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Posts Tagged With: crackers

Umami Flax Seed Crackers and Veg Box Salad (Raw/ Vegan/ Gluten Free)

Posted on August 1, 2013 by leroy watson

Umami Flax Seed Crackers

These crackers came out of the blue, as an afterthought, they appeared in a bowl, I stirred them, decided to dry them and hey pesto! Umami Crackers came into the world. CRUNCH!

The real reason for these flax crackers was the desire to make a superbly healthy cracker, something to idly munch on without care. Jane and I can put away vast quantities of oat cakes/ crackers at one mid-sitting, its something to do with the texture. Most crackers aren’t exactly packed with nutrition, we’ve found that after a couple of these we are sated. Its all the good stuff in them we reckon.

Flax (or Lin) Seeds are a special little thing, one of the finest things for our digestion. When you pop a little water on them, you’ll see why. Flax takes on a gooey, emulsion-like property which the belly and below loves, this is the exact property that makes these crackers ‘gel’. Just add a little water to flax, leave them for a few minutes and they become a vehicle for all sorts of flavours and once dried/ baked they make crunchy biscuits to get excited about. There is absolutely nothing negative about these crackers, nutritionally, they are food for super humans (that’s all of us then!!!!)

Umami is the fifth taste, along with bitter, sweet etc. Umami means ‘yummy’ in Japanese and the Umami spectrum was opened up by a Japanese fellow. Umami is a delicious savouriness, think MSG but natural. MSG is not the baddy that many think, it is present naturally in foods like parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms. Added to this, umami just sounds like alot of fun!

I used a splendid Halen Mon product here, Umami powder. Its a mixture of their awesome sea salt (from the Menia Straits just outside the Beach House) and some seaweed and dried mushrooms. Seriously savoury and brilliant for perking things up, stews, risottos, soups…..you get the picture. Its a wonder condiment.

The Veg Box Salad is a Jane speciality that we enjoy on numerous occasions per week (especially when Janes cooking/non-cooking). It consists of loads of veggies and other special bits from the fridge and larder (seeds, olives, dried fruits…..), you never know what to expect from a Veg Box Salad, but you know that it will be massive and super tasty. The exhaustive list of ingredients of this particular salad are below, but feel free to empty your own fridge or veg box into a bowl and enjoy the spoils!!!!! There is an alarming amount of awesome veg to be found here.

A good salad is all about combining textures, flavours and colours, all topped off with a kickin’ dressing. Ingredients don’t matter here, this is free-flowing fare, changing with the seasons and your whims.

Crackers

Makes around 10 crackers

1 1/2 cup flax (lin) seeds, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup sunblushed tomatoes (finely chopped), 1 teas umami powder, 2 tbs black sesame seeds, 2 cloves garlic (crushed, minced or mashed up)

Umami Flax Seed Crackers (Raw/ Vegan)

Do It

Mix water into flax seeds and leave for 10 minutes, the seeds should be sticky, but not too wet. Add the rest of your ingredients and stir well. Spread out onto dehydrator tray or baking tray, oiled. 1/2 cm thickness is good and any shape that take you fancy. Cracker size!?

Dehydrate for 6 hours until crispy, bake for 10-15 minutes at around 1800C or until crispy.

Be gentle when handling the finished crackers, they are sensitive little guys. Use a flat spatula for the sake of a decent sized cracker.

Veg Box delights!

Veg Box Salad

One massive bowlful

3 stems swiss chard (finely sliced), 1/4 green cabbage (shredded), 1/2 white onion (finely chopped), 2 stems celery (chopped), 2 handfuls chopped parsley, 1 avocado (roughly chopped), 1 green apple (diced and cored), 1 small courgette, small cucumber, small broccoli (all diced), 2 handfuls of olives, 2 handfuls of pumpkin seeds, 3 tbs nutritional yeast flakes (optional but very tasty)

Dressing

1 handful of fresh mint, 1 handful of fresh basil, juice and zest of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup fruity olive oil, 1 cup soya yoghurt, 1 teas sea salt, 1 teas bharat (spice mix, or garam masala), 1 tbs apple juice concentrate (or honey), 1 tbs white wine vinegar

Blend all together in a food processor, adding the olive oil slowly to for a good emulsion.

Serve

We broke up some of the crackers and added them as a topping which worked out nicely. Big bowls. BIG bowls!

We Love It!

Every Thursday (that’s today) we pick up our veg box and are consistently surprised by the wonderful veg produced by the magical John and Pippa. There is no better way to celebrate good vegetables than very, very simply. Salad style definitely works here.

