Cheesy Vegan Kale Chips

I honestly cannot get enough of these delicious kale chips. They more than satisfy that spot that potato chips once filled, only without the greasy food hangover and the guilt. Kale is a super food among vegetables. It's a brassica, a member of the cabbage family and is probably the closest relative to the wild cabbage. As such it has the same antioxidant power and cancer-fighting phytochemicals of the other brassicas. In fact, kale is number one in the antioxidant ratings according to [ad#The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth – text link shortname]. If that's not reason enough to indulge in my kale chip addiction, I don't know what is!

Ingredients:

1-2 bunches of kale, wash, de-stem and tear into pieces
4 tablespoons extra virgin, organic olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon raw organic agave syrup
1 teaspoon raw organic tahini
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
dash of powdered ginger
dash of cayenne powder to taste

Instructions:

1. Rinse the kale under running water, remove stems and tear the leaf into pieces about the size of potato chips tossing them into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl or cup mix all the other ingredients together, beating with a fork until there are no more lumps of tahini and everything is blended together evenly. Drizzle the mixture over the kale pieces, then massage it evenly through the kale with clean hands.
3. Grab handfuls of the coated kale pieces and scatter onto dehydrator trays. If the mixture is quite oily and dripping off the leaves, use a Teflex or Paraflexx sheet on your dehydrator tray. Otherwise you can put the kale mixture directly onto the dehydrator sheets and they will be ready to eat a bit sooner. Try to break up any large clumps of kale, but you don't need to take the time to lay every piece out individually, just make sure they are fairly evenly scattered over 3-4 trays.
   

   Kale Chips on dehydrator tray

4. Dehydrate at 95-105F degrees overnight. If you used the Teflex or Paraflexx sheets turn the kale chips out onto the regular dehydrator sheets the next day and dehydrate for a couple more hours until crunchy. Otherwise, test to see if the chips are crunchy. If they are you can eat them immediately, or store in a sealed glass jar for later.

More nutritional facts about kale:

Kale is also loaded with calcium, iron, and vitamins A, C, and bone-building vitamin K. It contains seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times as much lutein and zeazanthin, eye-protecting carotenoids known to help protect against macular degeneration. And 2 cups of the stuff contain about 4 g of protein and 3 g of fiber.
Source: [ad#The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth – text link fullname]

I can easily snack on 2 cups of kale in the form of kale chips, getting a nice dose of healthy, uncooked oils at the same time. Although it takes extreme self-control, I try to squirrel some of the kale chips away in a glass jar for later in the evening when I start getting the munchies, or junk food cravings. Funny enough I find they also satisfy the cravings for sweets I often get late at night.

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