Homemade “Cheesy” Kale Chips: Dehydrator & Oven Instructions
Learn how to make your own cheesy kale chips at home with this simple tutorial that includes instructions for using either a dehydrator or an oven.
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When I was growing up, “kale” wasn’t even part of my vocabulary, let alone my diet. Not even close. In fact, I had never even heard of kale until a few years ago when it started being hailed as the new “superfood” du jour. And I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t exactly a fan.
In fact, I hated kale. I figured it was just for vegans and health nuts anyways, and at the time, I was definitely neither.
But as time went on and kale became more and more mainstream, I started to venture out of my comfort zone. Then one day I picked up a bag of kale chips and decided to give them a try, and I was hooked!
That was my green eggs and ham moment right there. As it turned out, I did like kale! I did like it, Sam I Am! Or at least, I liked kale chips😉
But OMG, kale chips are EXPENSIVE at the grocery store! So I refrained from enjoying them too often because I just couldn’t afford them.
Naturally, when I started growing my own kale, I knew I wanted to try making my own kale chips at home. At first I tried tossing them in a little olive oil and salt and drying them in the oven, but they dehydrated unevenly and tasted nothing like the cheesy, crunchy kale chips I used to get from the store.
Then, a few Christmases ago, I got an Excalibur dehydrator from my mother-in-law, and a whole new world of possibilities opened up!
Related: Dried Cinnamon Apple Slices Recipe
Again I tried making kale chips with just a little olive oil, salt and seasonings, and again they fell short of the crunchy, nacho cheese-flavoured kale chips I used to buy for $7 a (small) bag at the store. So I decided to find a recipe that would mimic the cheesy store-bought ones.
I soon learned that what gave these kale chips their crunch and signature cheesy taste was a combination of blended cashews and a little something called nutritional yeast. Finally, not too long ago now, I got my hands on some nutritional yeast of my own and decided to try making a batch of homemade cheesy kale chips in the dehydrator.
What is nutritional yeast and where can you buy it?
Nutritional yeast is simply an inactive form of yeast that grows on top of molasses (of all places). And yet, it doesn’t taste anything like molasses! Instead, it tastes a lot like -you guessed it- cheese!
Nutritional yeast is the perfect flavouring for cheesy kale chips since real cheese doesn’t dehydrate well (due to the fat content), and using nutritional yeast also makes these kale chips vegan-friendly, which is rather important when it comes to anything kale, don’t ya think 😉
I was able to find nutritional yeast in bulk from our local Bulk Barn store (I think it’s a Canadian chain). But if you can’t find it locally, you can purchase some online here.
How to make cheesy kale chips at home
Once you’ve got your kale, some cashews and nutritional yeast, you just need a few more simple ingredients to make some killer homemade cheesy kale chips. Here’s everything you’ll need for a batch:
- One large bunch kale
- 1 cup cashews
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 large garlic cloves (raw)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt (I use fine sea salt)
Start by soaking the cashews in water for at least an hour or two to hydrate and soften them. While they’re soaking, wash your kale, remove the leaves from the stems and tear the leaves into smaller, chip-sized pieces.
Make sure to dry the kale really well. Any amount of moisture left on the leaves can prevent the sauce from sticking. I like to spin mine in a salad spinner and then place it on a paper towel to dry.
Next, it’s time to make your “cheesy” sauce…
How to make cheesy cashew sauce for kale chips
Drain the cashews and set them aside. Then, add all of the ingredients (except the kale!) to a food processor or high-powered blender (I use the chopping bowl that comes with my Breville immersion blender set and love using it in place of a regular blender or food processor for quick, small-batch recipes like this sauce).
Blend on high until the ingredients are well combined and start to resemble a thick, creamy sauce.
You may need to add a little more water to the mixture to get it to blend to a creamy consistency. Add one tablespoon at a time so that you don’t overdo it and end up with a watery sauce that won’t stick to the kale leaves.
Once your sauce is well-blended, place the kale leaves in a large mixing bowl and add all of the sauce. Then, using your hands, toss the kale in the sauce and massage it into all of the leaves, making sure to coat each one.
Once your kale leaves are well-coated in cheesy sauce, you’re ready to lay them out on trays and start dehydrating them!
How to make kale chips in a dehydrator
Lay your coated kale leaves out on your dehydrator trays in a single layer and place trays in the dehydrator.
Set the dehydrator temperature to 135ºF and set a timer for 6 hours.
That’s it! Pretty easy, eh?
