Kale chips have always been one of my favourite indulgences. Buy them, and like pretty much all living foods, they cost a bloody fortune. Making them does require a bit of gear (a dehydrator and ideally, a high-speed blender), but over the long haul, the gear pays for itself if you like to eat veggie chips and raw food wraps. You also get to choose what goes in the finished product which means that you can better control quality and nutrition. All that aside, these rock. The coating is based on Amy Chaplin’s carrot dressing from her amazing book Whole Food Cooking Every Day, which should be a part of your cookbook collection if it isn’t already! So enough with the tangents – on to the recipe…

Yield: 4 servings

What you need:

• 1 large bunch curly kale
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked at least 4 hours and drained
• 6 tablespoons filtered water (or orange juice if you want them a sweeter than just carrot!)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• a 3” piece of scallion, the white bulb bit, chopped
• a 3” piece of fresh turmeric root, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon ume plum vinegar

What you do:

1. Remove the ribs from the kale and keep them for another use or compost them. Break the leaves into large pieces, 4 or 5 per leaf. Wash the leaves well in lots of water. Drain and dry well. The leaves need to be good and dry for the coating to stick to them well.
2. Place the carrots, cashews, water, lemon juice, scallion turmeric and ume plum vinegar in a high-speed blender. You can use a regular blender, but it will require much longer blending and rather than chop the ingredients, you’ll want to mince and grate to help the machine out a bit… Blend to make a smooth paste, it’ll take a while so be patient.
3. When the coating is ready, place the dried kale in a large bowl and pour the contents of the blender on top. Massage it into the kale with clean hands. When everything is coated evenly, distribute the leaves amongst dehydrator trays, leaving some space for air circulation between each.
4. Dehydrate at 41 degrees Celsius (105 F) until crispy, 7 to 10 hours depending on your dehydrator.
5. Try not to eat them all at once… it’s tough…