistani/Indian inspired spices that would taste good with potatoes and went with that.
The flavor and texture was nice. Kinda like a nutty potato :-)

(serves 1)
(cook time 25 mins)
Ingredients

About 30 jackfruit seeds
Turmeric 1/4 tsp
Black mustard seeds 1/3 tsp
Black cumin seeds 1/3 tsp
Chili flakes 1/2 tsp
Pepper 1/8 tsp
Fenugreek seed powder 1/8 tsp
Salt
Canola oil 2-3 Tbs
Fresh mint 1/2 Tbs (chopped fine)
Fresh lime juice 1 Tbs

Method

Start by boiling the seeds in salted water for 20 mins.The skin comes off very easily once the are cooked. Slice the seeds in half.
Heat some oil in a frying pan.
Add all the spices in the hot oil and cook for 30 seconds.
Now you can throw in the jackfruit seeds into the frying pan.
Toss around and cook for another minute or so.
Sprinkle some lime juice and mint on top.
I had it just like that over a simple salad (cucumbers and some greens no dressing).
But I would imagine it work great with roti or naan.

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