These crunchy kale chips are so yummy that I prefer them to popcorn or potato chips. I am not kidding! The kids love them too, and they make a perfect snack or side dish for lunch. They get eaten so fast that it is hard to stock up on them though.
I started with 2 bunches of organic kale from the store plus a little bit from my garden. Any type of curly leafed kale will do.. I washed it, removed the spines, and dried the leaves very well because the flavor sauce won’t stick to wet leaves.
In my Vitamix, I blended 1 c. of cashews, 1/2 of a red bell pepper, 1 t garlic powder, 2 t onion powder, 2 t sea salt, 1/3 c nutritional yeast, 4 T olive oil, 1 squeeze of lemon juice, and 1/4 to 1/2 c water (you need enough water to get it to mix up but not so much that it makes it runny). BTW, making your own homemade garlic and onion powder from dehydrated garlic and onions is easy to do and would make these even better!
I then put all my kale in a bowl and poured the sauce over it. I rubbed the sauce, gently sort of massaging it around on all the leaves. This serves to distribute the sauce and soften the fibrous parts.
Once the sauce is generously covering all the leaves, arrange them in a single layer on your dehydrator tray and let them go until they are crunchy. Keeping the temp around 135°F is best for preserving nutritional qualities.
After you have made these and your family has devoured them, read this list of the benefits of kale and give yourself a pat on the back 🙂.
I don’t have a dehydrator. Wonder if the oven would work or would it destroy the nutritional value. Not opposed to buying a dehydrator. What kind do you guys use?
Hi Dianne! I just now figured out how to see comments on the blog. Lol. Yes, you can use the oven. Just keep it as close to 135 degrees F as possible and crack the door to let the moisture escape. Love ya!