Kale chips - an experiment

I've seen many different versions of kale chips online and they've always intrigued me.  We love kale and it's always good to find a new way to use it, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I decided to use my dehydrator on a low setting (about 115F) to preserve the enzymes in the kale, so these are essentially raw kale chips.  I would do this differently next time, sprinkling the salt on the chips before dehydrating because doing it the way I did (adding the salt to the oil and spices) made it too salty in some part.  All in all, these are really delicious and what a healthy snack instead of regular potato chips!!!

Here's what I did...

Wash and dry the kale leaves.  I washed them well and then spread them out on tea towels and covered with more tea towels and pressed down gently.

Washed kale

In a large bowl, mix together a couple of tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, some hot smoked paprika, some garlic powder and Celtic sea salt (next time I'll sprinkle this at the end instead of mixing it in with the other seasoning ingredients).

Oil and seasonings

Place the dried kale into the bowl and (using your hands) mix really well, massaging the kale with the seasoning mixture until it is evenly coated.  Spread onto dehydrator sheets and dry at 115F for about 3 hours.  Try to stop yourself from eating it all while you're removing it from the trays :-)

Kale on dehydrator trays