Veggie Jim Recipe
Hi! This is Jill, Lexie's sister from Hawaii. I've been visiting Lexie for the last week, helping out with the boys, and of course testing and eating some fabulous food.
One of our experiments this week was a dehydrated snack we're calling Veggie Jims. These nori power wraps are available at many natural food stores and sell for $1-2 each—we thought we could make them for a lot less! They are a tasty seed paste wrapped up in a convenient nori sheet for easy transport on the go.
After doing some research I found out that these power wraps are one of the "oldest" vegan snack foods around. Being an aspiring vegan, I was surprised that I'd never heard of them. I found them while picking up some airplane snacks at my health food store on Maui. Lex and I both thought that they were super tasty and satisfying and wanted to try making them ourselves. Flavorings for these are endless, we went for the classic Slim Jim flavor demonstrated by Matt and Angela here in this video. The cayenne gives these in awesome kick!
Veggie Jims
Makes About 30 Veggie Jims
Ingredients:
15 NORI SHEETS, cut into 1/3's length wise
12 ounces raw SUNFLOWER SEEDS
8 ounces raw PUMPKIN SEEDS
1 cup WATER (more as needed)
1 BELL PEPPER (any color)
1 tablespoon raw grated BEET*
4 minced GARLIC CLOVES
6 tablepsoons fresh LEMON JUICE
1 teaspoon SALT
2 teaspoons ONION POWDER
1/4-1/2 teaspoon CAYENNE PEPPER (or to taste)
*Optional. We added the beet for color. It did make the filling a lovely spam color which you will see in the photos. After being dehydrated though it went back to a brown color.
Directions:
- Whirl seeds in a high-powered blender or food processor to a fine meal. Remove and set aside.
- Add remaining ingredients (except for nori sheets) and blend/process until smooth.
- Add the seed mixture back in and blend/process to a smooth, spreadable, paste-like consistency (add a tablespoon of water at a time as needed to aid in blending/processing).
- Avoid over salting so they don't end up too salty after being dehydrated.
- Transfer to a large zip top bag, squish paste down into one corner, and snip off the corner to pipe out a 1/4 to 1/2-inch thickness.
- Lay a strip of nori (shiny side down) onto a sheet of parchment. This was the only tricky, slightly time consuming part. Lightly spritz (we used a spray bottle) the nori sheet with water. Then pipe the filling down the center of the nori sheet. Take your time and try to ensure an even filling.
- Roll nori around filling and seal edges with another spritz of water if needed.
- Arrange Veggie Jims on dehydrator trays and dehydrate over night or until firm and dried out—about like a Slim Jim meat stick. They are super yummy warm out of the dehydrator!
- Store in an airtight container.
In the photo below the paste looks pretty gross (that's the pink from the beet). We promise, no pink slime or spam was involved in the making of these vegan snacks. Oh and we got over-ambitious in the "piping it on" shot. Just aim for 1/4-1/2 inch strip of paste.
Feel free to experiment with flavorings. Ones I have seen are Italian (sundried tomatoes, oregano, marjoram and sage) and Japanese (ginger, miso, wasabi). You can also wrap different shapes with the nori, like triangles.
Enjoy and let us know what you think! We'd love to know.
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