As part of my foray into 'raw food' (or, in my case, less cooked, less
processed food), I have made these a couple of times, and they are
really truly delicious - and keep well in the fridge to have on hand to
toss into a dish:

This recipe comes from my favourite raw food cookbook, "Raw Food/Real
World", and after trying it, you'll understand why it's my favourite!

You'll need:

2 cups mushrooms
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce (Raw Food/Real World recommends Namu Shoyu)
fresh rosemary
fresh oregano
salt
pepper

Cut the mushrooms (Raw Food/Real World uses oyster mushrooms, but I
have used all kinds, and they are all wonderful) into bite sized pieces
or slices. Put them in a bowl.

To the mushrooms add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the balsamic
vinegar, the soy sauce, and a bit of salt and pepper.

Mix well, and add in a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary and a couple
of sprigs of fresh oregano, as well as teaspoon or two of each well
minced.

Turn this out onto a Teflex sheet on the dehydrator, and dehydrate at
115 degrees for 3-4 hours, until the mushrooms smell, taste and feel
like sauteed mushrooms (only better!)

There you go! Easy, and tasty!

These keep well in the fridge for at least a week, and it's nice to
have them on hand to toss into dishes, as a garnish, or even just to
serve on the side.


--
I am: Mom, Attorney, Professor, and - yes - *that* She Devil
Personal: http://www.SheDevilsBlog.com | Fathers Rights:
http://www.DadsRights.org
Raw Food: http://www.AdventuresInRawFood.com | The Internet:
http://www.TheInternetPatrol.com
Indignation: http://www.Indignation.org | Irony: http://www.ThatsIronic.com
Parenting: http://www.IntuitiveParenting.org | Everything Else:
http://www.AllAboutAllAbout.com

"Anne Mitchell Young" <shedevil @ aloss.net> wrote in message
...
> As part of my foray into 'raw food' (or, in my case, less cooked, less
> processed food), I have made these a couple of times, and they are really
> truly delicious - and keep well in the fridge to have on hand to toss into
> a dish:
>
> This recipe comes from my favourite raw food cookbook, "Raw Food/Real
> World", and after trying it, you'll understand why it's my favourite!
>
<snip recipe>

As I was reading the recipe, I was thinking it would be a marinated mushroom
thing, but when I got to the part about the dehydrator, I was a bit puzzled.
Not that there's anything wrong with the recipe (well, I don't have a
dehydrator, so I'm no expert on that part of it).

But what puzzles me is the notion that this isn't cooked. Once again,
nothing wrong with cooking mushrooms...but the whole point of the book it's
from is that the food is raw.

Maybe I don't understand the definitions that the raw food movement uses,
but why is heating in a dehydrator "not cooking." If it was simply
air-dried, that I could understand, but you mention that the mushrooms are
heated in the process.

Please note that I'm not criticizing your food choices. Eat whatever you
want. I'm just curious.

> As I was reading the recipe, I was thinking it would be a marinated
> mushroom thing, but when I got to the part about the dehydrator, I was
> a bit puzzled. Not that there's anything wrong with the recipe (well, I
> don't have a dehydrator, so I'm no expert on that part of it).
>
> But what puzzles me is the notion that this isn't cooked. Once again,
> nothing wrong with cooking mushrooms...but the whole point of the book
> it's from is that the food is raw.
>
> Maybe I don't understand the definitions that the raw food movement
> uses, but why is heating in a dehydrator "not cooking." If it was
> simply air-dried, that I could understand, but you mention that the
> mushrooms are heated in the process.
>
> Please note that I'm not criticizing your food choices. Eat whatever
> you want. I'm just curious.

