Cheezy Kale Chips

Cheezy Kale Chips
  • Enough Kale to fill four trays in dehydrator (we had a huge grocery bag full from market and used about half)  Note: we used curly kale, but you can use any variety
  • 1/4 cup healthy oil of choice (we used a combo of avocado, walnut, and sunflower)
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp or more sea salt or Herbamare
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Wash kale thoroughly to make sure all bugs are out if you buy organic!  Dry.  Tear into small pieces, (not using stem) and put in large bowl.  Add oil, salt and lemon and massage kale well working seasoning into the leaves.  Once the amount of kale in your bowl looks about half as big as it did when you put it in there, you’re ready!  Add in the nutritional yeast and mix well again using hands.  Place on dehydrator trays and turn on dehydrator.

Dehydration time and temp:

There are different takes on dehydrating temperatures and time length. Many agree that 120 degrees is the maximum temp to use without killing off living enzymes; others suggest 118 degrees:  Here is the info from Dr. Gabriel Cousens . . .

In his book, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, Dr. Gabriel Cousens talks about a study his masters team did on dehydrating.  The team showed that certain foods can be dehydrated at 145 degrees F for the first 1 to 2 hours and then be brought down to 115 degrees F without harming the enzymes.

It turns out that many foods “sweat” when first exposed to heat and the moisture of the sweat keeps the food item cool and the enzymes complete even at temperatures higher than 115 F.

So I chose to try out the 145 for 1hr and 115 for 4-5 hrs this time just because I was so excited to try out my chips! But next time I will plan ahead and do the 8 hrs at 115 overnight.

Happy dehydrating!