The flavours of these organic vegetables light up the bowl, a dressing almost seems like overkill. The crackers make a decent accompaniment to such a bounty of veg goodness.

Foodie Fact

Flax seeds are unique in many ways. Firstly, they provide the highest levels of Omega 3 oils found in a vegetarian diet (hundreds times more than the nearest competitor!) and these abundant oils are not altered by cooking at high heats. Which is great news!

Flax seeds are also insanely high in lignans, which act like fibre and have antioxidant effects on the body.

As mentioned above, flax seeds have mucilage properties, which means they form a ‘gum’ like substance in the body which helps the absorption of many nutrients in the intestines.

Some Beach House leaves picked yesterday

Categories: Local food, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads | Tags: crackers, flax seed, food, gluten-free, omega 3 oils, raw, recipes, salad, umami, veg box, vegan | 13 Comments

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

Posted on July 6, 2013 by leroy watson

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

What a thing! What a wonderful thing! RAW CRACKERS have arrived with a crunch at the BHK! We managed to pick up a dehydrator for half price which has inspired us to play with many ingredients in new ways, generally making them all crispy.

This crispiness is something you can miss when you go full-on raw (I believe it is known as mouth feel in some circles, but that sounds too technical for a humble cracker), the odd bit of toast, bread, crackers, oat cakes, you know the drill. You fancy something to balance the crunch and zest of all the magic veggies and fruits you’re eating. This is where the raw cracker comes into its own and this one boast not only dried onions (massive flavour here) but also brown miso for a cracker that tastes as stunning and moreish as anything dusted with chemicals and the like.

These buckwheat crackers were a real surprise, we had no idea they’d taste so dang good! The only issue is not eating them all at once and they do take a good 12 hours to dehydrate. Dehydrating is a great lesson in being prepared and most importantly patient. You can’t rush the process, but the end result is normally more than worth the wait. It’s best to dehydrate over night and then you just forget about whats going on until you wander down in the morning and find some crispy wonders awaiting you.

The dehydrator also makes soothing buzzing noise and warms a room quite nicely, just a couple of add- on benefits. It actually sounds like your on a plane when you sit beside it, that gently humming and whistling, you can close your eyes and imagine your off to somewhere exotic to behave in wonderful ways.

Buckwheat is one of those things that we don’t eat enough of, we have to go to the health shop to get our hands on it. When we have it around we love having a play with it using it as a substitute for grains in salads and stews.

Buckwheat is actually a berry (along the lines of quinoa) and has nothing to do with wheat etc, so its gluten free and great for the body/ digestion. Buckwheat flour is also perfect for a full flavoured, dense pancake or flatbread. We love wheat, but it generally doesn’t love us. When you start giving things up on a raw diet, you really get to know your digestive system in a new way (promise not to get too graphic here!). You also realise how much strain you have been putting it under and wheat/ gluten for us is a real drag on the belly and below. Still, the smell of toast is something quite special and we’ll always nibble our way through a couple of slices. It’s a pleasure-pain thing and the pleasure is well worth the gurgling insides.

There is something about miso that is quite special also, it’s got that healthy bacteria thing going on and just feels very, very right. It is high in sodium, but it is used by the body in a different way to plain old salt. Japanese people eat alot of it and Japanese people live for a long, long time and have significantly less disease than us Western varieties. It could be the miso!?

We used slightly oiled baking parchment to dry these babies out, it works quite well, but in proper dehydrating circles, you’d use a special non-stick tray. If you are gentle with a spatula, you should be able to get them off in one piece-ish.

Makes eight medium sized crackers.

The Bits

300g sprouted buckwheat, 1 1/2 tbsp brown miso (use more if you are using white or yellow miso), 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp fresh parsley (we didn’t have any), 1/4 onion (finely sliced), 2 tbsp boiling water, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, 1 tbsp sunflower/ pumpkin seeds (optional)

Do It

Blend all together to a thick, spreadable paste. You’ve got to love this raw food prep, its a blend-fest, but oh so simple.

Just add……avocado?

Serve

We like ours with a crunchy salad, the contrast of textures is something to behold and its raw, and all the nutrients are there AND its superbly healthy. How about lathered in avocado!!!!! Its one of those raw/ vegan food no lose situations that we coming to love in the BHK.

We Love It!

Full of nutrition and raw crunch, we can’t wait to get started on a new batch. Flax and sprouted oat next up….

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is a berry related to rhubarb and sorrel, it helps to slow down the absorption of glucose after a meal making it good for diabetics. It contains all of your amino acids, not produced by the body and also contains lysine and many minerals which are great for the immune system.