If you don’t have a dehydrator, it might be time to get one because this raw food recipe for “sliders” is worth buying one for!
Before I started eating a diet of mostly raw, vegan food, one of my favorite treats used to be sliders. You know, the mini-burgers that you just pop in your mouth. The best were from a local gourmet restaurant and were basted with a compound butter (a butter with flavor) that was made with a red wine. They were insanely flavorful but extremely unhealthy.
Now that meat (and butter, for that matter) are off the menu, I threw together these little “sliders” made from mushrooms and sweet potato. The flavor is exciting, and the nutritional stats – off the charts.
Made from mushrooms and sweet potatoes with a binder of pumpkin seed flour, all I can say is that I was eating them way before they came out of the dehydrator. They are easy to throw together and can be dehydrated in an afternoon. Best of all, they can be frozen and thrown in the dehydrator to warm up later.
Grind 1 cup of pumpkin seeds in the food processor to make 1 1/4 cups pumpkin seed flour. It doesn’t take long, just stop before you get pumpkin seed butter!
I used a combination of white and portabello mushrooms. To remove dirt from your mushrooms, you can give them a very quick rinse. Just be careful not to let them soak as they will absorb water. They will chop better in the food processor if you use small batches.
The mixture will be wet but don’t worry. Just drop a mound onto the non-stick sheet (these are the new silicone sheets) and spread it into a 3-inch circle. You will dehydrate these for 1 1/2 hour on a non-stick sheet then transfer (don’t flip) them to a mesh sheet to finish the dehydration.
Things have finally quieted down enough around here for me to get back in the kitchen and start some new recipes for the new year. I was browsing the shelves at my local grocery store and my eyes happened to land on a beautiful bunch of live cress which excited me to no end. I love that you can buy some greens with the roots and dirt still attached, more nutrients survive intact this way.
Once I found some golden beets to throw into the cart, I started looking for other ingredients to fill out the beet salad I decided to make. Limes, scallions, a little dijon mustard, and olive oil rounded out this super fresh, flavorful little salad. It is wonderfully quick to throw together and tastes divine.
A few more chops, a quick toss and you have a wonderful winter salad great for lunch or as a starter to dinner. Quick, easy, fresh, tasty and satisfying. What else can I say?