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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If you — like me — love the “high” from raw garlic (so great for your heart and immune system!), and especially if you want to jack up your body’s defenses, make sure you keep jumbo medjool dates on hand so you can whip this dressing up any time you want.

This dressing is also great for anyone into using Traditional Chinese Medicine to increase chi and tonify the blood and spleen because dates and garlic are two of the foods that are said to naturally help with this. If you know anyone struggling with mono (Epstein Barr Virus) or something similar, you might want to let them know about this, as the spleen is highly vulnerable to mono. A couple years ago I was diagnosed with mono, and that’s when I learned about how to use dates and garlic together. I used to use them together to slow-cook chicken (another TCM spleen-tonifier, especially dark meat), and just those two ingredients with some good salt creates the most surprisingly exquisite bar-b-que.

But here’s a great way to enjoy their yumminess and healtifying qualities fresh, raw and lickety-split, with whatever fruit & vedge you like to put into your salads (banana would be a nifty addition to a salad with this dressing!). I used a simple combo of baby spring greens, a chopped yellow pepper, and sliced onion.

The sweetness of the juicy dates pairs so perfectly with the garlic, like a magical combo. In fact, I think this is the kind of simple dressing that a restaurant could use to create a highly addicted clientele. It’s just scrumptious!

A single batch is enough for a very large salad that can serve two people (and fill them up) as a main meal.

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There are no pineapples in this dressing — good news for anyone like myself whose tongue is sensitive to the acidity of foods like pineapple! Instead, apples and cold-pressed coconut oil combine to create a mild, sweetly-savory dressing that just a “blush” of garlic.

Yep, garlic! Goes great with this flavor combo. I used this entire recipe for a huge double-salad to serve two people. There’s only 1 tablespoon of coconut oil for the whole batch, about 1-1/2 teaspoons per person, but with the metabolism-stimulating, weight-loss, immune system-enhancing, and energizing properties of coconut oil, I wouldn’t feel in the least guilty if I ended up scarfing the whole thing. And you can see from the photos that the dressing on the greens is very light — great for weight watchers!

I had serious energy to burn after this meal. I served the dressing over a mix of baby “spring” greens with red pepper, apples, and sliced onions. Simple. Juicy. Colorful. And very satisfying.

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Oh Lordy, where has this simple recipe been all my life? Warming, comforting, mellow, meaty, juicy, enlivening, nose-runningly spicy without an uncomfortable “burn”… it was just what I needed on this day where the Jersey mountain temps are already, in mid-afternoon, beginning to make their trek down to freezing.

Using “macaroni noodles” cut from fresh, peeled baby zucchini, cut thin and short, the tomato-less “sauce” to this “chili” is a combination of organic button mushrooms, chopped raw pecans, chopped jumbo medjool dates, fresh garlic, olive oil, lemon and chili & cayenne seasonings. And everything blends to perfectly pair some zesty fire with the mellow bland undertones that make pasta so comforting.

A “warm live raw pasta” is when you expose your live all-vedge ingredients to heat, but just enough to take it past tepid. The food is still filled with all it’s living viable-ness and isn’t remotely “cooked”. In fact, I didn’t even get down to the degree of warmth I was after, and still this dish was everything I wanted — warming and belly-filling in that please-sir-can-i-have-some-more way one can get on a cold night.

And the wee bit of sweet morsels of medjool paired with the earthiness of the mushroom? Brilliant. This is definitely a new favorite of mine to which I know I”ll be turning quite often through the cold months!

(This recipe would also be brilliant for non-raw types — they could could this further to create a wonderful side dish, which would be excellent with potatoes of any kind.

In fact… note to self: For next rawish meal, enjoy with Yukon gold potatoes swathed in grass-fed butter!)

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This evening I made a batch of my beloved Savoy Cabbage-Tomato-Almond Butter Chopped Salad and decided to make a kissing cousin with Kale. And between the two of them, I gorged my fill, with nothing but a fork as a side dish. No chips, no Ezekiel bread, just the two salads, a big bowl of the cabbage salad and a small dish of this wonderfully rich Kale-Red Pepper-Almond Butter salad. I was in heaven.

And honestly, these salads are so flavorful and filling, you can’t over-eat them. They just satisfy so thoroughly.

This salad, like all my other savory chopped salads, will be great as a “salsa” or dip to go with chips, or as a filling for a raw wrap or a “rawish” salad sandwich. And, again like the Savoy cabbage salad, the kale is structured enough that you can make a nice large batch and still be able to enjoy it the day after tomorrow without it degenerating into a wilted, sloppy mess! To me, this is a huge virtue because you can keep good things in your fridge that you can reach for when you’re starving and have been too on-the-go to keep up with kitchen duty.

Make both of these lovelies… frequently… for yourself or for guests or parties… and enjoy!

Suggested options:

Add chopped raw mushrooms, of any kind (YUM).

Add chopped raw pecans, either as a garnish on the top (hello, raw potluck!) or to mix in. (Mushrooms AND pecans would be spectacular!)

Add chopped grape or cherry tomatoes.

And would be wonderful as a “sushi” filling for nori seaweed rolls!

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Heavens to Betsy, did I enjoy this! For those of my readers who, like me, find salvation in savory, meaty-tasting raw/living food dishes, add this one to your list! Like this other meaty, super-satisfying mushroom recipe, which was life-changing for me and for a few others who were greatly helped by its steak-like flavor, this Mushroom-Pecan “Salsa” has got some kick-butt, rib-sticking flavor.

