Preserving herbs

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Sarina @ Earthgiven Kitchen

The frost hit my neck of the woods a bit later this fall than it normally does, giving me a few more weeks than usual to enjoy my roses roses, mums and herbs. The rest of my garden was gone in October. When I figured the herbs were at the end of their peak, I knew it was time to harvest them all or lose them to the frost.

I made a jar of Italian Seasoning by combining dried basil, thyme, marjoram, parsley and oregano from my garden. It was so easy it was practically cheating for me to choose my herbs: I had bought a pot of assorted Italian Herbs in the spring. A few weeks ago, I harvested everything green on it and it was in a jar in my pantry two hours later.

Home-dried Italian Seasoning
A combination of some or all of the following herbs.
Basil
Thyme
Marjoram
Parsley
Oregano
Rosemary
Sage

Wash the herbs and place in dehydrator. Dehydrate at 105 degrees until leaves are crispy (about an hour or two).

Transfer the dried herbs to a plastic bag, seal it, then squeeze the bag to crush the herbs. Snip a small hole in one corner of the bag and funnel the herbs into a clean glass jar. You can use the jars with the holes in the top for sprinkling directly onto food, but to really bring out the flavours of the herbs, crush them with your finger tips right into your food as you cook them to release the aroma and oils. You can also dry herbs by air-drying (hang a bunch of herbs upside down in warm, dry room).

You can also freeze herbs by adding chopped herbs to water or oil in ice cube trays. Then just pop out a frozen herb cube to add to cooking like soups, stews and sauces.These rosemary cubes will be great later in mashed potatoes or pasta sauce.

Other tips for preserving herbs: don’t wait until herbs are past their freshness to dry them, preserve them at their peak for maximum flavour and nutrition. Don’t overheat them when drying (air drying is probably better than dehydrator drying for that purpose). Freezing would be better for herbs like chives and ginger that don’t dry well.

In other news, a big thank you to Liveblissful and Eat Breathe Yogini for honouring me with two awards this month: Liebster Award (by both) and Blog of the Year by Liveblissful. I’m deeply flattered. Thank you very much, ladies!

Nacho crackers

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Sarina @ Earthgiven Kitchen

Hi, friends! I’ve been post-less for a week, having been on holidays, soaking up some sun and family time at a cottage in Muskoka. It was a wonderful time. We brought our own food with us, but there wasn’t room to bring my favourite food equipment like juicer, food processor and dehydrator, so I made as much food as I could ahead of time, like raw granola, and packed it with us.

I’ve only had my dehydrator for a few months so I’m still amazed at the variety of healthy food I can easily make with it and the taste quality. I’m enjoying making raw crackers in my dehydrator lately. Here’s my favourite so far: nacho crackers!

The idea came from my nacho kale chips recipe, which I selected as my entry for the first Healthy Vegan Fridays blog party this week. Every week there will be a new list of delicious recipes featuring whole ingredients to peruse, so now I know where to head the next I’m looking for inspiration. Check it out!

I also loved these crackers enough to send them to my vegan food swap partner Gabby @ The Veggie Nook this month. Hope she likes them as much as I do! I used to love store-bought crackers, now I can’t believe I ate all that sodium, sugar and preservatives, thinking they were a “healthy” snack. These nacho crackers are about as healthy as you can get, plus they are raw, sugar-free and gluten-free.

Raw Nacho Crackers
2/3 cup raw nuts (I used a mix of Brazil nuts and almonds)
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup ground flax
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped red pepper
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp Spicy Herbamare seasoning
1 tsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper

Soak the nuts and seeds in 2 cups of filtered water for at least an hour and preferably several hours. Empty the nuts and seeds including the soaking water into a food processor and combine. Add the celery, red pepper and sun-dried tomatoes and combine again. Mix the nutritional yeast, Herbamare and spices together in a separate bowl, then add the spice mixture and combine again until uniformly mixed. Note: to be truly raw, you will want to choose sun or dehydrator-dried tomatoes and raw spices where possible.

Pour onto Paraflexx sheets and smooth out with a spatula so they are uniformly thin, like giant crepes. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for several hours, until crispy. After about five hours, when they are starting to firm up, flip them by placing another Paraflexx sheet and tray on top of the crackers, flipping upside down, peeling off the top sheet and returning them to the dehydrator on the new tray. You can either pull the crackers out when they are nearly done but not crisp and slice them into rectangles with a knife and return to the dehydrator to finish crisping up, or wait until they are as firm and dry as you like and break them into small pieces, like the ones shown in my photos.

They were great on their own and awesome topped with Tofutti cream cheese and cucumber and olive slices and a dash of black pepper! A perfect summer appetizer.

Root Vegetable Chips

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Sarina @ Earthgiven Kitchen

I adore Terra Chips, but if you have a dehydrator, why not make your own version for a fraction of the price? You could do these in the oven too, but the texture isn’t as great as with a dehydrator.

Root Vegetable Chips
Root vegetables of your choice (parsnip, potato, beet, yam, etc)
vegetable oil
sea salt or Herbamare seasoning

Root vegetables cook at different rates, so keeping the vegetables on separate sheets will allow you to pull out the vegetables from the dehydrator that cook first (like sweet potatoes) and leave the vegetables that take the longest to crisp up (like beets) in the longest.

Slice vegetables one a time, keeping them separated, as thinly as you can using a mandoline (I use the mandoline blade on my food processor) then transfer to separate bowls. Pour oil over the vegetables and stir to coat. Lay the vegetables on Teflex sheets, a different vegetable per tray, leaving a bit of room between each piece and sprinkle with salt or seasoning.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees for several hours (at least 8) until the vegetables are crispy. Normally around the 6 hour mark I flip the chips by pulling out the trays, laying another tray on top of the veggies and turning upside down, leaving the veggies on the second tray, then pop back in the oven to crisp up the other side.

They made a great snack with salsa, guacamole or hummus!

Favourite New Toy

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Sarina @ Earthgiven Kitchen

Since receiving an Excalibur dehydrator for my birthday a few weeks ago, I’ve been using it daily and loving how easy it is to make tasty raw snacks.

Some of the goodies I’ve made so far include Nacho Kale Chips, Hazelnut Pear Granola, Cacao and Coconut Granola, potato/beet/sweet potato chips and several varieties of granola bars.

Cacao and Coconut Granola in progress (recipe here from Kelly Child)

A year ago, I joined a local raw food meet-up to meet other vegans (and almost-vegans) who are interested in learning more about the benefits of a raw food diet. I’ve been inspired to include a green juice or smoothie most days, relegate the microwave to the basement and only use it rarely, try raw restaurants like the amazing Live Organic Food Bar, choose organic produce as much as possible and eat more fresh over cooked veggies. I still eat plenty of non-raw foods like baking and pasta, but having learned so much about enzymes and nutrients that are lost in the cooking process, I’ve made a commitment to eating at least 50% raw every day.

I’m not a raw food expert, so to learn more about raw cuisine, check out great blogs like Kristen’s Raw or books like Raw Food for Real People by Rod Rotudi, Live Raw by Mimi Kirk, anything by Ani Phyo, Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.