This Spicy Tomato Chips recipe is one we make about once a month! They are made in a dehydrator. Don’t have one? Fear not!
You can totally make these recipes in an oven at the lowest temperature setting with the oven door slightly ajar. It’s not a perfect solution, but you will get a pretty good result. The only thing about using an oven is that you have to monitor carefully how quickly the veggies cook.
The kale recipe for example cooks pretty fast and you may get some crispy burnt edges!
One of the advantages of a dehydrator over an oven is that it preserves nutrients. It is still a form of cooking your food because you are removing all the water from it. But, it does preserve more nutrients than outright regular cooking.
When should you use dehydrated food recipes?
Dehydrated foods are excellent for those transitioning from a cooked food diet to a more raw and living foods diet.
If you are transitioning, or still including some cooked foods in your diet, adding in some dehydrated foods is an excellent way to help you with this transition. You do not need a lot of dehydrated foods in your diet to make an impact.
How can you use these recipes?
I enjoy adding Spicy Tomato Chips to a salad, for example. Or you can use the Raw Onion Bread as a bread alternative and load it with veggies and make it a super delish sandwich.
If you are doing the Medical Medium® 28-Day Cleanse or any of the 369 cleanses, for example, I would recommend avoiding dehydrated foods and sticking to all fresh fruits and veggies in their 100% raw, unprocessed state.
Most of all, have FUN with them and make them your own.
Why is there oil in the recipes? (note, you can make them without oil)
You will notice that there is oil in dehydrator recipes. The reason for this is that if you dry something with no oil on it, it will become dry and crispy or crunchy. If you want some pliability to it, you will have to add in some oil or some other kind of fat.
I have worked on these recipes to use the lowest amount of oils possible. If you are not into the oil, skip it and see how it turns out. I have done that many, many times. Do keep in mind, that it’s ¼ cup of oil for 50 tomatoes! So per tomato, it’s a very small amount. I have eliminated the oil completely in the past and it has still turned out super yummy.
Spicy Tomato Chips
Even though the number of tomatoes feels like a lot, you are going to want more than just a few because these chips reduce in size and once dehydrated look nothing like the volume of chips you started with.
The tomato chip batter recipe can be used fully for 50 tomatoes, or if used on fewer tomatoes, will keep well in the fridge for about a week. This batter can actually be used on any other kinds of veggies to make veggie chips. It goes well with zucchinis, yellow squash, and even kale! Feel free to experiment with the different types of veggies you end up making.
I originally made this recipe because my middle daughter loved Just Pure Foods’ Spicy Jalapeño Tomato Chips and could work through about 3 bags of chips at a time. So for my own curiosity, (I figured it couldn’t be that hard to make!) I decided to try my own experiment.
Spicy Tomato Chips
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups cashew nuts soaked for 1 hour
- 1 ½ Cups sunflower seeds soaked for 1 hour
- 20 tomatoes thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper chopped and seeds removed
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 Tbsp maple syrup
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp tomato powder
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- ¼ tsp cayenne or to taste
- ¼ Cup pure olive oil
Instructions
- Blend all ingredients in a blender.
- Prep the number of tomatoes you plan to use by slicing them into about 5 mm slices.
- Spread tomatoes onto a dehydrator tray and evenly pour the batter across them. You can use a spoon or spreader to make sure it’s evenly spread.
- Dehydrate for 24 hours at 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Once done, top a salad, snack on it or put it in a sandwich, wrap, or soup!
To your health & happiness,
Muneeza
