Ⓥ Organic Dehydrated Kale Crackers with Engevita Yeast Flakes

I found a raw Cheezy Kale Crackers recipe a few weeks back and eventually got around to giving it a go today.

As usual for dehydrated cracker recipes, it's very easy to make. The worst problem I have is my blender is total rubbish. Anyway, I won't dwell on my blender.

So, the ingredients are:

Kale, Almonds, Nutritional Yeast Flakes, Coconut Flour, Flax, Paprika and Chili

First you have to soak the almonds over night, then rinse and then blend them. Stick them in a bowl. Put the flax and water in a bowl and leave it to thicken up.  Then blend the kale up. Add all the other ingredients to the ground almonds, add the kale to the almonds, mix well.

Then finally, add the gloopy flax mixture and mix well again.

Then you spread it out on parchment paper and score it. Unfortunately I don't have a fancy pants cutter so I used a knife. Mine are nowhere near as neat as on Susan's blog on Rawmazing.com.

Then you dehydrate it. It smells really good.

Ⓥ Vegan Christmas Nut Roast Recipe

This recipe is one that Gramondo's dad makes every Christmas for their family meal (it serves 6).  It uses 3 types of nuts, but you could substitute 100% peanuts instead.  You don't have to wait until Christmas as this nut roast recipe is enjoyable anytime of the year.

2 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
75g/3oz shelled brazil nuts
75g/3oz shelled cashew nuts
75g/3oz shelled unsalted peanuts
175g/6oz wholemeal breadcrumbs
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage
a few drops of Tabasco sauce
salt and ground black pepper
3 tbsp tomato puree
150ml/¼ pint vegetable stock
450g/1lb puff pastry (or use rough puff pastry - see below)

1. Fry up the onion and leeks in the oil for about 5 minutes.  Chop up the nuts by hand or if you want to be lazy use a food processor.  Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast them under a pre heated grill for about 3 minutes.

2. Mix together the onion and leek, toasted nuts, breadcrumbs, sage, Tabasco sauce and seasoning.  Dissolve the tomato puree in the vegetable stock and stir it into the dry ingredients.

3. Preheat your oven to 220C/425F/Mark 7.  Roll out the pastry to 30 x 38cm/12 x 15inch rectangle.  Spoon the filling lengthways down the centre of the pastry, leaving a border of around 11.5cm/4.5inches down the long sides and 6.5cm/2.5inches at the short ends.

4. Cut out 4 squares from each of the corners of the pastry, almost to the edge of the filling. Use some
soy/rice/etc milk to brush around the edges of the pastry.

5. Fold the short sides of the pastry over the filling, and then fold the long edges over the filling, forming a sealed oblong parcel.  Place the nut roasts on a heated baking tray seams underneath. Brush the tops with more milk.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Individual Nut Roasts

You could also make smaller individual nut roasts, which you can then freeze and cook later.  Gramondo's dad makes about 9 from the same ingredient.  He uses a rough puff pastry recipe...

1lb self raising flour
5oz vegetable shortening/fat
5oz vegetable margarine
½ pint of cold water
tsp salt

1. Add flour into bowl, mix the flour and salt.  Add fat cut in small pieces, stir in with knife (do not rub in).  Mix to a stiff paste with water.

2. Roll out to a narrow strip. fold in three turn one of the open towards you,and repeat three times. Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. Take out and divide into 2, place 1 back into the fridge.  Divide into 4 and roll out into mini nut roasts.  The bits that you trim off make another one.  Then take the other pastry out of fridge and repeat.