I've been perfecting a recipe for Cheesey Kale chips for a little while now and I'm pleased to announce I think I've cracked it!
Thankfully my little garden has provided me with enough kale to perfect the recipe. But alas my crop has all been used up now, but don't fear now is the time to sow sow sow! You'll be pleased to hear that it wasn't all used to make kale chips though and I'll post another kale recipe soon..........
The path of perfecting the cheesey kale chips was up and down but there were a lot of giggles along the way. A couple of weeks back my sister and I had a cook up session in my kitchen, trying out different ingredients to get that cheesey taste just right. The only problem was when we made up a batch of the marinade/sauce we mostly ate it during our taste sessions! When we finally thought we had it just right we realised we hadn't written down the ratio of ingredients!
Anyway, to cut a long story short a few days ago I had a light bulb moment and in my opinion got the ratios just right, so without further ado here is what I did! Not everyone has the same taste opinion but the beauty of making your own, is that you can add more of one ingredient if you think it needs it.
You may need to double up the ingredients or even halve them depending on how much kale you have.
Ingredients
Bunch of kale, washed & dried thoroughly
4 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tsp Lemon juice
3 Heaped Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1 Tsp Garlic granules
1 Tsp Porcini powder
½ Tsp Vegetable bouillon powder
½ Tsp Mustard powder
Method
In a pestle and mortar pound the nutritional yeast to form a fine powder.
Whisk the oil, lemon juice and water together to combine and add the nutritional yeast powder and the remaining ingredients bar the kale. Give everything another whisk up and have a quick taste test.
Now's the time to add more of any ingredient if you think it needs it, but remember the taste now will be lighter than the final version as we are dehydrating the kale.
Remove the larger stems from the kale, the smaller ones will be fine and chop the leaves into smaller pieces. Just a bit larger than you want your chips to be.
Transfer to a large bowl and pour over the marinade/sauce and mix with your hands making sure all the leaves are evenly coated with the mixture.
Transfer the leaves to a food dehydrator being careful not to overlap the leaves. Dehydrate at 70°C for 6 hours or until totally crispy. If you haven't got a dehydrator the kale chips can be made by baking in a very low oven overnight.
Have you heard about The Vegan Kind (TVK) Box? It's an awesome monthly subscription box scheme full of lovely vegan goodies posted to your door. It takes the hassle out of checking the ingredient list to see if the item is suitable for vegans before you buy. If like me you've sat at your computer for hours on end researching what is vegan and what isn't this is the scheme for you! Besides its like having a birthday every month as you never know what will be in that box of goodies!
Your box of goodies can contain items including (but not exclusive to) food, toiletries, cleaning products, household supplies and accessories. You will also receive a recipe card every month and in month 3 of your subscription you will also receive a free TVK ringbinder, which will keep all those recipe cards safe.
It's not too late to subscribe, TVK is new scheme and their first box was shipped out in November 2013. Unfortunately this box has now sold out, as too has the December 2013, they're popular! The box costs £10 a month plus £2.95 postage and packing and it is so easy to sign up to. If you fancy receiving a box full of goodies once a month then you can sign up on their website.
February's TVK box included: Organic Surge sugared almond shower gel, Inspiral Raw Kale Chips, Sweet Freedom Choc Shot, a packet of Cinder Toffee from the 1066 Cake Stand and a Braw Fruit Bar. To top it off it also included one of my vegan recipes, yay! My Bean Sushi Recipe was the chosen recipe for the recipe card, which you can also find on my blog, here.
I absolutely loved the smell of the Organic Surge sugared almond shower gel, it was almost good enough to eat. Not only is this product vegan but it is free of all nasties including SLS, Parabens, Synthetic Fragrances and Colourants.
I have tried the Sweet Freedom Choc Shot before as someone sent me one to try, but I haven't been able to get hold of one since so I was delighted to see it was included in the box. For those of you who haven't seen it before it is liquid chocolate, which is 100% natural. I must admit I have been known to eat this by a cheeky spoonful, but not to worry as it is only 14 calories a teaspoon! There are no artificial colourings, flavourings or preservatives, it is GM, dairy and gluten free, suitable for vegetarians & vegans and to top it off it's made in the UK! I used some of mine this time to make my chocolate mousse recipe for my Valentines Dinner, and in my opinion the secret to a good vegan chocolate avocado mousse is sweet freedom choc shot!
My box included a strawberry Braw bar, which is one of four flavours and it was delicious, it was great as a mid morning snack at work. Other flavours are cocoa & orange, apple & pear and blackcurrent. These bars are 100% natural and do not include any added sugars, in fact Braw advise that any sugars present in the bar are purely from the fruit themselves. The bars are also gluten free as they use gluten free oats.
The cinder toffee from 1066 Cake stand, took me back to the days of eating crunchies, and if you combined this with the choc shot you would have a vegan crunchie! Unfortunately my cellophane packet had ripped open and so some of the cinder toffee had gone a little soft, but that did not stop me eating it! And it didn't last long I'm ashamed to say. Another good use would be to serve it crumbled on top of choc shot on top of vegan ice cream, now I'm getting hungry.
The final item in this months box was a packet of Inspiral kale chips, my packet was raw purple corn flavour, however this is one of 5 flavours Inspiral make. The other flavours are baobab & onion, beetroot & acerola, cacao & cinnamon and wasabi wheatgrass. The raw purple corn chips were absolutely delicious! I will definitely be buying these again, so moreish. The kale chips are organic, vegan, raw, gluten free and use no MSG or artificial additives. They would be great used as a crouton like topping for a salad that is, of course if you don't eat them all in one go when you open them!
So there you have it, I told you it was an awesome monthly subscription box, you must check it out! I for one can't wait till the March box is sent out, I wonder what will be included...............
Jasmine
