Raw Vegan Kale Chips Recipe

Though this topic isn’t strictly related to David Wolfe, David does recommend eating high amounts of greens as a way to get more alkaline, get more minerals in our diets, and get some really powerful amino acids into our bodies.

I’ve been making some amazing, tasty raw vegan kale chips lately, and I thought I’d share with you some recipes and resources on how to make your own–as they can be pretty pricey (believe it or not) if you can even find them in a health food store at all!

Dehydrated Kale?  Really?  How do I do it?

The basic principle of raw vegan kale chips is to take some fresh kale leaves, remove the stems, then coat the leaves with a somewhat thick “sauce”, put the leaves onto dehydrator trays, then dehydrate.  Simple.

It takes about 8 hours total (most of that is drying time).  We dehydrate them (rather than deep frying them or baking them) so that we can preserve the high enzyme content of raw food–food that hasn’t been heated above approximately 105-115 degrees Farenheit.  You will notice the difference in how your body feels eating this raw food!

Excalibur Dehydrator is the Top-Recommended Among Raw Foodists

Most raw foodists seem to recommend the same dehydrator: The Excalibur.  That company sells a 5-tray dehydrator, and a 9-tray.  I have both of them.  Unless you’re a single person never intending on making food for others, I strongly recommend getting the 9-tray.  It’s big, but to me it definitely doesn’t feel like overkill.

Even if you fill the entire 9-tray, you may be only able to make about 2 gallon-size bags of kale chips.  That might last you a day or two at most!

Here’s the recipe I’ve been making:

Ingredients:

• 1-2 bunches organic kale (I like the so-called “dinosaur kale”, also called “lacinato”)
• the juice of 1-2 whole lemons
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 30-60 minutes (you can also use pine nuts or macadamia nuts)
• cayenne pepper or red chili flake, to taste
• nama shoyu, celtic sea salt, or tamari, to taste (this is the salty component of this recipe)
• 1-2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast (this isn’t strictly necessary, and I don’t normally add it at all, as it helps create and feed excess yeast in the body–not a good thing)

Directions:

Wash kale well, then run a sharp knife in line with the stem of the kale, cutting off the leaves.  (You can use the kale stems in vegetable juice or green smoothies).

Break the kale into smaller pieces or leave them whole, and place them into a large mixing bowl.

In a food processor, blend cashews, lemon juice, choped red bell pepper (doesn’t work as well with green pepper), chili flake, nama shoyu, and nutritional yeast (if using).  You may need to add more lemon juice and/or more water to get this to mix easily.  Blend well!  You want the resulting mixture to be the texture of a fettucine alfredo sauce.

Pour the creamy mixture onto the bowl of kale, and massage into the kale by hand.

Spread the kale evenly onto dehydrator trays, either with or without the teflex sheets (depending on how wet the kale is).

Dehydrate at about 105 degrees Farenheit for 6-8 hours or until completely dry and crunchy. Store in an airtight bag (or eat the entire batch as soon as it comes out).

Note: sometimes the chips will crumble in the bag, somewhat like regular potato chips.

The “chip dregs” are great as a salad topping, or piled high on top of a ripe, cut-in-half avocado! Enjoy!

For 20 of the most mouth-watering delicious kale chip recipes of all time, click here!

P.S.  For a wonderful tasty variation of this recipe, check out Ann-Marie Gianni’s recipe video here: