My New Dehydrator!

I was lucky enough to receive a Excalibur dehydrator (5-tray) for a Christmas gift!  I never thought I'd be so excited about a dehydrator, but I am.  This is an incredibly versatile tool for raw and whole food preparation.  Dehydrated fruit, crispy nuts, energy bars, etc. can be prepared with very little "hands on" time!

I shared a wonderful recipe for homemade, allergy-free cereal with you back in November (see it here).  The one downfall to the recipe is that the buckwheat groats are very crunchy - my two year old was just old enough to handle how crunchy it is, but I probably would not have been able to serve it to him if he was any younger.

Enter my new dehydrator.  After scouring many, many blogs to soak up as much information and as many recipes as possible to use with my new dehydrator, I came across this post regarding buckwheat cereal prepared in the dehydrator.  I wondered if this would result in a more puff-like consistency for the groats, and it did!!  I also soaked and dehydrated raw sunflower seeds to add another layer of nutrition to this already wonderful cereal recipe.  (Read about why you would want to soak nuts and seeds here).

Note:  You can make this entire recipe without using a dehydrator.  See the recipe for details!

So, here is my updated version!  This recipe takes some patience but the whole process is almost all hands off.  You can use the buckwheat "puffs" on their own for breakfast, but this recipe is a fantastic nutritional powerhouse when you combine all of these ingredients together!


Updated Allergy-Free Granola/Cereal
(Thanks to Holly Larsen for the original recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups soaked buckwheat groats (find these in the bulk section at your Co-op or Whole Foods)
• 1.5 cups quinoa puffs (From Nuts Online - these are awesome, a great add-in for any granola recipe or as a cereal substitute on its own!  Be aware that the puffs are tiny - simply tiny puffed quinoa "grains")
• 1 cup raw sunflower seeds (also found in the bulk section at your Co-op) *You can omit these and add in an additional 1 - 1.5 cups quinoa puffs!!
• 4 tbls coconut oil
• 1 tbls ground chia seeds mixed with 1/3 cup warm water (you can also find these in bulk!)
• 30 drops vanilla stevia (find this in the baking aisle at Whole Foods or your Co-op - I use Sweetleaf Vanilla Creme)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch salt

Directions:

Step 1:  Buckwheat Puffs and Crispy Sunflower Seeds
See this link for more information on buckwheat cereal.  Soak buckwheat groats in water overnight. Drain and rinse.  Add back to the glass bowl.jar and cover with water again.  Soak for another 8-12 hours or so.   Drain and Rinse.  Spread on parchment paper or a Paraflexx sheet in your dehydrator.

Soak sunflower seeds in water for 12-24 hours.  Drain and rinse.  Spread on parchment paper or a Paraflexx sheet in your dehydrator. 

Dehydrate both the buckwheat and the seeds at 115 degrees.  I started this process at 9:30 at night.  The buckwheat was ready by early morning - crunchy like a little puff cereal.  The seeds were ready in the early evening the next day (around 5:30) - just make sure they are dry and crunchy when you remove them!

NOTE:  If you do not have a dehydrator, follow the link I mentioned above (this link) for directions to puff the buckwheat in your oven.  You can mix roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds into the cereal at the end.  If they are salted, omit the salt in the recipe.

Step 2:  Make your cereal!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Let chia seeds soak in water and melt the coconut oil.  Add stevia to the chia seed mixture. Mix chia/stevia and coconut oil with buckwheat, sunflower seeds and quinoa puffs. Spread on parchment/Silpat lined sheet and bake 25 minutes stirring periodically. Cool completely and store in airtight container. 

You may add in dried fruit once it is cool or sprinkle it as desired right before eating. 

Serve like cereal or sprinkled on yogurt (one of my son's favorite breakfast meals).  This would be great as a snack all by itself! :)

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Real Food, Allergy Free
Lunchbox Love Allergy Free Vintage Cookery