Spicy Curry Kale Chips–Raw and Vegan!

curry kale chips

Happy Sunday, folks. Hope your weekends were full of double chocolate chunk cookies, banana chia oat muffins, and some of the other sweet treats we’ve been sharing here this week.

My weekend was full, but not full of deliciousness. It was full of studying. In fact, since I left you guys at 9 pm on Friday night, I’ve been at the med school library almost non-stop (I took breaks to sleep and exercise). The amazing part of this story is that in spite of my dedication, flash cards, and collegial study efforts, I feel totally unprepared for tomorrow’s second Orgo exam. Go figure.

Anticipating a weekend on campus (and away from my cozy kitchen), I did make an effort to make some kale chips on Friday night, so that I’d have greens on the go for the next two days. I always say I’m going to make kale chips each week, and I rarely stick to the plan, but I should: it’s the easiest way for me to transport greens around with me. I do pack a fair number of salads, but to be honest, the space they take up in my backpack and the fuss of eating them when I’m shuffling between classes kind of outweighs the pleasure of their taste. And food without pleasure is no food at all.

Kale chips aren’t quite as varied or creative as my salads are, but they are very tasty, versatile, and easy to make. They, along with raw snack bars, collard wraps, trail mixes, raw nori cigars, all things hummus, and Ezekiel sandwiches save me from total culinary boredom between classes (and from paying too much for on-campus dining). This recipe is my latest creation: a warming, spicy blend for cooling autumnal weather. They’re my new favorite, and as soon as this darned test is over and done with, I’ll be making more.

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Spicy Curry Kale Chips (raw, vegan, gluten free)

Makes about 3-4 servings

1 head kale, destemmed, chopped, washed, and dried
1 cup cashews, soaked 1 hour or more
1 small bell pepper
1 tbsp tamari
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp turmeric
2-3 tsps curry powder (adjust to your level of spice)
Dash cayenne pepper
2 pitted dates
Water

1) Blend all of the ingredients except for the kale in a high speed blender (or food processor) on high. As you go, add water. The final mixture should be very thick, but not a paste (like nut pate). I’d say you’re aiming for the texture of a thinner hummus.

2) Pour a good amount of the sauce over your kale, and begin massaging with hands. You won’t use all of the sauce up (which is good, because it’s a fabulous dip!) but you want the kale to be well coated: this is not the time to get skimpy!

3) Place kale chips on a dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115 overnight. Alternately, you can bake these at 325 degrees for about twenty minutes, stopping when they’re crispy.

Speaking of crispy:

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Check out all that delicious, spicy goodness.

These are a wonderful portable snack, but they’re also great appetizers, and an ideal way to get non-veggie lovers into curly kale.

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Today, in the middle of a study marathon, my two study buddies eyed me cautiously as I casually pulled these out of my backpack and started munching (too loudly, I’m sure, for a quiet study area). My friend Dave raised his eyebrow for a moment, and then, remembering the green chia pudding I ate every single morning for breakfast this summer simply shook his head and got back to studying.

Next time, I may need to bring enough for the group.

I’ll be back here tomorrow with a short Halloween express post. In the meantime, happy pumpkin carving, decorating, lewd-costume making, or whatever else you’re up to tonight.

xo

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Categories: Snacks, Vegan Basics
Ingredients: Kale
Dietary Preferences: Raw

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    28 Comments
  1. These MUST be made…Tantalizing spice mix you have engineered!…Question..is it the dehydrator that retains that beautiful vibrant green you have apparently mastered?…If so…I think I need to head out to actually …finally…purchase one, as my oven “attempts” using other recipes have looked decidedly LESS green and not-so-pretty. Thank you for the share.

  2. I got a dehydrator for Christmas and used it to make my first-ever batch of raw kale chips! They are so delicious, and also pretty gorgeous– I posted a photo of them on FB and got half a dozen comments in about 10 minutes. Thanks, Gena!

  3. I attempted to make these tonight, sans dehydrator. They didn’t really dry up that well (poor execution on my part, I’m sure), and I also felt bad because I knew that the higher temp in the oven was taking out some of the nutrient goodness! So, I ate the rest of the kale with the “chip dressing” as a salad, and it was delish. 🙂 The sauce is amazing, and I think that it could work in a number of different applications.

  4. I’m brand new to this raw food thing, so forgive me for asking, but how is this recipe raw if it’s baked in the oven? Thanks in advance for any answers you might provide.

