Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips

Yummy Kale Chips… and No MSG!

Everybody who tries them seems to rave about Kale Chips…and for good reason. Their texture crackles, crunches and delicious disintegrates in one’s mouth, and the ruffled edges of curly kale so nicely capture whatever flavorings have been added.

Thing is, many of the favorite recipes out there use raw cashews and/or nutritional yeast to give a kind of “cheezy” flavor. I love raw cashews, but I almost never used them in my recipes because they are both hard to find and very expensive. And I never use nutritional yeast - A, because I don’t like the flavor, and B, because I minimize the use of anything that may include forms of monosodium glutamate (MSG). People debate about whether nutritional yeast does or does not include a form of MSG, but whichever the case, it doesn’t taste “right” to, it doesn’t taste or feel “undenatured” in my body, and that’s always what I go with. So I won’t be including it in any of my Dehydro recipes.

Instead, I’m going to explore recipes that can be made from Utterly Pedestrian ingredients, or very simple, natural “superfood” ingredients very common in the raw world, such as Chia Seeds, Raw Cacao, Goji Berries and such.

Fresh curly kale, rinsed and shaken dry.

Adding the dressing to the kale...

Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips

These Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips use the neutral taste and texture of blended Zucchini to help create a kale-sticking dressing to distribute the flavor before dehydration. And the flavors are simple: smoked paprika, Chipotle Tabasco sauce, olive oil, lemon, and quality natural crystal salt.

So E-Z!!

Take a few minutes to rinse & shake the kale dry, a few minutes to make the dressing and rub & squish it into the kale, and then you just pop it onto a couple dehydrator trays, bung them into your Dehydro unit, flick on the machine and off go! No reason to feel intimated by the process of dehydrating, or to think that it is something laborious.

“How Long Do I Dehydrate? What’s The Right Temperature Setting?”

If you’re nervous about navigating potential enzyme-killing heat… relax. First, ascribing fear to how you’re feeding yourself is hardly a health-promoting outlook. Thinking stressfully is as much (or even more) a liability for your health as eating denatured food. And that, in my view, is the key here: you are minimally denaturing your food. You are taking a whole food, cutting it, seasoning it, subjecting it to some low temps to remove moisture. That is all.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, a well-known raw guru, discovered that the “sweating” phase when dehydrating fruit & vedge actually lowers the temperature of the food and cause mold or fermentation if not adequately heated at the outset of the process. His recommendation is to start the process out at 145 degrees F, and then lower it to around 115. And that is what I do: 145 for the first hour, then 115 for 4-5 hours, or overnight, til done.

Smoky, zesty, spicy topping

Ready for the dehydrator!

Crunchy & ready for snacking!

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ALERT:

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Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips

1-1/2 cups zucchini, chopped into small pieces for measuring (I lightly peeled mine, but it’s not necessary if you are using organic zucchini)

1 teaspoon garlic (2 small cloves)

1-1/2 teaspoons quality natural salt, such as Himalayan Crystal salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice from 1 small lemon, strained)

1 tablespoon cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon smoked paprika (I did not use a hot variety, but you certainly could!)

1 teaspoon Chipotle Tabasco

Blend these ingredients in your blender or food process. I used my Blendtec on Food Processing/Puree settings. Blend until smooth. (You can also leave the paprika & Tabasco out at this step and add it after the next step — that’s what I did the first time I made these and it turned out great.)

6 cups firmly packed curly kale, washed & rinsed well, shaken dry, and cut into pieces (I actually tore the leaves off the thick center stem and did not use the stem, but others use the whole thing — you pick your own preference)

Put the kale into a large bowl and spoon the dressing (blender mixture) on top. Massage well into the nooks & crannies of the kale.

Spread onto 2 dehydrator trays, leaving as much space as possible between the kale, so the air can circulate.

Pop into the dehydrator. Turn it on to 145 degrees F and leave at that temp for an hour. Then lower to 115 degrees for another 4-5 hours, or until crispy all the way through. I like to leave mine in overnight so that it is completely dessicated.

Store in airtight container so they don’t wilt. Enjoy as a snack by themselves, or as additional flavoring and texture in Salad Sammiches and Super Salads!

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