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Hi mmmorgans. I’ve been a raw foodist for 2 years now, and have never used a dehydrator. Personally, I think a dehydrator robs some of the taste and nutrition from food. When I eat dehydrated dishes, I always feel a bit sluggish afterward. I think its best to eat your food as fresh as possible. If your looking for more dishes to make without a dehydrator, check out the roshi’s raw lifestyle blog . The dishes I post never use a dehydrator, and always pretty simple to make. Plus you can read posts my brother puts up about health and nutrition.
Some people use a low oven or the tops of their radiators to sit the food on. Also, processing veggies and then just warming them through in a pot over a low heat can be done.
Hi mmmorgans. I have the same problem. I’m a long-time vegan, but would like to be doing more raw. I cannot afford a dehydrator, and it’s frustrating because so many things need to go in a dehydrator to get the right consistancy (like crusts and crackers, etc.)
You can use your oven on the lowest setting with a fan blowing into it. Or if your oven is fan assisted all the better. The air flow is important as the food might go mouldy otherwise. The dehydrator uses air flow as much as heat to dehydrate the food. Put a cooking thermometer in the oven to check on the temp. If you live somewhere hot and sunny you can sun bake, which actually puts energy into your food rather than takes it away.
The dehydrator has made eating raw less expensive in the long run for us because breads etc are cheap to make and filling. My husband made a dehydrator out of light bulbs, a fan and a metal shelving unit. It is 3 times the size of our 9 tray excalibur and works perfectly. It took him about 3-4 hours to make and only a few pounds.
Also there are always dehydrators on ebay.
rishi – i love your website! well done, and i love the articles that raise awareness about issues surrounding health and nutrition. fun recipe pics as well.
mmmorgans – you can order flax crackers and breads online while you don’t have a dehydrator. I really like mine – since i only eat living foods, and i never want to eat cooked again, i really need the variety given by the dehydrator – recently i’ve been making lots of burgers. i plan to try more recipes once my Rawvolution and Fresh cookbooks arrive this week. It’s all about having good recipes!
temporarily, you can make nut burgers using less liquid than recommended so you can serve it right away. or try the suggestions above.
I ate high-raw for a year and a half befroe getting a cheap dehydrator that I could only do SOME things in, and then another year before getting an Excalibur. I just ate stuff I could make without any equipment, or in a blender, or in a food processor. I never ate things warmed, and I just got used to it (although I have to admit, I sometimes had a hard time eating leftovers cold out of the fridge). I also used sprouted grains in things that I could mix up in the food processor and either use as a veggie dip, a “burrito” filling (in a cabbage leaf), or a “casserole”
Hi Winona. Thanks for your comments on the site. My brother and I have been working hard for the last few months to get it up to par. I update it with recipes pretty regularly (I’ll be adding a quick Memorial Day recipe today), so check back for new stuff whenever you have the chance.