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Carrot Pulp and Guilt
Carrot juice is so good for you but it generates massive amounts of pulp. And, to be totally honest, I often throw it out. It breaks my heart to discard something so colorful and beautiful. To relieve the guilt, I often save it, even freeze it. But eventually, most of it ends up in a compost pile or down the disposal.
But this week, when we broke out the juicer, I was determine to give this pulp a better fate. I decided to make raw crackers. I have 2 dozen raw foodists coming over tonight for a potluck so they will go to good use!
What a Surprise!
I had little luck getting the proper nutritional information on carrot pulp so that I could do my usual nutritional analysis of the recipe but I did come across a very interesting article on the Nutritional Content and Antioxidant Properties of Pulp Waste... The food industry is very interested in using the inexpensive by-products from the processing of foods for juice. This study was done on carrots and beets to see if they had significant nutritional value. And they did! Here's what they found out. According to this article, 100 mg of carrot pulp provides:
* 11.7 mg of iron
* 293.8 mg of phosphorus
* 291.2 mg of calcium
* 32g of insoluble fiber and 13g of soluble fiber
* 6.2 g of protein
Carrot pulp also has high antioxidant activity due to polyphenol compounds and other phytochemical components.
Bottom line is, the stuff I've been throwing away is packed with fiber, important minerals and antioxidants! By the way, people on a raw food diet are ALWAYS looking for raw sources of calcium and iron. This is a bonanza! Let's make some crackers!
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| Making carrot juice creates massive amounts of pulp! |
Easy to Make
I just soaked some flax seeds, added a few juicy tomatoes (sadly, the last of my summer crop), a bit of salt and freshly squeezed lemon juice and voila!
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| Soak flax seeds until water is absorbed |
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| Form crackers on non-stick dehydrator sheets and dehydrate |
Carrot Pulp Crackers
Raw Vegan, Gluten Free
[makes 60 crackers]
Dehydrator and non-stick sheets required
1/2 cup golden flaxseeds
1 cup room temperature water
1 cup chopped, ripe, raw tomato (about 2 medium)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
3 cups carrot pulp
Mix flaxseeds with water in a large bowl and soak until all water is absorbed, about 4 hours.
When flaxseeds are ready, process tomato, lemon juice and salt in a blender until liquified.
Add to bowl along with carrot pulp. Mix thoroughly. If too dry, add a touch of water.
Drop a measured tablespoon of pulp mixture on non-stick dehydrator sheets and, with the back of a spoon, gently press down to form and shape round crackers.
Dehydrate at 105 degrees F for 8 to 10 hours (I usually do this overnight). Flip crackers over, remove sheet, and place directly on mesh sheet. Dehydrate until crisp (another 6 hours or so).
Remove and serve. Save in an air-tight container.
Just 3 crackers supplies 1 gram of ALA omega-3 fatty acids!
20 comments:
These crackers look fabulous! I'm going to try them . . . although I rarely have leftover pulp because I use a whole foods juicer, and I receive the benefit of the juice as well as all the nutrients and fiber!
Thanks for the great recipe.
Not familiar with that. Do you mean you just grind everything up in a VitaMix and drink pulp and all or is there a specific brand of juicer that does that?
Joanne
Joanne, I love this Carrot Pulp Cracker recipe! In the classes I teach I always get the question - what to do with the pulp of both the nut milks we make and the carrot pulp from juicing. I am excited to pass on your recipe and provide a link to your site. I am going to give them a try this week. Thank you.
I know! It always seems so wasteful!
By the way, there are lots of other things you can try and throw into this recipe (like ginger, cinnamon, soaked raisins, etc.,) but this is nice and simple. If in your experimenting you think of some good variations, let me know!
Joanne
I LOVE this recipe because the main ingredient is...CARROT PULP!! I've made carrot pulp muffins, carrot pulp cookies, and even carrot pulp granola bars but all of those recipes used more flour/oats than carrot pulp and I was still stuck with extra carrot pulp leftovers. (I tried a little variation too, "Carrot-cucumber-apple-kale pulp chips" ;) I put some onion and garlic powder and dried basil and parsley in it to spice things up! Oh, and extra himalayan salt on top...mmmm so yummy)
What a great read and especially doing the research on the nutritional benefits of the pulp...that’s what gets me interested!
I unfortunately made my carrot pulp into a smoothie today and although I feel energetic, it tastes awful; just awful.
Thanks for passing on the knowledge!
You can get away with a little pulp in smoothies but, you're right, too much of it does taste awful.
The crackers are way better!
Joanne
I just got a dehydrator for Christmas and I also have plenty of leftover carrot pulp. I'm going to try this recipe and see how it goes! (How much water/flax ratio do you recommend?) I also eat raw/live crackers from Beyond Organic, ever heard of it? It was started by health genius, Jordan Rubin (of Maker's Diet).
Thanks again Dr. Joanne for all your helpful recipes/ideas! Have a happy new year!
Hi Paul,
Nice Christmas present! Depending on the cracker I use about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of water to 1/2 cup of whole flax seeds.
I never heard of Jordon Rubin but I will look him up.
Happy New Year!
Joanne
I don't have a dehydrated, could I make these in the oven? How?
It depends how low your oven goes. I have never made them in my oven but if you have a Silpat silicon mat or a non-stick cookie sheet, I think you could give it a try on your lowest temperature and watch them very carefully. Instead of hours, they could be done in 20 minutes. Just remove when they reach the desired consistency.
Good luck and let me know how they turn out!
Joanne
Have you ever tried dehydrating them without any non stick sheets? I have a round dehydrator and each tray is a plastic grid to let air flow through. I've been cutting non stick sheets to fit the round shape when making crackers in the past but it's such a hassle. I'm thinking about trying making these crackers without the sheets and just wondering if anyone has attempted it before.
I think they are too sticky to go directly on the grid.
Joanne
Is there any carbohydrate quantity in the pulp? I can't quite figure if it all would've been juiced or not. It seems like the only 'carbs' per se would be the fiber as opposed to sugars. Any thoughts or insight?
The pulp is non-digestible fiber so it wouldn't be counted as a carbohydrate.
Joanne
Nice blog and so informative thank you for sharing us such a great blog.
Carrot tuna is another wonderful alternative. I take the fresh pulp, add kelp powder, vegan mayonnaise, chopped pickles, onions, salt and pepper.
Thanks for the idea!
Joanne
Will try this and add some ghost pepper powder too for an extra kick!
Ghost pepper - that's brave 😊
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