Chipotle Parmesan Kale Chips

Yesterday I received my new dehydrator by UPS, and the first thing to make was kale chips. I used one of the common raw kale chips recipes, which is based on a ‘cashew cheez’ sauce; that tastes really good but they are like regular potato chips – pretty high in calories, 80kcals for a small serving. So, I will be looking for a more low-cal recipe because who can stop eating chips after the first chip?!!

I also found a new way to ‘recycle’ the kale stems: they make a perfect vegan kale smoothie if you have a blender that pulverizes them well so you will never taste the difference. 

Chipotle Parmesan Kale Chips:

• 1 cup cashew nuts (soaked in filtered water for 2h)
• 1/4-/1/3 cup filtered water
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 TB apple cider vinegar
• 2 garlic gloves, peeled
• 2 TB nutritional yeast based chipotle parmesan (or nutritional yeast)
• 1 hot pepper, dried or fresh
• 1 bunch of curly kale, washed

Soak the nuts for about 2 hours (I only did one 1 hour because I was too impatient, but it worked, too). Place the soaked cashews in the blender, add about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of water (I used the soaking water), add the lime juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic, chipotle parmesan, and hot pepper. The vegan parmesan has salt in it, so I did not use any extra salt, you can, of course, if you like it more salty. Blend the ingredients to a smooth, silky consistency. It should not be too runny nor too thick, more like a creamy cheese pasta sauce.
Destem the kale by ripping chips sized pieces of the kale leaves and discard (or save) the stems (for a smoothie). Place the raw kale pieces in a large bowl, pour the sauce on top and get massaging. Massage the ‘cheez’ mix into the heap of kale and rubbing the sauce into the  individual leaves to that all of them are covered fairly well.
Distributed the kale chips on the sheets of the dehydrator; avoid overlapping leaves because they take longer to dry and crisp up. One bunch of kale filled exactly one dehydrator with 5 trays to the brim. Dry on 105F for ca 12h, and get munching on tasty, crunchy kale chips!