And as great as it is the day you make it, it’s even better the next day! How many raw food recipes can you say that about? I can’t tell you how much I appreciate being able to hit lunchtime the next day and to open the fridge and there was a great meal just waiting for me, which I enjoyed with organic tortilla chips and a side salad.

It’s made with raw almond butter and cold-pressed olive oil, can be made with any kind of mushroom (though it was just awesome with simple organic white buttons), and with the raw pecans, has nice crunch and real “chew”. The taste is mellow, soothing, savory, delicious as a dip for raw chips or organic tortilla chips, and would be a great quick “rawish” feast with toasted Ezekiel bread. And could make for a sensational “raw burger” in a lettuce wrap for hard-core raw foodies.

I included some serrano chiles, and the dish allows the flavor of the chile to come to the forefront, so you can play with that using your favorite peppers. Use sweet peppers, jalapenos, chipotles… whatever you have on hand.

This batch went quickly because I wasn’t the only one dipping into it… my nearly-70 mom loved it.

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This recipe hearkens back to one of my favorite all-time recipes, an addictively delicious salsa or chopped salad made with Savoy Cabbage and Cherry or Grape tomatoes and raw almond butter. I have not been able to find Savoy Cabbage for many months, since moving temporarily to Florida, but zucchini is readily available, and I have found it perhaps the most versatile type of produce in the grocery store. It provides an excellent neutral, mild backdrop for the almost unctuous dressing made of raw almond butter, olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar, and chopped scallions.

I also included some fresh jalapeno peppers, which only added a bit of mild pepper flavor. Add more if you want full-on heat, or use another kind of pepper.

One thing I want to highlight — roasted almond butter is not an acceptable substitute in these kinds of recipes. It has a much stronger flavor, it has an acidic quality which seems to “melt” the tomatoes into a sloppy mess, almost as if cooking them. And, frankly, most roasted almond butters have a rancid quality that is not apparent in well-cared for almond butter.

Another thing — the kind of “apple cider vinegar” that most people think of when they hear the phrase is also not the same thing as raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. It is caustic, highly acidic, and very harsh rather than healing and alkalizing to the body.

Raw almond butter is an invaluable ingredient to include in your kitchen because it helps make the most satisfying “meaty”-tasting savory dishes. And because of the current extreme priciness of raw almond butter ($20.70 for a jar at my local Publix grocery store!!!!!), I consider it very analogous to filet mignon.

Great for leftovers!

One of the things I love about these savory chopped salads is that they tend to keep very well in the fridge for a couple days, and being able to grab something in the moment when I am hungry, when I’ve been busy and haven’t had the time to prepare before I get hungry… well, having chopped salads like this around can make all the difference for me between being able to stay high-raw and losing all momentum with the living foods in my diet.

I made this salsa last night and it was wonderful to pop out of the fridge mid-day to grab a few bites with some organic tortilla chips. Because this salad is made with zucchini, it throws off more water than it’s cousin made with the Savoy cabbage, so the salad will be less salty on the second day. If you are having it straight or as a filling for a salad sandwich or a lettuce wrap, just add a bit more salt. But if you are enjoying with salted chips, you won’t need anything extra.

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Such a pretty salad… like confetti! And another good template recipe to know because there are so many ways you can play with it.

The heart of this one is fresh cucumbers (I generally use the long, thin “British” cukes) with a combination of sweet red, orange, and or yellow peppers. The dressing is made with honey, lemon, and a generous helping of garlic. Add a good portion of green onions, some chopped avocado for a bit of rich texture, and some fresh basil, then let it sit for a wee bit to meld the flavors… and you’ve got a nice full-flavored salad for… whatever. Great for wraps, salad sandwiches, a side-dish for “non-raw” folk (goes great with fish).

But you can change the lemon-basil theme here to lime-cilantro, and this dish is just begging for chiles! Jalapenos, smoked chipotles, or whatever else you have on hand. Or you could use chili paste and toss with some lemongrass for a more Thai flavor.

My non-raw parents loved it.

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Yesterday at the “contemporary Mexican” restaurant Sinigual here in Tampa, my mother ordered a romaine hearts salad with a creamy cilantro dressing that had been thickened with a parmesan-like cheese. And my immediate thought… sunflower seeds! They are excellent at providing a dairy-like flavor and approximating a cheesy texture in certain recipes. So I knew I would try my hand at making a copy-cat raw recipe.

If you don’t have basil on hand, use cilantro, or even simple Utterly Pedestrian fresh parsley.

The dressing is thick and very scoopable, a la guacamole, but with a “cheesier” quality due to the sunflower seeds. I also have used a heavy hand on the salt because caesar-type dressings are that way, using anchovies and parm to layer the savoriness in. And as I’ve explained in other recipes, I very much enjoy ways to bring in salt & savoriness in raw recipes, to offset the natural sweetness and high-water-content blandness of a high-raw diet. Use half the salt, for starters, if you prefer.

You can make this dressing to use over a large plate of romaine hearts for enjoyment by 1-3 people. Or, serve on the side for vegetable or chip dipping!

Note: A salad or sandwich made with this dressing would be EXCELLENT with good quality Kalamata or sun-cured black olives!!!

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Super-quick, super-flavorful, and made with Utterly Pedestrian ingredients so easy to keep on hand!

Enjoy without the meatballs — super-delish on its own, over “noodles” or “spaghetti” made from fresh, raw baby zucchini — or make a side of meatballs for a heartier repast!

And even if you make the whole Spaghetti & Meatball affair… it will still take you all of about 15 minutes, tops!

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