If you throw away or compost your juice pulp, it is because you have never made “Juice Pulp Seed Crackers”.
Juicing extracts liquid and nutrients from fruits, vegetables, and herbs. It does this by separating the juice from the fiber. But for most people, fiber is a very beneficial component of the food it came from.
Fiber is food for your gut flora, aka “microbiome”. It can add satisfaction to your diet. Fiber absorbs water and adds bulk to stools stimulating peristalsis. Fiber is cleansing to your bowels.
But juicing can deprive your diet of this beneficial component unless you find a way to put it back into your diet.
Pulp seed crackers provides a delicious raw gourmet solution to this problem. Making raw seed crackers is quite easy and very forgiving. That is, you can add practically any food you desire to your recipe making it something that you will truly enjoy.
NECESSARY TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS
- 1 LARGE SEED SOAKING / MIXING BOWL
- SEEDS TO YOUR LIKING
- SPICES TO YOUR LIKING
- SALT
- JUICE PULP
- Dehydrator with mats for the dehydrator racks or trays
- Something to spread your mix on the mats such as a spatula
Soak your seeds in salted water for 4 to 6 hours. Two parts water to 1 part seeds is a good ratio. Flax seed and chia are particularly helpful since they gel up and add strength to the crackers. Grinding the seeds does not take away from their strength and may actually improve their taste and texture. Other seeds I like include sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin. I never grind the larger seeds since I like the texture they add to my crackers.
When the seeds are done soaking, mix in enough juice pulp to be able to spread and shape a thick layer of mix on a drying mat. This is also a good time to add any herbs and spices that you might desire.
Spread the mixture on your dehydrator sheets. I shoot for 1/4″ to 3/8″ thickness. Before placing the rack in the dehydrator, you might want to use a pizza cutter to make lines in the mixture that will eventually be the individual cracker edges. Don’t worry if the lines disappear. The crackers will remember where the pizza cutter went. Also, once the crackers are dried, they will be MUCH thinner. It is much easier to make them too thin rather than too thick. If they are too thin, you’ll just have a bunch of crumbs.
Dehydrate until the top side is dry enough to not stick when you flip your crackers. Flipping them is easily done by placing an empty dehydrator rack on top of the tray containing your crackers. Then, flip the two trays together. The bottom tray is now the top tray and can be removed easily. Peel the mat from the mixture and replace the new rack in the dehydrator.
Continue drying your crackers until they no longer bend but instead crack and are dry in the middle.
Try dipping your pulp seed crackers in a nice homemade raw sprouted hummus. Enjoy!