  5. The one time I made kale chips, I burned them in the oven and I haven’t tried since! May have to try again.

  6. Sounds yummy, and the portability thing is awesome. I also dehydrated a lot of greens from our garden this summer–way better than freezing– and sometimes put on top of bean stews or in soups now that it’s winter.

    Good luck with the exam!
    love
    Ela

  7. I hope your studying paid off and your test went great today! And I REALLY hope you are planning on dressing up for Halloween and sharing pictures with us! 😉

  8. I secretly like getting weird looks for my food. These look so tasty, but I never have luck with kale chips in the oven! I think I need to put a dehydrator at the top of my Christmas list 🙂 Hope the exam goes well!

  9. Kale chip question: My chips come out of the over all crispy, but then I try to store them in a ziploc bag, and an hour later they are all soggy again. How do I keep kale chips crispy so that I can make a ton and save them?!

  10. Gena these look incredible. seriously it has been a long time since we have made ourselves some kale chips. our dehydrators are always full of other things that there is never any room, we need to change that and made some kale chips! 🙂
    HUGS

  11. I am cracking up at your friend Dave’s obvious kale chip envy…

    So sorry to hear re. your test anxiety, Gena. I’m sending you lots of luck and calm energy…try to relax, do your best and don’t beat yourself up over this one exam and one course. There will be plenty of opportunities to redeem yourself, and I have every confidence you will.

    Hugs,
    Karen

  12. This is my kind of food! I have been known to eat nearly an entire head of kale chips in one sitting. Can’t wait to make these!!!

  13. Love this variation, Gena! I harvested tons of kale from my garden before the snow — I think I know what to do with it now!

    As for Halloween, I’m a total scrooge. We turn off the porch light, turn down the living room lights, turn on a good movie and enjoy a quiet bottle of wine while the ghosts and goblins invade our neighborhood for sugar!

  14. Good luck, Gena! Remember, what matters is not the test results you get now, but the doctor you’ll be in the future. xo

  15. The spicy action sounds great. I love a nice kick to kale chips b/c kale can be a strong flavor so pairing it with something with a little zing, or a lot zing, is always welcome.

    Funny that you whipped these out in a quiet-ish study area and went to town. I’m sure your study mates were just jealous that they had to eat vending machine food and you had these 🙂

    Happy Halloween. Are you up to any lewd costume-making?…ha! That last line of your post cracked me up 🙂

  16. I totally agree with you that food without pleasure is no food at all. I also like to made sure that the environment in which I eat is nice, to add to the enjoyment of my food. Which is why I am so bad at taking snacks! I hate to eat on the go. I feel for you that you are away from the comforts of your own home so much during meal times. But I suppose this will be a fact of life for you as an MD, so it is awesome that you are figuring out the tricks of the trade now!

  17. Yum! I also have major qualifying exams this week and these would make a great snack. Plus, I just scored 5 bunches of organic kale at $0.59 each, so this is perfect timing! Thanks for posting the oven alternate as I do not have a dehydrator yet! 🙂

  18. Oh yum. I just put a batch of your protein-packed kale chips (the ones with hemp – ironically, the only ones my husband enjoys as much as I do, so I tend to make those more than any other kale chip recipes) in the dehydrator but these will be my next kale chip recipe foray.

    Good luck on your test!

  19. Hi Gena,

    I understand that you are having some trouble working through organic chemistry. Here are a few tips from a student who is about to graduate with a degree in chemistry that may help you! This is not to belittle your efforts thus far (I understand that you are working for this very hard!); this is a tried-and-true methods that I hope you will find useful!

    1. Stop freaking out. It will help you concentrate less effectively!
    2. Organic chemistry is NOT 100% memorization. It is about developing a chemical intuition about how molecules interact together, given their chemical environment (i.e. pKa’s, acidity, the inclination of molecule X to act as a base or a nucleophile/ acid or an electrophile). If you start to see a pattern, make sure you take note of it and apply it to problems you don’t already know the answer to.
    3. Don’t EVER look at the answers if you can’t figure it out on your own. Make up your own answer and get it wrong. Only then, go back to it and see *why* your answers were wrong and *why* the answer key is correct. If you don’t do this you’ll just look at the answer without even trying the problem, saying “oh yeah..that totally makes sense”. And then you’ll be given a slightly different question with the same concept, and you won’t know how to answer that question.

    Thanks for amazing posts, as always. I am rooting for your success in organic chemistry!!! (:

    • June,

      You are amazing. Amazing! Thanks for saying hello and offering your wisdom. I actually am guilty of everything you just mentioned (especially #3: I often look at the answers) and indeed it was sheer freaking out that ruined me on my first exam. I’ll work on intuition. Thank you.

      G