Kale Chips

Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale 
1 teaspoon of Himalayan Salt 
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast 

Now you can use either an oven or dehydrator (for raw chips).

Oven instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat two large baking sheets with olive oil 
2. Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite sized pieces. Place on baking sheets and sprinkle olive oil, salt over and nutritional yeast over it! 
3. Bake about 10-12 minutes! Watch them, and turn them as they shrink and get crispy! 

Instructions for Dehydrator:

1. Decide what you have available in your garden.  Choose two or three from each plant.
2. Wash the leaves and let them dry. To speed the drying process, tear the leaves into your desired size and run them through a salad spinner. (I cleaned those broccoli leaves the lazy cook’s way. Hours before plucking the leaves, I washed the plants down with a spray nozzle and let them dry standing like soldiers in their little bed. This was a real time saver.)
3. Put the dried leaves in a large bowl and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Toss, toss, toss. You want each leaf to be coated with oil but not dripping.
4. Sprinkle on a bit of sea salt and desired seasoning. I had a sample envelope of organic steak seasoning and decided to use it. It was quite tasty. You could opt for garlic powder, curry powder, and on and on. Sprinkle the seasoning lightly and toss some more. Go for an even distribution of the seasoning.
5. Lay the leaves out on the dehydrator trays. Do not overlap the leaves as you arrange them.
6. If your dehydrator sheets have holes in them, place a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of the dehydrator to catch oil drips in case there are any. I had none, but you never know.
7. Dehydrate your leaves for about eight hours at 120 degrees. Check from time to time for doneness. The finished chip will be crispy and tender. The dehydrating time can vary depending on what leaves you have chosen, on the humidity, on the size of the leaf pieces, among other variables. Check from time to time.
8. Pile the chips onto a platter for all the family munchers. The chips will begin to lose their crispness within a few hours. Simply return them to the dehydrator for an hour or so for more crispness. An approach that works for us is to set the serving bowl of chips into the oven with just the pilot light heat. In an hour or so the crunch is back.
9. Wash the dehydrator trays clean of oil and seasonings. What tastes great on your vegetable chips may not blend well with your fruit leather. When I know that I will only be doing chips for the next week or so, I just wipe down the trays to remove excess oil and save the bath for later.

Kale Chips