I’m in love with my dehydrator. I know what you’re thinking.
You can’t be IN LOVE with an inanimate object. You can’t be IN love with something unless it/they can reciprocate. To that I say, “My dehydrator loves me.”
I’m not crazy. Well, at least in THAT way.
Part of love is doing nice things for someone, right? It’s folding laundry for you, picking a wild flower on a walk, foot rubs…
It’s making tasty foods for you to make you happy. Clearly the dehydrator can’t fold laundry, pick flowers, or rub my feet for me, but it surely turns out some of the tastiest foods to come out of my kitchen. That’s love.
And my dehydrator does another sweet thing. It gets my most confirmed anti-veg child to eat them willingly. In fact, he BEGS for the vegetables from the dehydrator.
This same kid -who will put on a show worthy of the stage replete with gagging and neck clutching rather than eat vegetable at the dinner table- eats eggplant from the dehydrator in other-wordly amounts. Can we all just say, “Whoa!”?
He eats kale, apples, bananas, and pears from the dehydrator. The key is my little man likes the crispy, crunchy texture. O
f all the goodies that we make, there’s one that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest: Cauliflower Popcorn.
It’s ridiculously easy, friends. You break down a head of cauliflower into florets the size you see in my weird pink paw there.
You toss the florets in extra virgin olive oil, the juice of one lime, chili powder, cumin, and salt, then you dehydrate it.
That’s all there is to it. You dry the stuff out and it magically becomes one of the most snackable snacks ever to be snacked upon.
This is coming from a girl who loves Fritos, salty pretzel sticks, and potato chips, people. This Chili Lime Cauliflower Popcorn is something special.
It’s so special, in fact, that I made two gigantic heads of cauliflower into it overnight and by noon the next day my dear husband and I had inhaled half of the batch.
In other words, we each consumed half of a head of cauliflower between breakfast and lunch at which point we suddenly found ourselves full of both now rehydrated cauliflower and regret. We metered our consumption after that day and confined ourselves to no more than a cup per day.
My little anti-veg boy, though? He’s welcome to eat as much as his little stomach can possibly hold because HE. IS. EATING. VEGETABLES.
I try to keep these stocked for him, which is pretty difficult because everyone in the house loves it. Their little friends even dig into the jar when they come over.
I heard one of them saying, “I don’t like cauliflower. Why is this so good?” I win and it’s all because my dehydrator loves me.
Which Dehydrator should I buy?
Okay. There are two answers to this. If picking up a questionable old dehydrator at a yard sale is what gets you to make this recipe, snap that cheap Ronco piece of junk up and run it ’til it dies. If, however, you’re more serious about putting up the bounty from the farmers’ markets and your garden this summer, invest in the one I have.
Note that I said invest. It ain’t cheap, but it’s worth every penny and a few more. (This is an Amazon affiliate link which means that if you purchase it after clicking on it, I get a small commission from Amazon which in no way effects the price of the item for you.)
Just one more thing about this dehydrator. My mom owns one, at least two of my sisters own one, I think my brother owns one, and I own one.
My stepmom had TWO and my dad has put serious miles on those things with apple, banana, and pear slices over the course of nearly a decade. These things hold up to a mega-beating and can work almost constantly from June through October without missing a beat.
They dehydrate more evenly than the old round-stack variety, don’t require any rotation of trays, and have variable, adjustable temperatures. If you’re a gardener these things are absolutely indispensable in saving excess produce.
And if you’re a parent, these things are dead handy. You can whip up fantastic fruit leathers and snacks that you don’t feel even the slightest guilt in giving to your little folks.
Chili Lime Cauliflower Popcorn
Rate RecipeIngredients
- 1 large head cauliflower
- the juice of one lime
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder depending on strength of flavour desired
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Trim the leaves from the cauliflower and pull off large hunks of florets. Break them down until they are in florets not larger than the tip of your thumb. Wash and drain them well. Transfer the florets to a large mixing bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients.
- Spread them out in a single layer on dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 6-12 hours (at 135°F if you have an adjustable thermostat) or until the cauliflower is about the size of popcorn and is dried through. Open the dehydrator and let the cauliflower cool to room temperature. It will continue to crisp up as it cools. Store in an airtight container for up to a month. If it begins to soften, you can refresh it in the dehydrator for a couple of hours.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Reader's Thoughts...
