Vegannosaurus Rex

One of the biggest frustrations i have found about the more upscale raw cookbooks (RAW FOOD real world, RAW) is the need for a dehydrator in a majority of the recipes. I’m new to raw food preparation, and have yet to justify the expense of a dehydrator. Not to mention I have no idea what features make a ‘good’ dehydrator.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, these two books can be a little intimidating. Many of the recipes are long, include multiple recipes that are later assembled into a presentable dish, use many different ingredients, and are time consuming, and the added complication of requiring a dehydrator. My solution has been to use these books as inspiration, and I have done so yet again.

‘RAW FOOD real world’ has a recipe for sushi rolls that includes jicama rice as a component. I make this jicama rice as a stand alone dish, and although I make raw sushi quite often, i have never actually used this jicama rice as a component for my sushi rolls. Once again, not having a dehydrator presents a problem. Sort of. I don’t have a dehydrator, so i’m not really sure how the jicama rice is supposed to turn out, but i do know that my version can hold its own.

in the absence of a dehydrator i press as much moisture out of the jicama after blending. This can be a somewhat delicate process as you don’t want the jicama to turn into one big glob of mush. I us paper towels to press the moisture out, changing towels a few times. I then place the jicama into a large bowl, cover it with a paper towel so the towel is resting on top of the jicama and set it in the refrigerator. The paper towel will continue to absorb some of the moisture, i change it once or twice when it becomes saturated.

After setting in the refrigerator over night i use this jicama rice as i would any other rice.  I spice mine up with a little chili powder, then mix in some vegetables and nama shoyu, but you could really do just about anything you want with it.