Burger me!

Amazing raw Mexican burrito (Flax wrap) at 'Nama'

There's something very satisfying about re-creating classic food without the use of heat. It's challenging as flavours can act in subtle or drastically different ways than their cooked food cousins. This usually means employing the use of slightly different ingredients, processes or amounts to create the right taste. Texture also needs to be well considered and can completely make or break a dish.

 The satisfaction comes from not just re-creating the originals, but improving on them. Recently we've acquired a dehydrator to experiment with making more gourmet food after being inspired after connoisseuring raw dishes at 'Nama' and 'saf' in London.
  Burger me! Ingredients (all roughly calculated and can be manipulated to your taste!)

  

• 1 red onion
• 5 orange/yellow peppers
• 4 large flat brown mushrooms
• 6 Tomatoes
• 2 Carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 3 TBSP of cold pressed avocado/olive/hemp oil
• 1/2 cup of ground flax seed
• 1/2 teaspoon of Himalayan salt
• 1 TBSP agave nectar
• Parsley, shiitake powder, corriander, thyme, tumeric garam masala, chilli 

Roughly chop everything into smallish chunks and add to a bowl. I like to have larger pieces of tomato for extra flavour. Mix in the ground flax and work it together with your hands until it begins to thicken up and bind together. You can also add in soaked walnuts / almonds but I decided to try a nut free version.

 Once it's looking something like this, add the mixture to a food processor and turn it on for roughly 30 seconds to a minute until it starts clumping up and become a finer texture. You might need to do this a few times if you have a lot of mix.

Now pop it into a dehydrator, put the temperature up to 140F for about 30 minutes to really get them going. This is hotter than the standard Degrees 110F that is the threshold for keeping enzymes intact, but the mix itself won't go this warm as long as you turn it down to 110 after 30 mins. Depending on the texture you desire you can eat them now, or leave them for another 6-12 hours to dry out some more on a lower temp. I left mine for 12 hours and they still had a good balance of soft to dryness.

For the ketchup
Blend 3 tbsp of raw apple cider vinegar with 6 tomatoes, 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, small piece of beetroot, handful of goji berries, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and half of a small diced red onion.

Serve on a juicy lettuce leaf, with sliced tomatoes and red onion. This recipe makes about 8-12 burgers depending on how big you want to make them. You could even make falafel's with the same mixture. Sprinkle on some chopped chives or herbs of your picking to finish. You could also make a avocado mayo or raw hummus to go with these as well. They'll last a few weeks in a good container in the fridge! Banging