You can make snacks as crunchy and delicious as you like, but without the additives and unhealthy fats of commercial products.
INGREDIENTS
Zucchini is a very appropriate vegetable to make homemade snacks. They are good as they are but you can give them a touch with spices that add properties.
- 200 g zucchini
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon curry
- 1 teaspoon salt
PREPARE THE ZUCCHINI
Thinly slice the zucchini with a knife or mandolin. The ideal thickness is 2-3 millimeters.
The mandolin is an excellent tool to achieve equal cuts in thin sheets, almost transparent, and other options quickly and accurately. Ceramic mandolins are especially recommended for their long-lasting sharpening and because they reduce the oxidation of food.
SEASONS AND DEHYDRATES
Add the salt to the slices. Leave them for a few minutes.
Stir and then add the curry and olive oil.
Put the seasoned slices in the dehydrator trays without piling them up and let them dehydrate at about 40-45 °C for about 20 hours or until crispy.
CONSERVATION
To preserve them, store them in a container with an airtight lid as soon as you take them out of the dehydrator.
A silica capsule inside the container absorbs ambient moisture and facilitates good conservation.
But if they get wet, take them back to the dehydrator and they will recover the crunchy texture.
YES, HEALTHY SNACKS EXIST
Snacks are typical foods of contemporary culture that are consumed outside the main meals of the day and serve as snacks to temporarily satisfy hunger, provide some instant energy to the body or simply provide us with a few moments of pleasure.
We often eat snacks going down the street, when we are bored at home, at times when we are sad or anxious, when we go to the movies … The occasions are numerous and we often do not stop to look at the quality of the product.
There are snacks for all tastes: sweet, salty, of different shapes, crunchy textures, creamy, fluffy, for children and adults … But most contain sweeteners, preservatives, artificial flavors and other unnatural and addictive ingredients.
It does not help the immense amounts of money that companies invest in advertising, often manipulative, that induces to consume products of poor quality that we do not need.
However, you can prepare foods that offer the same pleasant sensations and that constitute a first course or a very nutritious appetizer.
DEHYDRATE INSTEAD OF FRY
Nothing better than combining a refreshing natural drink with a delicious and healthy crunchy snack when you know it has no contraindications.
With the help of dehydration, we propose you to create your own healthy snacks. It is a spectacular technique that consists of subjecting food to hot air to extract the water they contain and achieve the crunchy consistency that provides so much pleasure.
By removing water from food by subjecting it to a temperature that is not above 42-45 °C, a large part of its nutrients and enzymes are maintained. In addition, they are not saturated with fats – as with fried foods – and food is preserved for a long time.
You can prepare more sophisticated chips, coating the vegetable slices – it can be beetroot or pieces of kale leaves – with a cream of nuts and dehydrating them afterwards.
The cream is made by mixing, for example, cashews (100 g) and sunflower seeds (25 g) hydrated with lemon juice (45 ml) and zest, dried onion (30 g), olive oil (3 tbsp.), grated carrot (50 g), nutritional yeast (6 tbsp) and water (160 ml).
DEHYDRATION OFFERS MANY POSSIBILITIES
We propose options as simple as cutting a zucchini into thin slices, seasoning them and taking them to dehydrate. In such a simple way we will obtain exquisite crispy chips that will delight even the most addicted to chips!
If we open the fan, the possibilities with this same technique are endless: beetroot, sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc.
We can season all these foods with what we want, dehydrate them and achieve surprising results.
On the other hand, if we want to move to the sweet side, we can dehydrate slices of any fruit, alone or with some seasoning. There are a thousand options to satisfy us, it’s just a matter of using creativity and playing.
Before finishing, it never hurts to remember the importance of reflecting on the motivations that lead us to eat: if we really do it because we are hungry, or we are covering emotions, reacting to external stimuli, eating out of boredom…
When in doubt, the most recommended snack is water! Drinking a good glass satisfies our urge to snack, calms us and hydrates us. We can also choose to eat a seasonal fruit in its natural state. We will be nourishing ourselves and feeling better.