No no.it's SUCH a valid question..and see that's why I love that
cookbook...because it's not so extreme as to say only completely 'raw'.
However, that said, my understanding of raw food "purists" is that
warming up to 115 degrees is considered "ok", that above 115 degrees is
when nutrients, etc, start getting killed off. I don't know if that's
strictly true, and, again, I am *not* a raw food purist, just someone
who is enjoying eating 'less processed" foods. :-)

In any case, with the mushrooms, they taste *sooo* good and still
somehow less 'adulterated' than mushroms which have been sauteed in a
pile of butter or even the same amount of olive oil. It is true that
food changes with the amount of heat which you apply to it, at least
tastewise. Think the difference betweeen overcooked green beans and
just perfectly steamed green beans. :-)

Anne

--
I am: Mom, Attorney, Professor, and - yes - *that* She Devil
Personal: http://www.SheDevilsBlog.com | Fathers Rights:
http://www.DadsRights.org
Raw Food: http://www.AdventuresInRawFood.com | The Internet:
http://www.TheInternetPatrol.com
Indignation: http://www.Indignation.org | Irony: http://www.ThatsIronic.com
Parenting: http://www.IntuitiveParenting.org | Everything Else:
http://www.AllAboutAllAbout.com

"Anne Mitchell Young" <shedevil @ aloss.net> wrote in message
...
>
>> As I was reading the recipe, I was thinking it would be a marinated
>> mushroom thing, but when I got to the part about the dehydrator, I was a
>> bit puzzled. Not that there's anything wrong with the recipe (well, I
>> don't have a dehydrator, so I'm no expert on that part of it).
>>
>> But what puzzles me is the notion that this isn't cooked. Once again,
>> nothing wrong with cooking mushrooms...but the whole point of the book
>> it's from is that the food is raw.
>>
>> Maybe I don't understand the definitions that the raw food movement uses,
>> but why is heating in a dehydrator "not cooking." If it was simply
>> air-dried, that I could understand, but you mention that the mushrooms
>> are heated in the process.
>>
>> Please note that I'm not criticizing your food choices. Eat whatever you
>> want. I'm just curious.
>
> No no.it's SUCH a valid question..and see that's why I love that
> cookbook...because it's not so extreme as to say only completely 'raw'.
> However, that said, my understanding of raw food "purists" is that warming
> up to 115 degrees is considered "ok", that above 115 degrees is when
> nutrients, etc, start getting killed off. I don't know if that's strictly
> true, and, again, I am *not* a raw food purist, just someone who is
> enjoying eating 'less processed" foods. :-)
>
> In any case, with the mushrooms, they taste *sooo* good and still somehow
> less 'adulterated' than mushroms which have been sauteed in a pile of
> butter or even the same amount of olive oil. It is true that food changes
> with the amount of heat which you apply to it, at least tastewise. Think
> the difference betweeen overcooked green beans and just perfectly steamed
> green beans. :-)
>

Hmmmm...interesting.

I suppose without a dehydrator, the same thing could be accomplished in an
oven at sufficiently low temp. I don't foresee buying a dehydrator any time
soon, but I do love mushrooms.

At least you're not one of those people who proclaims some extreme stand on
something, then has a whole list of exceptions. Like they guy who posted
here about not ever, ever eating cooked foods, and nothing that was
"processed" but then he said that he ate canned pinto beans. And his
definition of "processed" got wider and wider as he went on.

And I've known vegetarians who have decided that fish and chicken aren't
really animals, anyway. And there was an anti-fur-coat woman who had a
business making teddy bears out of old fur coats. The justification was that
the animals died a long, long time ago; she wasn't killing new animals to
make the teddy bears.

Thanks for explaining things. I might give that recipe a try in a modified
way.

Donna

> At least you're not one of those people who proclaims some extreme
> stand on something, then has a whole list of exceptions. Like they guy
> who posted here about not ever, ever eating cooked foods, and nothing
> that was "processed" but then he said that he ate canned pinto beans.
> And his definition of "processed" got wider and wider as he went on.


Nope, as I saw, we're not raw food zealots..we don't even eat just raw
or unprocessed or "less processed" foods; I'm just trying to
incorporate *more* "less processed" foods into our diet, hence my
http://www.AdventuresInRawFood.com, where I talk about eating our raw
corn tortillas with.. :gasp:... cheese. :-)

--
I am: Mom, Attorney, Professor, and - yes - *that* She Devil
Personal: http://www.SheDevilsBlog.com | Fathers Rights:
http://www.DadsRights.org
Raw Food: http://www.AdventuresInRawFood.com | The Internet:
http://www.TheInternetPatrol.com
Indignation: http://www.Indignation.org | Irony: http://www.ThatsIronic.com
Parenting: http://www.IntuitiveParenting.org | Everything Else:
http://www.AllAboutAllAbout.com