Mike Bellush says
Hi Rebecca – I’ve got this recipe down to a science in the Excalibur, love it. I can’t make enough fast enough to keep up with household demand 🙂 But I’ve got a new issue – spices/ingredients from this recipe and others getting trapped in the crevices behind the rear screen and in the shelf holder slots. I’m finding it impossible to clean, I’ve tried wiping, vacuuming, blowing out with canned air, no luck. I am trying to come up with the right tools/solutions, I’ve even reached out to Excalibur but they’re not responding. Have you run into these issues? Any thoughts on how to deal with this?
Rebecca says
Hi Mike- I have not personally run into that issue as far as I know! Sorry I can’t be more help on that!
Mike Bellush says
No problem Rebecca and thank you as always for the response. I have a few ideas that I’m testing out and if they work I can post back here or on Amazon where others have run into similar issues.
Next issue – volume. I made THE best batch last round, so I decided to use the exact same amount of ingredients but multiple them out for a 4X batch (four heads of cauliflower). Every time I do 2X, 3X or 4X, I wind up getting bland popcorn, it’s happened several times and I just can’t figure it out. I guess the issue is that every cauliflower is slightly smaller or larger than the next, so it gets tricky with getting the spices right when you start increasing volume. I spent all day on nine trays worth and it just finished up, bland, yech. I think from now on I’m going to just take my time and do individual batches, it always comes out better. In any case, I wouldn’t have to make large volumes if the popcorn didn’t keep disappearing in our house 🙂 Can’t make enough fast enough, thank you so much for this recipe, it is truly awesome.
Mike B. says
Wait! I figured it out! It just needs to dehydrate longer! Forget 8, 10, 12 hours, it’s all about the consistency of the end product. Basically I just keep it in there until it’s crunchy, then let it go even longer! The longer the better. The bland 4X batch now tastes as good if not better than the last one. Separately, I found an attachment for our vacuum that can get into tiny crevices, so I may have solved the clean behind the screen problem as well. Sorry to crowd up your comments again, and thanks.
Rebecca says
No worries, Mike! It’s nice to see your journey through this recipe and I’m sure it’ll help other folks, too!
Mike B says
Rebecca – since you have been so amazingly helpful and responsive with all of these requests, I thought that I would return the favor and offer up a tool that makes this whole process a lot easier. I swear by this one:
Chef’n Stalk Cbhop Cauliflower Prep Tool, Green, 7 ½ x 1 ¾-inches
Trust me if you are still making this it is really quite helpful, makes the job of breaking up the cauliflower so much easier with less time and effort. And mess. Hope it helps.
Mike Bellush says
Any way to make this without oil? No oil = next to zero calories and perfect for diets.
Rebecca says
Hi Mike- I think it would taste a little dull without the oil. You’re welcome to experiment, though.
Mike says
Mission accomplished! Only took me six separate tries 🙂
Here is what I went with:
– 1 head of cauliflower
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil
– 1 tbsp chili powder
– 1/4 tsp cumin
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
6-8 hours on an Elite aka cheap Ronco 5 tier round tray dehydrator. The key seemed to be using slightly larger pieces, rotating trays on the hour, then reducing to less trays as the pieces got smaller and smaller.
I wish that I could share a picture but trust me when I say that they came out perfect, nice and crunchy, taste de-licious. And 2 points on Weight Watchers for the entire quantity, so no guilt either 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe.
Rebecca says
You’re very welcome, Mike! Thanks for letting me know what worked for you!
Mike says
Update – I invested in the Excalibur, WOW what a difference. Not only does it dehydrate the cauliflower faster and more efficiently, it’s also a breeze getting them off the trays without making a mess, and it’s easy to clean up. I’ve got the entire family hooked, if I leave out to cool they’re gone, I’m in constant cauliflower purchase and dehydration mode at this point. My one issue is storage, as soon as I put them in anything close to air tight, they soften up. I’d rather not use the Excalibur so I don’t have to clean it again. Tried the toaster, managed to burn them up into nasty tasting bits but I think I went too hot/long. I can try toaster again just on warm with door open per your earlier suggestions above, or use the oven but I’m not big on leaving oven doors open 🙂 So far this issue is limited to your cauliflower, I make a mean zucchini chip too and they stay crisp in Tupperware. Any other thoughts?
