Kale chips

[areilla10]

I don't have a dehydrator (yet). I have made kale chips in the oven on the lowest setting and watching carefully to make sure they don't scorch. I don't know if these qualify as technically raw. They are sorta lightly toasted, which does change the flavour a bit. Anyone know what the upper threshold of "raw" is for these?

I wash a bunch of curly kale and dry it really well. You de-stem it and toss it in a bowl with olive oil and maybe a few herbs or cracked pepper. Then you spread it in a single layer on a pan and lightly roast it (flash dehydrate?) and sprinkle it with sea salt while it's still really warm.

This might be convertible to a raw recipe by dehydrating, in which case, you would just add the salt before dehydrating. My kids are NOT green eaters, but when I make this it just disappears. I have to slap their fingers to keep them out of it.

Anyone made anything like this?

[Revvell]

It's a great way to get some greens into kids yet "toasting" and "roasting" is not raw. Dehydrating kale chips takes about 4 hours... give or take. If you're doing it in less time, not raw.

I wouldn't slap anyone's hands if I had kids and they were reaching for green.

Will they eat it if you don't heat 'em? Just make it raw? My kale rarely gets to the crispy stage.

[areilla10]

Hi Revvell,

I think the roasting does give it a different flavour. And even if I have to continue doing that to get something green past their lips, that's fine with me. They'll actually reach for these ahead of junky potato chips. I'll have to invest in a dehydrator and see if it tastes any different.

Oh wait a second. It will taste very different: I probably won't be able to use the olive oil on it, will I?

[Revvell]

Oh wait a second. It will taste very different: I probably won't be able to use the olive oil on it, will I?

Sure, why not?

[areilla10]

Sure, why not?

You can put oily leaves in the dehydrator? Wow, I AM a newbie... :)

[LaniB]

Olive oil is one of my favorite ways to do the Kale Chips. Super simple too.

I add a little Cayenne Pepper, garlic and salt to the mixture as I'm covering the kale with oil!

Glad you like them. My co-worker was trying one of my Kale chips last week and is also thinking of getting a dehydrator so she can make them to entice her young daughter into eating more greens

[areilla10]

Well I'm really glad to hear this. I've just ordered The Complete Idiot's Guide to Raw Food today, so once I get edumacated I'll start collecting the kitchen tools, like the dehydrator.

I'll be putting in a garden again this year...maybe I'll make some room for kale. That sounds like another good thread.

[Lady Green Jeans]

I have kale chips in the dehydrator now. My house smells really too good.
Last time I made them I felt they were too dried out. Not sure if anyone else encountered that. Will check them more often this time. Will take care of my cheesy/salty craving for sure.

[T-Bird]

I've done dehydrating in the fridge due to the drying in there.....you could try that depending on how much space you have.

[T-Bird]

and stop slapping those young-uns! they wants their greens!

I have a few baby kale plants up in the yard......maybe I'll do a small batch for DD

[myndzai]

I'm going to buy Kale soon and try these. In the meantime, I have swiss chard and I'll try that. Anybody have pos or neg experiences with making chard chips?

[ginnyedwards]

Can someone help me with my kale chips? I dehydrated them for 6 hours, bought them out, let them cool, but they were way too chewy. So I put them back in the dehydrator for another 8 hour but they're still too chewy. What am I doing wrong?

[levamssg]

ginny ... list the ingredients and steps you take in making the chips ...

[DandelionPuff]

I'm making kale chips right now!!
Although, I'm not sure I have enough kale, and am considering using some collard or spinach too... does anybody know how this will turn out???

Anyhow, I find that the kale coated with the sauce is so good as is! I sometimes have that at school for lunch! :)
Of course, it's completely different from kale chips...

[streetsurfer]

I'm making kale chips right now!!
Although, I'm not sure I have enough kale, and am considering using some collard or spinach too... does anybody know how this will turn out???

Anyhow, I find that the kale coated with the sauce is so good as is! I sometimes have that at school for lunch! :)
Of course, it's completely different from kale chips...

If the collards are thinner or flimsier than kale, the chips may be real delicate when finished. Drying intensifies flavor so something like mustard greens may seem more potent to you. I am not familiar with collards flavor. I assume it's more like spinach than mustard greens? Stacking two chips together on the drier trays can help. I've added mustard greens to batches in the beginning and found that they were almost to thin to pick up without them crumbling. In that case,and something I got into the habit of doing anyway, is add thickening ingredients to the marinade, like ground sunflower seeds, slippery elm or ground flax seed for their mucilaginous properties, other finely chopped greens, maca powder, or others, to bulk up the marinade and stick to the leaves. That should provide added thickness and strength to the chips. If you are like most of us here though and tend to eat them all before they can make it to storage, maybe the lighter texture won't be an issue.

[DandelionPuff]

If the collards are thinner or flimsier than kale, the chips may be real delicate when finished. Drying intensifies flavor so something like mustard greens may seem more potent to you. I am not familiar with collards flavor. I assume it's more like spinach than mustard greens? Stacking two chips together on the drier trays can help. I've added mustard greens to batches in the beginning and found that they were almost to thin to pick up without them crumbling. In that case,and something I got into the habit of doing anyway, is add thickening ingredients to the marinade, like ground sunflower seeds, slippery elm or ground flax seed for their mucilaginous properties, other finely chopped greens, maca powder, or others, to bulk up the marinade and stick to the leaves. That should provide added thickness and strength to the chips. If you are like most of us here though and tend to eat them all before they can make it to storage, maybe the lighter texture won't be an issue.

Lol to the last sentence! Yes I am like that- and have a problem with eating them before they're finished too :eat
Anyhow, I tried out the collard, and they turned out pretty good! The kale is better though, collard kind of got clumped together, and they are thin, but don't break too easy.
Collard has a bitter taste, it's kind of like kale, but now... lol, I like it! :p