Roasted red pepper dried kale chips

I absolutely love the dried kale chips I get from Whole foods market, but I’m not always able to get there to pick up some when I run out (bummer). So after not making the market 2 days in  a row I decided I would try and make my own.

I researched the web and I read the label on my favorite brand and came up with my own recipe. I must warn you that I’m big on garlic so I used quite a few cloves.  The beauty of this recipe is you can add, subtract, or change ingredients to fit your personal taste.

Ingredients

• Bunch of Kale (rinsed and dried with salad spinner)
• fresh garlic ( i used about 5 large cloves from my bulb)
• cashews (I used about 1 cup)
• roasted red pepper (I used 1 1/2 jars , you may use more or less depending on the amount of kale your drying)
• nutritional yeast (love the cheese flavor it imparts , i use extra I love the cheesiness) I used 1/2 cup++
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO)( about 3 Tablespoons)
• Sea Salt

So lets begin first by prepping your kale. Begin by removing all thick ends and tearing your kale into bite sized pieces, then rinse your kale really good under cold water and then dry in a salad spinner. Set aside after, don’t worry we’ll get back to that yummy Kale.

Remove thick stems like these

Tear into bite sized pieces

Now lets prepare our roasted red pepper puree. Grab your food processor and add all your ingredients except for kale.

Ingredients in food processor

Puree Puree and Puree until its smooth. If its too thick you can thin out a little with roasted red pepper juice and/or a little more EVO

Pureed mixture.

Now if your like me you tasted this and its soooo good you’ll want to eat it right now. You can put a little on the side for a dip or even make it again and use it with baked chicken (we’ll have to explore that another time.

Yummy as a dip!!

Now massage all that yummy puree that you didn’t eat as a dip into your prepped Kale. I tend to slather it on really thick because I enjoy the flavor punch.

massage puree into your kale really really good. Coat it as thick as you’d like.

Now your almost finished place pieces on your dehydrator tray(s). Stack them until your kale is all in the dehydrator. I have read that you can use a oven to bake your chips at this point but I haven’t tried that way yet.

Place in your dehydrator

Set your dehydrator on low 110 -115 degrees and let it begin the process of drying. I dry mine for about 12 hours sometimes as long as 14 hours it depends on the thickness of your coating and how crunchy you want your finished kale to be. I begin sampling a taste for crunch factor after the 12 hour mark. Once its as dry and crunchy as you’d like remove from dehydrator and store in an air tight container. Enjoy!!!

Finished piece of roasted red pepper kale

Please post comments or questions.