One of my raw foodie friends spent her summer trying to nail the perfect kale chip recipe, and I think she succeeded. Not only was she a good enough friend to share it with me but she also allowed me to post it on this blog. It's a vegan recipe with a cheesy flavour from the nutritional yeast and is slightly spicy from the chipotle and wasabi, but not too much to put off my young children (unfortunately). In fact they adored them and it was a joy to watch my two year old finish off the bowl.
What you need:
500g Italian curly kale - we used that from Eat FRESH
1 red pepper
4 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (this gives it a cheesy taste while remaining vegan)
1 teaspoon wasabi powder (City 'Super)
1 teaspoon of chipotle sauce
1 cup cashews
1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or coconut vinegar)
1 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Method:
Wash your kale leaves by soaking them in salted water then dry them well, else your chips may take longer to cook and/or turn out soggy.
Preheat the oven to 200C if baking the chips.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in the food processor until it forms a paste.
Remove the bitter, tough stems of your kale chips by holding the stem in the air with the curly top at the bottom, then bringing your hand down the stem quickly as if you were deleaving a twig of thyme!
Place your dry kale leaves in the paste and gently massage them until the paste is evenly distributed. Don't over massage or the leaves will break and it's good to have big pieces.
Place them, spaced apart, on a baking sheet or in your dehydrator tray.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200C or in your dehydrator for around 4 hours at 65C. It's harder to predict how long the dehydrated ones will take so check every 30 minutes or so.
However, in the oven, the difference between soggy and burnt chips is minutes, so do keep a close eye on them.
Enjoy. It's quite possible for one person to eat this entire batch in one sitting. I just did.
However, if you do have any left, you can keep them in an airtight jar for a few days.
