My journey to raw foods took me first to what is commonly referred to as "gourmet raw." This food-style is very expensive, very high-maintenance, and all together not realistic for any normal human being without a personal chef. It also requires lots of fats in the form of copious nuts/seeds/oils, lots of flavors in the form of salt/nutritional yeast/dried herbs, and LOTS of dehydrating. In short, it is wholly unsustainable. Finding 80-10-10 was [and still is] like striking gold. I get to eat tons of sweet, juicy, seasonal fruit and gigantic quantities of vegetables in unlimited combinations; it all digests perfectly and is super simple and easy to prepare. Having said that, I still take the time and effort to eat the occasional kale chip. And these guys are perfectly crunchy and packed with flavor, just like the ones I used to indulge in.
I generally only run my dehydrator when I have food that is on the verge of going bad and I need to preserve it fast [and my freezer is about to burst], but kale chips have always been a gourmet favorite of mine. I've tried relentlessly these last few years to find or create a recipe that captured the bliss of kale chips without the fat and salt. Needless to say, this recipe requires a dehydrator and is a little more time consuming than my usual routine of whacking open a watermelon.
I have made kale chips in the past by setting the oven to 350 F and cooking them on parchment paper for 10 minutes. I won't be trying that for this recipe because 1) my oven is GHETTO, and old, like from the 50's. I'm scared to even turn it on. 2) No A/C means very little cooking ever happens in my house. 3) I personally prefer not to eat cooked food, so I wouldn't eat them.
HOWEVER, if someone out there is reading this and would like to try them in the oven, PLEASE DO and let me know how it goes! I don't see why they wouldn't turn out...
Ingredients:
Kale! [Obviously. You can use any variety you like. I've tried it with curly kale, winter kale, dino kale...it all works. Curly is probably my favorite.]
3-4 ears of fresh corn
1 red bell pepper
juice from 1 lime
1 garlic clove OR handful of fresh chive [I've been using young garlic which isn't as strong.]
dash of cayenne pepper
Blend the ingredients and massage into de-stemmed kale leaves. Spread out on tray (or cooking sheet with wax paper) and dehydrate at 110F for 12-15 hours (depending on the humidity where you live).
I was using winter kale in this batch [curly kale will look quite different]
This sounds delish! Finally a recipe without salt or oil! Yippee! I shall break out the dehydrator one of these days and try it. I am so glad you decided to share this recipe with us! I know how it feels to have a recipe that is so healthy and wonderful you want to share it but then again, you want it for another purpose later and wonder if giving it out at the moment will somehow mess that momentum up. I just want to say THANK YOU! Because of this, I will be following your site after having randomly ended up here today from 30BAD! Hows that for a trade off? If you had never shared this, your cook book would be just one in a sea of them. Now, it is one from someone whom I know to be generous AND talented, and I am extremely interested in reading it. Cha-ching! I'm really excited to see it when it comes out! Keep us posted, and again THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteWow! Thankyou sooo much for the feedback and compliments! That just made my day :) I'm so glad you appreciate a good recipe and will be following me, getting comments like yours really helps me stay motivated. I'll definitely keep you posted on the upcoming recipe book. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteomg NOM looks so good and sounds super yummy! :P
ReplyDeleteI would very much be interested in your food prep book when it comes out!
ReplyDeleteSooo.... I just made your recipe today and took it out of my dehydrator and I'm so disappointed....THEY'RE AWESOME!!!!! and now I'm gonna have to make them pretty much every day forever! I'm serious!! They are sooooooo delicious! The only thing I did differently is add about 3T of nutritional yeast, but now I wish I didn't bc I bet they'd be even better without them.
ReplyDeleteThanks so so much for sharing this recipe. I seriously can't wait to make it again! :)
BTW, you might be interested in my blog too. My husband and I are low fat vegans and are transitioning to raw, and I share some of my recipes and stuff on there. We've actually just started a 30 day lfrv challenge for August! My site is FreshFruitFit.com
Sooo.... I just made your recipe today and took it out of my dehydrator and I'm so disappointed....THEY'RE AWESOME!!!!! and now I'm gonna have to make them pretty much every day forever! I'm serious!! They are sooooooo delicious! The only thing I did differently is add about 3T of nutritional yeast, but now I wish I didn't bc I bet they'd be even better without them.
ReplyDeleteThanks so so much for sharing this recipe. I seriously can't wait to make it again! :)
BTW, you might be interested in my blog too. My husband and I are low fat vegans and are transitioning to raw, and I share some of my recipes and stuff on there. We've actually just started a 30 day lfrv challenge for August! My site is FreshFruitFit.com
I'm so glad you like them! I was shocked at how much they tasted like the "real" thing that I used to indulge in, except without the oil, cashews, salt etc. Thank you for sharing your website, I've got to try some of your recipes as well :) 30 days is a perfect trial period for lfrv, I think you'll love it! Especially since it's summer and fruit is ON :)
ReplyDeleteMay I share your recipe on my blog and link back to this post?
ReplyDeleteSure thing! I'm happy to spread the word
ReplyDelete