Recipe: Excalibur dehydrating: Raw corn chips

Raw Corn Chips: (adapted from Raw Food, Real World)

Ingredients:

  • 40 grams golden flax seed (ground or not)
  • 100 grams sweet bell pepper (about 1 small pepper, or 1/2 large one)
  • 50 grams yellow onion
  • 600 grams frozen corn, thawed (I imagine raw, fresh corn would work as well)
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp coarse sea salt
  • pinch paprika
  • pinch red pepper flakes

                                     Instructions:

1. In your Blendtec blender- combine onion, flax, bell pepper and spices—process until thoroughly mixed.
2. Add corn and process until smooth...ish, or most of the corn has been broken down—if necessary, add a bit of water to facilitate the process (I sometimes use 1/4 cup or so).
3. Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture thinly across two dehydrator sheets. Score them (I rarely score them, but when I do, I just use the back of a paring knife. Otherwise, I just break them into irregular pieces in the next step) and dehydrate at 115F (46c) until dry—about 12 hours.
4. Peel dried mixture from dehydrator sheet and break into pieces. Continue to dehydrate at 115F (46c) until crisp—about 8 hours.

The flax seed can be grounded or whole, with the main difference being the texture.  Grounded flax seed yields a smoother texture with less cracking while the chips are dehydrating, but you don’t have to bother grinding them- just accept cracks as guides for breakage. Brown or golden flax seed work in the recipe, but golden looks better (in my opinion). Another ingredient that effects the colour is the pepper—red, yellow or orange will lend their individual colour, though the flavour remains consistent. Don’t use green- its not nearly as sweet.

Finally, a note on the thickness—this recipe yields two full dehydrator sheets, when spread very thinly, which results in a crisp chip. Every time I make them, I think there's not going to be enough to cover the sheets, and every time there is—so, don't lose faith, keep spreading and a crisp chip will be yours.