Raw dill pickle kale chips

Posted in: Dehydrated Raw Chips, Raw Nut-Free Savory Recipes

1 large bunch kale

3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons dried dill

5 tablespoons nutritional yeast

3 tablespoons raw soy sauce (nama shoyu or tamari)

1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt

Directions

1. Get one large bunch of kale.

This first photograph actually shows two bunches of kale, but I wanted to show you what the size is like, and I used my camera's lens cover to show you the scale.

So this photo shows 1 bunch of kale lying on the counter as an example, and it shows the other bunch of kale that has been ripped up and placed in a bowl -- to be made into kale chips.

2. Now we are creating "chips." Leave the kale quite big because they will shrink when dehydrated so try to leave each piece of kale quite big. Place smaller pieces of kale directly in the bowl. (If you have very large pieces of kale that have hard stems in the center cut the stems out. However, you don't have to cut the stem out of small pieces. The only purpose re: cutting the hard stems out is the big stems can be kind of dry and hard after being dehydrated.)

3. You should now have a great big bowl full of kale. There is a lot of airspace in the bowl because kale is kind of fluffy and sits on top of each other. Add all remaining ingredients into the bowl on top of the kale.

4. Wash your hands thoroughly and then mix all the ingredients together using your hands. Your hands will get coated in oil and spices, but trust me. You have to do it this way--it's the only way to get this raw kale chip flavouring mixture thoroughly mixed and on each leaf. Mix very very thoroughly by massaging the kale with your hands. You want to make sure the spices are quite evenly distributed. If you find the mixture is quite dry and sticking on your hands you have my permission to add one more tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to this kale chip recipe. However, do not add any more than that because you don't want them to be too oily because they won't dehydrate properly if they're totally soaked in oil.

5. Your raw dill pickle kale chips should now look like this. (These are actually a bit too chunky re: flavor distribution--see how you can see chunks of flavoring on the chips? Try to get them better distributed than I did. I didn't add quite enough oil, I only added 3 tablespoons in total, but I probably should have added 4 total.) Another way to think about this is that it should look like a nice kale salad with a reasonable amount of dressing coating each piece, similar to salad. (By the way - This won't taste very good right now, so don't eat it like salad!)

6. Place your chips in a single layer on dehydrator sheets. You don't need any teflex or parchment paper or anything--just lie them on dehydrator trays. You don't have to lie them out perfectly; just make sure you don't have pieces lying on top of one another.

7. Dehydrate for 1 hour at 120 degrees. Reduce heat to 105 and dehydrate for a couple more hours. Check on them quite soon, because small pieces will crisp up quickly and you can snack on them right away! Compared to most dehydrator recipes this raw dill pickle kale chip recipe actually is pretty quick to make, and you can be enjoying them within a few hours. Don't eat them when they're still a bit soggy, they taste gross that way. Wait until they're totally dry and crispy.

8. We usually tend to consume these raw dill pickle kale chips really quickly, but they do keep quite well stored in tupperware or ziploc bags (provided that you've totally dehydrated them so that there's no moisture left in your kale chips - Ie. dehydrate them for 24 hours or longer!). Beware - kale chips DO NOT travel well at all because they are really fragile. So eat up! :)

The Rawtarian's Thoughts

Raw dill pickle kale chips - I finally took the time to document my kale chip making procedure! There are many ways to make kale chips, and this is the way I do it.

This raw dill pickle kale chip recipe requires a dehydrator. Also, many kale chip recipes call for tahini, but I wanted to create a recipe that did not use tahini because I, like many of you I am sure, don't always keep tahini on hand.

One of the keys to making kale chips is understanding the ratio of kale to wet sauce. When I first tried making kale chips the recipe I followed didn't clearly explain how much kale to use. Thus, I used a small amount of kale and a large amount of oily sauce... which was a total disaster when I first started making them. So I have tried to be clear and show you what your kale chips should like like at each stage of the procedure.

There are many kale chip recipes, and you can certainly make your own recipes as you become more confident in your raw kitchen. The trick is to get your flavoring well-distributed on the chips. You don't want them too oily--you want your kale chips to be just right!