Rebecca says
Hi Mike! I’m so glad you like the Excalibur. It’s the Cadillac of dehydrators, in my opinion. I’m not quite sure what’s going on with your cauliflower softening up on you… Maybe storing it in a paper bag might be a worthy experiment? It would indicate to me that there’s a little moisture left in there. Not a bad thing as long as you like the level of dehydration you’re at with it; you just have to accommodate that storage wise and give a little air exchange. Let’s see if that works!
Mike says
4/24 update – redehydrated cauliflower for about two hours then tossed into paper bag for a day. Checked it out, bag had moisture marks along the bottom but the popcorn was nice and crunchy 🙂 Thank you for your repeated responses on all of this, got it down pat now and we’re all hooked 🙂
Rebecca says
Fantastic, Mike! Sounds like we got this one troubleshot! 🙂
Mike says
After dehydrating Franks hot sauce on cauliflower florets into tiny hot and salty tasteless snacks, I decided that an actual recipe might be a good idea 🙂 I’ll be doubling your recipe on Monday when my wife comes home with a pair of cauliflower heads. Two questions – yes, I’ve got the Ronco aka Elite Gourmet by Maxi-Matic 5 tray round cheapo unit, I promise to splurge on your recc if this becomes a habit, so, how long am I looking at for crunchy cauliflower – 6-12 hours? How do I know when it’s done? And you mention cumin in your article but it’s not included in your recipe. To cumin or not to cumin, and how much per batch? I’ve been looking for that guiltless crunchy snack to help keep me on my diet and this could be it, so thank you!
Rebecca says
Hi Mike- I’d start checking it at 6 hours and keep testing at one hour intervals… just be sure to rotate those trays! I’d cumin it… I’ll correct the recipe to reflect that. 🙂 Also, I know you asked about omitting oil in another comment, but I’m inclined to tell you to keep it in there. It helps both with flavour and texture in addition to helping coat the cauliflower with the spices.
As for how to know it’s done, I test it by pulling a couple of pieces of cauliflower from the dehydrator and letting them cool completely to room temp. If it’s crispy and crunchy, it’s done!
jack says
Well now I feel like an idiot. Once I posted my comment all the others loaded.. oops!
jack says
This looks incredible. I realize this post is nearly six years old – and no comments – shocking! Anyway – I am making this right now, first recipe in the dehydrator I just bought! My question is: 6-12 hours? That’s a huge window. I realize times vary based on a number of factors, but I wish the window was 2 hours or so instead. I set the timer right in the middle at 9 hours, but what if it only takes 6 and 9 is overkill? I will be asleep when it hits 6, and 9..
Daneel Olson says
I will def give this a try sounds good. Wonder what other flavors people have come up with?
Rebecca says
Thanks so much, Daneel! I wonder that as well!
Nanette says
Any idea how I can make this in my Air Fryer?
Rebecca says
Hi Nanette- I’m sure you can make some lovely fried cauliflower pieces in an air fryer, but I’m afraid you won’t get the same kind of texture that I’m talking about in this recipe because it requires 6 to 12 HOURS in a dehydrator at 135°F, and I don’t think an air fryer can do that. Well, at least my air fryer can’t. 😉
Myra says
Cumin? Isn’t in the ingredient list but mentioned in the description…. how much cumin to use please?
Rebecca says
Heh. Whoopsie! Add 3/4 teaspoon and you’ll be in good shape!
Andy S. says
Good recipe and overall my entire family loved it.
If I were to try it again, I would vary it a bit – (maybe less salt) also I set my dehydrator to 110 to try to retain more of the nutritional profile of the cauliflower and I let it go for about 22 hours vs 12.
It came out crisp and crunchy.
Thanks, good stuff!
Rebecca says
I’m glad you liked it, Andy!
Lily Turner says
Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe, going off the buy myself some cauliflowers tomorrow.
My new Excalibur is waiting to make us some more healthy treats. Only made coconut meat jerky so far and that was super yummy.
Ok thank you.
Brandi says
Is the oil necessary for the crunch factor? I want to make these but I eat an oil free diet.
Rebecca says
Hi Brandi- I haven’t tested it without oil. I am pretty sure it would still be crunchy, but you’d have trouble getting the spices to stick… You’ll need to experiment a bit.