Raw Vegan Kale Chips – Straight from my Garden

Hello my friends! What a joy to be able to grow a garden, harvest some of the beautiful vegetables and then create a nutritious snack for friends and family. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had Raw Vegan Kale Chips but they are one of my go to snacks. I love to make them at home, with my dehydrator and I experiment with many flavours and ingredients. Each time I make them they are always interesting, delicious and a little bit different.

My biggest challenge is keeping them for more than a few days as everyone else likes to eat them too! A couple years ago, I gave my neighbour Chuck a small bag to try and he said he loved them and had to hide them from his friends. A few days later he came over with a huge bag of Kale from his garden and asked me to make him some more!! Too funny!

Raw Vegan Kale Chips

I have been fortunate enough to buy a good quality dehydrator (many more recipes to come) and prefer to make my Kale Chips in the dehydrator, that is why they are called ‘raw vegan”.  The key benefit to a dehydrator is that you maintain the nutrients of the precious foods you are cooking for you and your family. It takes a bit longer as they are cooked at a very low temperature; the flavours and textures are well worth the wait.

In this recipe, I will share how to make the Kale Chips with a Dehydrator and with a traditional oven.

What you will need:

• A big bunch of Kale, organic if possible, right out of your garden even better! As I like to make lots, I use about the size of two bunches from the grocery store. The recipe is for a double recipe.
• 1 bunch of cilantro, organic if possible, right out of your garden even better!
• 2  T Olive oil
• 2 cups raw cashews (soaked in water overnight or for a few hours)
• lemon juice (1-2 T depending on how much Kale you have)
• 1/4 -1/2 c Nutritional Yeast (depending on how much Kale you use)
• 1 T cumin or curry powder (optional)
• handful of fresh chive flowers (optional)
• pepper to taste (black or hot)
• sea salt to taste

As I mentioned its a bit more of an art than a science, trust yourself and your preferences. Taste you cashew sauce before you put in on the Kale, it needs to have good flavour a little stronger to get the right flavour on the final product.

Step one:

• Wash and dry the kale and cut out the spines, cut into bit size pieces, I actually use scissors for this task. Place kale into a large bowl
• Add a bit of olive oil and rub into the kale chips. Again you will need enough to lightly coat each Kale piece. If you miss this step your topping will not stick to the kale after it is cooked…took me awhile to figure this one out!

Step two:

• In a blender, (high speed if possible), add your soaked and drained raw cashews, chive flowers, lemon juice, cilantro, nutritional yeast and all your spices.
• Blend until smooth, give it a taste, add salt and pepper to your liking. I suggest a little more salt than you might normally add in so the flavours are still intact after cooking.

Step three:

• Add the blended cashew sauce to your kale pieces and mix it up until all the kale chips are evenly coated with sauce. You might need to get your hands dirty at this point and rub the sauce around to be sure every kale chip has sauce.

Step four:

• Place the kale chips on your trays for the dehydrator or on cookie sheets with parchment paper on the bottom. Spread the chips out so they are lying flat and not touching each other. In my dehydrator I make enough chips to fill all nine racks.  If you a cooking in the oven you may need to use two big cookie sheets and cook a couple batches.

Step five:

• For the dehydrator you are going to cook at 105°’s for about 8 hours, until the chips are crisp and the sauce is no longer soft.
• For the traditional oven method, you will cook at 425°’s for 4-5 minutes, turn and cook another 4-5 minutes. They can burn or get a burnt taste quickly, so keep a close eye on them. Once I thought I would leave in an extra couple minutes in the oven, when it was cooling and they got the burnt taste, even though they were not actually burnt.

Step six:

• Enjoy your creation! Hide a few away, because you will want some more and your family and friends will eat them up!
• Remember, be creative with this recipe. It really is an art, try hot sauce or other spices you love to give your chips a variety of flavours. Have fun!!