Dehydrator Experiments of a Sausage Kind

We've been wanting to get a dehydrator for years.  A steady stream of vegan recipes requiring one, gluts of home produce and foraged items crying out for being squirrelled away for the winter months, and the ability to enjoy cheap, homemade, and unpackaged crisp kale chips had tormented us.  We finally took the financial leap of faith and bought one.  We are so glad we did.

Kale chips alone have made it worth it. Oven dried ones are one thing but dehydrated ones beat them hands down. Zucchini Flax Wraps from The Art of Raw Living Food were a total winner too.  Then there has been our little experiment to create our own version of Rawsage, a powerfully flavoured beast of a raw vegan sausage made by Lifefood, a company based in the Czech Republic.  The nearest place we can find them is over the border in Devon so we thought we'd give it a go and make our own version based on the ingredients list.  It turns out flavour wise we seem to have nailed it.  A little more work may be needed on the texture to replicate them authentically but that hasn't stopped us from woofing them down far too quickly.  These beauties will go on the list for 'snacks to take on hikes' for sure.

If you don't have a dehydrator we thoroughly recommend you seek out a Rawsage or few.  We've found them in Ethica in Plymouth (100% vegan store which also offers online shopping) and also Greenlife in Totnes.  You can order them online direct from Life Food too.  If you do have a dehydrator and want to give our version a go, well here you go....

Driftwood Vegans Raw Sausage Snacks

Made 8 big sausages or could have made 16 normal size ones of 25g each (might try that next time!)

160g Brazil nuts

1 clove garlic chopped

1 small shallot chopped

82g raisins 

40g hulled hemp seeds

6g caraway seeds 

4g dried oregano 

Pinch chilli powder

91g sun dried tomatoes (soak in warm water for at least 10 minutes)

Finely chop up the Brazil nuts in a food processor then add the garlic, shallot, raisins and hemp seeds and process more until quite fine and well mixed.  Tip out into a bowl.  You'll use the processor again in a minute so don't wash it yet.

Grind the caraway seeds, oregano and chilli powder until fine.  Add to the mix in the bowl.

Drain the sun dried tomatoes (keep the soaking water) and chop finely in the food processor.  I made the mistake of not doing this separately and there were some big chunks of tomatoes left in the mixture, so I would definitely ensure they were more finely chopped next time.  Once chopped, add to the mixture in the bowl and stir thoroughly together.

If the mixture doesn't look like it will stick together, add some of the tomato soaking water spoonful by spoonful until it does, but don't overdo this.  Basically you want to shape the mixture into sausages (or whatever shape you like).

Dehydrate at the living foods setting (105F/40C) until firm.  Ours took at least 36 hours.

Enjoy!