Raw Food: Kale Chips 9 Ways!
Until yesterday, I had never created a raw food recipe for kale chips. I couldn’t bring myself to take a veggie that I consider a bit bitter and try to turn it into something yummy. My friend, Joanna kept insisting that they were fab so I decided to give it a whirl. They turned out better than I could have hoped for. Which is great because Kale is incredibly healthy.
Kale, which is actually a form of cabbage, is loaded with fiber. One cup of kale provides you with twice your daily requirement of vitamin A, tons of vitamin C and has over a thousand times the RDA for vitamin K! Kale helps keep your body strong and also helps prevent damage from other forces that are constantly attacking our bodies.
Kale is full of fiber and phytonutrients. It produces sulforaphane which is a natural cancer-fighter that signals the liver to produce cancer fighting enzymes. Kale has high amounts of carotenoids that protect your eyes from ultraviolet light and other major issues. It even helps prevent cataracts.
There are many different kinds of kale out there. I wanted to know how each one tasted, and how it adapted to different recipes. I bought dinosaur kale, purple kale and green kale. Then I came up with three different recipes. So, we have 9 different outcomes.
For the first batch I simply used olive oil and salt. For the second batch, I added garlic and thyme. The third batch, one of my favorites, is a spicy combination of chipotle and smoked paprika combined with some nutritional yeast, cashews and garlic. I think this hot version is my favorite.
The difference between the kale, after all was said and done was negligible. The dinosaur kale has a flatter shape and kept that through dehydration but the curly kale was fine and actually held a little more of the flavor mixture.The taste was pretty much the same for all. You can go very easy on the olive oil. They dehydrate very quickly (4-5 hours) so, start them early in the day and you will have a great snack for later. My biggest challenge with these was to not eat them all before I got the picture taken! Make a lot as they dehydrate down quite a bit.
Kale Chips
For all versions: wash and spin dry 2 bunches kale. Remove the tough spine and tear into bite size pieces, keeping in mind that they will shrink in size as they dehydrate.
Dinosaur Kale
Green Kale
Purple Kale
Kale Chips Three Ways
Version One
- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
Combine olive oil and sea salt in large bowl. Stir in kale and coat. Place on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 115 for 4-6 hours or until crisp.
Version Two
- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 Cloves Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Thyme
With food processor running, drop garlic in. It will mince. Add oil and thyme. Place mixture in bowl and follow directions above.
Version Three
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup Cashews, soaked at least 8 hours, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast*
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon Chipotle (spice)
- Pinch Sea Salt
With processor running, drop in garlic and mince. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. Pour over kale chips in a bowl and massage until kale is coated. Dehydrate on screens at 115 for 4-6 hours or until crisp. *Nutritional yeast is not raw but used frequently in raw food recipes.
jenny (green food diaries) wrote on May 18, 2010
i ADORE kale chips… in fact, i overdosed on them this week (it was my first time trying them out, made and sold by a near raw-foods resto). i think i had three or four heads worth of kale in kale chips THIS WEEK. they are that delicious.
Cece wrote on May 17, 2010
Kale chips made with raw tahini also are fantastic! Plenty of garlic too, of course. So glad you reminded folks to remove that spine. That can ruin them. I bought kale chips like this at a vegetarian restaurant in D.C., spine included, and they also were sickly sweet and improperly dehydrated. I really hope people were not tasting raw food for the first time because that would have absolutely put them off raw.
Properly made kale chips are very light, melt in your mouth. Very easy to make, I don’t know how that restaurant managed to mess them up like that. Thank you for these recipes!
Elizabeth wrote on May 17, 2010
I can’t wait to try the spicy ones. I’ve made a cheddar version that I love -my kids too. But spice is my thing, since I’m always so darn cold -the plight of a raw foodie.
Eco Mama wrote on May 17, 2010
Oooh I haven’t made these in a while. Nice variations. LOVE kale chips!
xo
Eco Mama
Lauren wrote on May 17, 2010
I haven’t made kale chips in awhile! I’ve been loving my kale salads though, maybe it’s time to change it up! 🙂 Great recipes!
shivie wrote on May 17, 2010
Yum-just turned 9 trays of chipz this morning…addin a little tamari or braggs with olive oile is also yummy (leave out salt)…we find that peopel love love love our spicy chipz when we make them, last week at our first Farmers Market the firefighters fell in love with the kale chipz-and they didnt even know what kale was (i bought a bunch from a farmer and took it to show them what they were eating)…great job on your site, so pretty…have a RAWsome day
Shivie
Joanna Rawvelous wrote on May 17, 2010
Yay! Glad you looooove them 😀 I’m sure yours are even better than mine. I’m still on the lookout for a new/ used Dehydrator since mine crashed. Soon as I find one, these babies are ON! ;p
Blessings,
Joanna
Raw Food Mamas wrote on May 17, 2010
Oh how wonderful. I rarely make kale chips because I devour so much of it fresh but my son, who has an aversion to all things green, keeps asking me for them. And now I have three (no, make it 9) recipes.
Yay!
Stacy wrote on May 17, 2010
I love kale chips! It also took me a while to get past the ‘green’ and try them, but they’re my popcorn now. I found a really yummy cheesy version, and the leftover dressing is good on lettuce. I will definitely have to try these recipes too.
S