Raw Barbecue Vegetable Skewers

Ah, summertime! Somehow these long, languid months have long been associated with the smoky smell of barbecue. Probably because when it get’s hot, we take our cooking outside to keep the house from turning into an oven. Not that the guy at the grill ever looks anything but uncomfortable. (Now there’s a problem we don’t have as raw chefs: the heat is kept to a minimum. Even the dehydrator doesn’t make much of a dent in room temperature.) But what happens when you eat raw but want that nostalgic barbecue taste? Why, we have a raw barbecue, of course!

Face it: like so many foods, good barbecue is all in the sauce. And this raw barbecue sauce has it down when it comes to flavor. You’ll want to keep it on hand to slather on other things as well. In fact it’s so good that we were just eating it by the spoonful. Yep. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually. And the only excuse I can offer there is that we were tweaking the recipe and it takes a lot of tasting to tweak!

There’s so many great things to be said about this raw barbecue sauce. It’s got that smoky flavor without the smoke – aka carcinogens. It’s just as delightfully messy as the real thing but so much easier to clean up (not stuck to pans and grill). And, on top of all that, it’s not loaded with sugar and therefor so much healthier for us than most traditional barbecue sauces. Bottled varieties are just toxic cocktails with high fructose corn syrup as one of their primary ingredients. We want to try and stay away from that at all costs. Make your own raw barbecue sauce and you’re doing yourself -and anyone you serve it to -a huge favor.

And, in Lucy Ricardo’s words “It’s tasty too. Tastes just like candy.” No: much better. And I should know: I’ve easily eaten a bowlful at this point.

Somebody, stop me!

Raw Barbecue Sauce

1/2 cup loose leaf Earl Grey tea ( or other black tea)

2 cups hot water

2 cups sundried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour or more to soften

1/2 shallot, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 Tbsp. Nama Shoyu

1 1/2 Tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon smoked paprika*

3 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon Himalayan salt

First, steep the tea in the hot water for an hour or more. Strain out the leaves.

Place the strained tea in a high speed blender with the remaining ingredients and blend at high speed until very smooth.

Skewers

3 small zucchini or 2 large, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 medium red peppers, cut into 1 inch squares

2 medium yellow peppers, cut into 1 inch squares

1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes ( or mix of yellow and red)

3 cups king oyster mushrooms, cut into rounds OR small baby bellas, stems removed

1 medium fennel bulb, cored and cut into 1 inch squares

24 to30 wooden skewers

In a large bowl toss all of the vegetables with the raw barbecue sauce and marinate for a few hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

Slide vegetables onto skewers. Place skewers in Teflex lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 3-4 hours, until vegetables are soft throughout.

*smoked paprika is technically not a raw ingredient; regular paprika can provide a substitute but the smoky flavor will be diminished