I found a ranch dressing recipe in The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose. (Pg 113) I'm clueless when it comes to making anything, and have never really used spices for anything I make before. I'm having a hard time finding "dried" chives, rosemary, and sage. I found "freeze-dried" chives, and "ground" or "rubbed" sage. Still haven't found rosemary (the one Wal-Mart I checked so far was out). So I guess my question tis: would freeze-dried chives and ground or rubbed sage (leaves) be close enough for the recipe to come out right ?

Makes 2 cups.

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon dried chives
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 cup whole, raw macadamia nuts
1/3 cup cold-pressed olive oil (optional)

Blend all of the ingredients until smooth. Add water to achieve desired consistency.

Keeps for 1 week.

Thank you for any advice and help you are able to offer. = )

Howlingmoon "Moonie" Wolvespirit

hey there moonie.

all recipes, whether cooked or raw, will specify "dried" or "fresh" herbs in their ingredient list. Dried herbs and spices are the ones you buy in bottles and pick up in the spice isle or baking supplies isle in grocery stores like Wal-Mart and Whole Foods. They can be organic or non- organic and they often have pale or muted colors. They are super convenient for un-cooking, very tasty, and depending on the company who makes them, healthy for you too.

Dried spices may include the adjectives "freeze dried" "rubbed" or "ground" on their lables to indicate the company's methods of procesing the spice - think freeze dried. Or it may reference the texture of the spice - think ground or rubbed.

Fresh herbs and spices on the other hand are normally found in the produce isle of your grocery store in little bundles or small packages. Fresh herbs and spices often look like little branches with green leaves. You can usually find fresh picked herbs and spices like oregano leaves, thyme sprigs, sage leaves, rosemary sprigs, fresh long green chives, feathery dill weed, basil leaves etc., etc. all year round. Nothing beats the taste of fresh herbs and many raw gourmet chefs choose to use them exclusively. They are aromatic, sensual, alive, and fun to use. The few drawbacks to fresh is that it's incredibly time consuming to pick off the correct the amount you need from the herb sprigs for your recipes (you need a lot more fresh herb than dried when making recipes) and they don't keep very long in the fridge if you don't plan on using them up right away.

I use both depending on what I'm making. I have a wonderful selection of organic dried herbs and spices that I use regularly and when I'm making a treat or I'm jonesing for a particular taste in my salads or nut pates, I'll buy fresh herbs like basil and dill weed to mix in.


peace
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joy
i breathe in
i breathe out
Bikini

oh, btw...ground sage is different from rubbed because of its texture. If a chef specifies "ground" you want to get "ground sage", not the rubbed kind. Another shopping trip may be in order to get the right flavor of the salad dressing.

The measurements of spices in recipes vary depending on the texture and taste of the spice. Rubbed sage, if I'm not mistaken, is lighter in weight and the ground sage is denser.

Freeze dried chives should be pretty much exactly the same as regular "dried" in terms of taste.


i breathe in
i breathe out
Bikini

Thank you for the replies, Bikini! I really appreciate it. = )

Which sage would you suggest for the above recipe, then ? Ground or rubbed ?

Howlingmoon "Moonie" Wolvespirit

if a recipe says use "ground sage" you get ground sage.

if a recipe says use "rubbed sage" you get rubbed sage.

for the ranch dressing recipe you want to make - buy some *ground sage* since that's what the author specifically mentioned.

happy creating!


i breathe in
i breathe out
peace
love
joy
Bikini

whoops!

I just noticed Natalia Rose didn't specify ground *or* rubbed in her ingredient list.

*But*, it's my culinary experience that unless a chef specifically wants you to use Rubbed Sage, the sage to buy and use is GROUND SAGE. It's the most common.
Chefs will write in the words "rubbed" when they need you to use it because it's so unique.



peace....

I bought rubbed today while I was out. = ( It was cheap, and I'm out of money. I guess I'll try the rubbed tis time, and see how it turns out. I'll have more money after Thursday for the future.

Howlingmoon "Moonie" Wolvespirit

The people at the potluck liked the "ranch dressing", even though it didn't taste like ranch dressing. LOL It came out too grainy, and the one person (gormet raw chef or something) could pick out just about everything I put in it: lemon, EVOO, chives, etc.

I didn't like it but, my taste buds are extremely picky it seems. = (

Thanks again for the hints and tips, Bikini. I'll remember them for the future. = )

Howlingmoon "Moonie" Wolvespirit