Kale Chips - Spicy Cheese and Spiced Chocolate

I love kale chips. As much as I don’t like spending $7 on a single snack (because let’s be honest here: you never eat just “one serving” when you have an open bag of kale chips…), I will happily purchase them once in a while as a vegan-cheesy indulgence.

I recently, finally, bought a dehydrator. My main desire with this amazing kitchen tool was to make dried bananas and kale chips. Well, I’ve made more than enough bananas, but have yet to make kale chips. Until now.

I have few regrets in life, but one regret is this: I did not make enough kale chips.

These were initial “test batches”, and I am so amazed with how they turned out that I’m going to share the recipe before making a second batch. (I like to make something a few times before posting it.)

This post has a bonus: two recipes in one!

They’re both so tasty, that they need to be in the same post – otherwise, a super massive black hole might form between the two separate posts. I wish I was joking. It happens with delicious recipes.

Okay, maybe I’m getting a bit carried away. I should stop, and just give you the recipes already!

So here you go, kind reader of this post. A gift of seasoned awesomeness. Enjoy!

Spicy Cheesy Kale Chips

Ingredients:

• Kale (a bunch of leaves, taken off of the stems. Not too big, not too small… Just right; bite sized. I used about 10 large leaves of kale for this batch.)
• ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for about 20 minutes
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• Juice from ½ a small-medium sized lemon (around 2-3 tbsp)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (hello, B-12)
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt (you can add more or less if you like, totally your call)

Method:

• Prepare your dehydrator trays with parchment paper. Trust me on this, you won’t want to put them on the bare trays…
• Mix all ingredients (except for the kale) in a blender/food processor until you have a sauce. You can keep it a bit chunky if you like, because cashew pieces are always tasty), and  pour into a bowl.
• Take the pieces of kale, one at a time, and dip them in the bowl. Use your hands, and get messy… Rub the sauce all over the kale, and make sure it’s covered. Squeeze off some of the sauce so the kale isn’t a mushy pile of sauce, and place it on the lined dehydrator tray.
• Do this until you’ve dipped all of the kale in sauce, and then set your dehydrator to anywhere from 110 – 140. (Some people are really strict with raw food temperatures. Keeping the temperature at 140 does not mean that the food will reach that temperature; however, if you are strict – just keep the temperature at what you feel comfortable with. You will have to dehydrate the kale for a longer period of time though. I kept mine at 140.)
• Let the kale rest at this temperature overnight. I had mine going for about 8 hours at 140. You don’t really need to flip the leaves over at any point, but give them a minute or two to settle after you’ve turned off the dehydrator.
• Now, you can eat them. And eat them you will! Enjoy!

Spiced Chocolate Kale Chips

Ingredients:

• Kale (a bunch of leaves, taken off of the stems. Not too big, not too small… Just right; bite sized. I used about 10 large leaves of kale for this batch.)
• ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for about 20 minutes
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• ¼ cup coconut water
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 6 pitted dates
• 1 tbsp raw agave nectar (optional if you want it sweeter. Omit if you want a darker chocolate taste)
• 1-2 tsp ground cinnamon (I eyeballed it here…)
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground allspice (trust me, this works well…)
• Optional: sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt after placed on the dehydrator tray for some salted chocolate kale chip flavour!

Method:

• See above method for Spicy Cheesy Kale Chips, because it’s the same – and there’s no sense in writing it out again…
• You probably won’t use all of the chocolate sauce. Keep the extra sauce in a glass jar, and store in the fridge. It turns to a nice texture that you can later use to make some spiced cacao truffles! (*hint* check back soon for that recipe… *hint* *cough*)
• Enjoy! 

Green Kale - cleaned and ready to go!

Spicy Cheesy vegan sauce

Spicy Cheesy Kale Chips - taking a rest

Spiced Chocolate Kale Chips - taking a rest

Finished! Spicy Cheesy Kale Chips - delicious... So light and crispy...

Cute little chocolate covered kale chips... Lightly spiced... Decadent... Delicious... I love you chocolate kale chips.