My "Slight" Obsession over Zucchini Chips

This past week was a frenzy of dehydrated treats.

It started simple enough. Jonathan Weber’s Spicy seed mix (p. 117) transformed from thick, soggy glob to a very crunchy, seasoned snack, in a relatively short amount of time. The spices were on point, Man on the Raw thought the nibbles was just spicy enough without overpowering the taste buds.

Beware of John Larsen's Tasty Sea snacks (p. 117). I found a half of cup of Nama Shoyu a bit too generous, causing it to be to salty. Although, Man on the Raw enjoyed the flavor, he suggested I tone  down the Nama Shoyu, if I were going to take a batch to an Oscar party I was attending.  On a second batch, I decreased the amount of Nama Shoyu to one-fourth of a cup, made them bite-size and was off.   Ha, ha happy ending.
                                                                                                                                                        This is the point where happy endings turn sour and my mild obsessive tendencies came to surface.

The story actually begins on February 19th, when I came across some incredible Raw Zucchini Chips featured on the blog Green and Crunchy. They were beautiful, crispy, crunchy little discs. By far a perfect substitution for Lays or Pringles any day.

Life moved forward, as it does so often, and I quickly forgot about the little bits of heaven, at least until I saw Bitt of Raw’s posting of Zucchini Chips and her cute dog eating raw zucchini. Adorable.

Zucchini chips were not going away any time soon, thus the seeds of my obsession was firmly planted in my brain.

I went to The Complete Book of Raw Food, you know my endeavor and all, searching for a recipe comparable to what I had read on the blogs. I found what I was seeking on page 178, Shazzie’s recipe for Curly Crisps.

On the surface, everything seemed to be moving in the right direction. I had a cool hand-held mandoline, a few small zucchini, a beet and a couple of plump, light green, stubby things called Mexican Squash.

Using my cool, hand-held mandoline, I sliced the vegetables into thin rounds, a shy away from being paper thin, but not quite. I choose a variety of basic seasonings, including garlic, onion, wasabi and barbecue powders, nothing too spectacular or out of the ordinary.  Well maybe the wasabi, but I digress.

My first batch, I placed in the dehydrator for 115 degrees for about 12 hours. The edges of my produce curled, taking on a slight crispiness, but nothing compared to potato chips. The middle of the vegetable discs were something less to be desired. They were soft and pliable, resembling nothing like a chip.

I popped them back in the dehydrator for another few hours.

Nothing changed, except the size of my zucchini chips, they shrank.

This whole process continued over the course of a week. Attempting varying sizes and thinness of different root vegetables, with Teflex sheet, without Teflex sheet, with salt, without salt, with oil, without oil. Good, eatable food was thrown in the compost bucket because they weren't crisp enough.

I was relentless, Man on the Raw was impatient with my compulsive, slightly psychotic behavior.

But I couldn’t help it. I wanted a crispy, crunchy chip and I was bound and determined to create one.

Finally, I received a reprieve.

I had a promising batch of zucchini and beet chips on Sunday. They came from the dehydrator after 30 hours at 115 degrees and they were actually a good, crunchy consistency.  Success, the girls enjoyed them and I finally had something the Man on the Raw could give his seal of approval on and he wouldn’t have to send me away to a psych ward.
That was the case, until the girls ate most of them and the ones that remained were left uncovered and I suppose the moisture from the Colorado air (yeah, right), turned them back to a soft, pliable chip taking on the texture of a mildly waterlogged potato chip.

Of course, when Man on the Raw came home after an exhausting evening of work, he wasn’t in the correct frame of mind to believe me when I told him my chips were crispy at one point in their life.

He just kind of heaved a sigh and his chin sank to the ground.

I bite down on the side of my lip and quickly promised I wouldn’t attempt another batch of vegetable chips until I ended my juice feast and I was able to taste test them myself.

Recipes number 56-58 of The Complete Raw Food Endeavor.