Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!! While I was trying to clean things up on the lil blog I couldn’t help but notice how lame my recipe tab is. Considering how much I love to cook I don’t do a very good job of sharing. My hope is to post some more of my favorite recipes and I am starting today by sharing a fantastically healthy snack. Move over Popeye, there is a new green making its way through. Yummy, yummy kale! Kale has quickly become popular for its high nutrition, health benefits and great flavor. Over the weekend I decided to jump on the kale bandwagon and try my hand at some kale chips. Last year a parent of one of my students brought in a batch she made that had some type of cheesiness to them and that’s exactly what I was looking for. After some searching, I was able to find it and trust me, you are going to want to make these! One bite and you will not want to stop and the best part? They are so good for you, no guilty feelings!
What you’ll need:
1 bunch curly kale
1 cup cashews (soaked for a couple hours)
1 red bell pepper, deseeded
Juice of half a lemon (2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
*nutritional yeast can be found in a health food store
I first cut off the tough stems and then tare the kale into bite size pieces and then wash them. After washing the kale I used my salad spinner to make sure they were nice and dry. You don’t want them wet because then they will end up steaming and you want them nice and crunchy.
Then it was time for the cheesy mixture which from the ingredients you can see doesn’t require any cheese at all. Crazy! I know!! Just throw everything into your food processor or blender and run for about a minute or two, until it is smooth.
Then it’s time to pull up your sleeves, pour the mixture in a bowl with the kale and mix it all up. Make sure you coat every piece of kale. Once they are covered in that goodness spread them out on a baking sheet. I had enough to cover one large baking sheet and a smaller one.
Now in order for the kale to cook to the crisp you have to cook them at a low temperature so they don’t burn. I cooked mine at 200 degrees for a little over an hour. You can always check them after 45 minutes and decide if they are crunchy enough for you. When they are ready, let them cool and then eat away!
I stored mine in a Tupperware container but that may not be necessary because they won’t last long enough to be stored!
