I’ve loved kale chips ever since I found out how ridiculously easy they are to make. You take a bunch of kale, wash it, tear it up leaving aside the stems, dry it really really well, pour a bit of olive oil and some salt on it, mash it up with your hands such that it’s thoroughly coated in oil, put it on cookie sheets in a single layer, and throw it into a 350°F oven for ten minutes. Stir halfway through and watch it so it doesn’t burn. What comes out are lovely, crispy chips made of kale. Easiest way by far to make leafy greens disappear in children’s and grown-ups’ mouths.
Commercially available kale chips are also delicious, and different, in that they have flavors. I like the “vegan cheese” ones, not because I’m a vegan OR because they in any way resemble cheesy chips. Just because they’re tasty. But they’re also really expensive, so I took a look at the ingredients lists and tried to replicate them. SUCCESS!
The catch: I did this with my food dehydrator. I love this thing, and think it was well worth the investment. Mostly I’ve used it for drying farm share vegetables when overwhelmed with the quantities, and making jerky. But there are other uses too. Anyway, I set it at 125°F, and most household ovens only go down to 170, so I don’t know whether this would work in an oven. But it might, if you leave it open a crack and/or check frequently to make sure the kale is not burning. Here’s the recipe (note that I roasted the red bell peppers the previous evening, so it didn’t feel like it took much time):
5 red bell peppers, roasted, cleaned
3T lemon juice
0.5c nutritional yeast
1.5c cashews
1t salt
1 big bunch kalePut everything but the kale into a food processor, wet ingredients first. Process until smooth, scraping down with a spatula a few times. Wash and tear up the kale, and dry it but don’t go nuts — it’s not as crucial to get all the water out as it is for the regular oiled/baked chips.
I took handfuls of kale and mashed them up right in my hands with the cashew stuff, spreading them single-layer on dehydrator sheets. I suspect one can also do it all at once in a big bowl, but do use your hands; that’s the only way to get the kale well coated. Stick in dehydrator for 5-6 hours at 125°F. Try not to eat all of it at once.
If you succeed at making these in the oven, please comment and let me knowhow you did it, and how long it took!