Recipe Pizza Flavoured Kale Crisps

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So I thought it time to change the flavour if the usual kale crisps I make from our Sweet White Miso Kale Crisps to pizza flavoured....

Pizza Flavoured Kale Crisps

• SatNavSaysStraightOn
• 18 Mar 2022

If you don't have a dehydrator, some ovens go low enough as do some airfryers. Line a baking tray with ovenproof greaseproof/baking paper.

So, the kale benefits from being as crisp and fresh as possible so treat it as you would a bunch of flowers and cut the ends off and stand it in water until you're ready to use it. If you're using a bag of chopped kale, get the kale into water and sort through it removing the thicker stems and stalks. You don't want them.

My recipe is based on this one Pizza Kale Chips Recipe from the Excalibur dehydrator recipe site, but I've amended it quite a bit.

Ingredients
1 large bunch of fresh kale
150g cashew nuts
250ml water
100g salt free tomato concentrate/paste (see note *)
5 tbsp nutritional yeast (see note **)
4 tsp mixed herbs/Italian seasoning or Focaccia herbs (see note ***)
1 large garlic clove
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp onion powder (see note ****)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp maple syrup
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt
½ tsp red chilli pepper flakes (to taste)

Method

1. If you don't have a high powdered blender/liquidiser such as a Vitamix, you'll want to soak the cashew nuts overnight
2. Wash and thoroughly dry the kale, cut or tear into smaller pieces, removing the stems and stalks as you go. You want to be able to easily get the pieces once crisp and dry into your mouth in one go, so I aim for 1-1½ inch pieces maximum. Place half of the kale in a big bowl.
3. Drain the cashews and add them to the liquidiser bowl along with ¾'s of the water and all of the other ingredients from the tomato puree/paste through to the red chilli pepper flakes. Now blend, adding more water as needed and screaming down the sides as needed. You want it thick enough to stick to the kale but thin enough to just about pour. It should also be totally smooth with no lumps.
4. Add roughly half of the paste to the kale and ensure a thorough coating on both sides of the kale. Try to only use one hand for this so you can keep one hand clean. Add more paste if needed.
5. Place the kale evenly spread out, on the ParaFlexx sheets for your dehydrator (baking paper will suffice if and only if it is oven safe, don't use foil). Try to stop the kale pieces touching each other. I used 4 trays on my Excalibur dehydrator for this recipe.
6. Repeat with the other half of the kale and tomato paste...
7. Place in the dehydrator at 115°F for 8-12 hours, until crisp. You can remove the kale crisps off the teflex/ParaFlexx sheets once reasonably dry to speed up the drying out process.

Fresh kale

• SatNavSaysStraightOn
• 18 Mar 2022

Kale crisps mixed with Pizza flavouring

• SatNavSaysStraightOn
• 18 Mar 2022

Kale crisps on the dehydrator tray

• SatNavSaysStraightOn
• 18 Mar 2022

Notes
* my tomato paste is triple concentrated so you may need to use 150g of double concentrated tomato puree/paste/concentrate
** I'm using a nutritional yeast that is in powdered form, if you use one that is in flakes, you'll need to add about double the quantity
*** I used a Focaccia seasoning containing Basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, garlic & chilli
**** if you are using onion flakes you'll need 2 to 3 times the quantity.

 

[Timenspace]

Beautiful! i am amazed. How does one come to the idea of coating the kale tears in this lovely sauce and then slow bake it (rhetoric question)...I really do want to try this.
I do intend to buy a good blender, I have been postponing it several times, I don't really know why exactly... but will acquire.
But that aside, I am looking at the recipe as is.
My question is the nutritional yeast, does it do something, like hold the sauce togehter? Or is it in for the taste, I read it is used to imitate cheese flavour for vegans.
It has fantastic health benefits, I was not aware of all of them, until I now reserached a bit. And it is not the same as the active yeast, which is a second fact I just learned.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

My question is the nutritional yeast, does it do something, like hold the sauce togehter? Or is it in for the taste, I read it is used to imitate cheese

Nutritional yeast is for the cheese flavour. It is the blended cashews that hold the combination of flavours together. Cashews also give it a creamy flavour. Nutritional yeast varies considerably in flavour so it is worth frequently changing brands until you find the one you like. We prefer an American brand