How to make kale chips in the oven
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can dehydrate your kale chips in the oven instead.
Preheat the oven to 200ºF. Place coated kale leaves on a baking tray lined with parchment paper in a single layer. Bake for roughly one hour. Check kale chips at about 45 minutes to see if they’re done as everyone’s oven runs just a little hotter or cooler than others.
Likewise, make sure they’re dry enough if you’re planning to store them for any length of time as any amount of moisture left could cause old to form.
You can also set your oven to the lowest possible temperature if it goes below 200ºF. (Mine goes down as low as 170ºF). If dehydrating at a lower temperature, you might need to dry them for a little bit longer. Make sure to check your kale chips every 15 minutes or so past the hour to see if they’re dry.
How to store homemade kale chips
If you actually manage to make a big enough batch of kale chips that you don’t eat them all within a day or so, you’ll want to know how to store them. The good news is, as long as they’re completely dry, they’ll be shelf-stable for a long time and you can store them in a Mason jar, Ziplock bag or even a FoodSaver bag to make sure they’re well sealed and stay fresh. I like to store them with an oxygen absorber to help extend shelf-life.
* Moisture can cause the chips to go moldy so make sure that your kale chips are really well dehydrated as any residual
Honestly, this is another reason I prefer using a dehydrator over the oven, because no matter what, I always find that there are a few kale chips that are just a little less dehydrated than the rest.
That’s it! Pretty straightforward, however I’ve created a full video tutorial too if you want to see how I make mine in both the oven and the dehydrator.
If you’ve ever had cheesy kale chips from the grocery store before I would LOVE to know how you think these ones compare! Let me know in the comments below if you try this recipe out!
I’d also love to know your favourite ways to enjoy kale! Because I just made two batches of these kale chips and it doesn’t even look like I made a dent in our plants outside ?
Ingredients
- One large bunch kale, washed, de-stemmed and torn into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup cashews, soaked for at least an hour
- ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 large garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt (I use fine sea salt)
Instructions
- Drain the cashews and set them aside. Then, add all of the ingredients (except the kale) to a food processor and blend on high until the ingredients are well combined and start to resemble a thick, creamy sauce. You may need to add a little more water to the mixture to get it to blend to a creamy consistency. Add one tablespoon at a time so that you don’t overdo it!
- Place the kale leaves in a large mixing bowl and add all of the sauce. Then, using your hands, toss the kale in the sauce and massage it into all of the leaves, making sure to coat each one.
- Once your kale leaves are well-coated in cheesy sauce, either lay them out in a single layer on your dehydrator trays or on baking trays lined with parchment paper if using the oven.
- If dehydrating, set temperature to 135ºF and set the timer for 6 hours. If using an oven, set the temperature for 200ºF and bake for 45 to 60 minutes (give or take).
- Store dried kale chips in a Mason jar or Ziplock bag in your pantry.
Wishing you homemade, homegrown, homestead happiness 🙂
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First of all, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU for all of the support during this difficult time.
(See my last post from yesterday if you're not sure what I'm talking about).
Second, despite the lows of the past week, it does bring me joy to announce that I've opened up the doors to my Yes, You CAN! home canning course once again, and for a limited time only, I'm offering an additional $20 discount off the total cost of the course.
(Just use code TAKE20 at checkout).
Over the course of 12 video lessons, I'll walk you through everything you need to get started canning food (safely) at home.
You'll learn about canning safety and equipment, how to operate a water bath canner and a pressure canner, and I'll show you in detail how to can everything from jams and pickles to stocks and vegetables.
You'll also get some pretty awesome bonuses, including my Jams and Jellies 4-Part Mini-Series, my brand new Home Canning Handbook (complete with 30 of my favourite canning recipes), and access to our private Facebook group, where you can ask questions and get ongoing support.
Plus, if you enroll before midnight tomorrow night, you'll also get a free copy of my Herbal Infusions Masterclass and eBook, so you can preserve your herbs by making your own extracts, tinctures, oils and herbal medicines.
I hope you'll join me in putting up the harvest this preserving season.
While we may not have control over most things in life, this is one area where we have complete control, and that's a good and comforting feeling.
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/yesyoucan to learn more.
(Remember to use code TAKE20 at checkout to get your discount)
I hope you’ll join me in putting up the harvest this canning season.
While we may not have control over most things in life, this is one area where we have complete control, and that's a good and comforting feeling.
We lost a baby last week.
We’ve now lost 4 pregnancies in a row, and every loss is heart-wrenching.
I still don’t have the words to describe what we’re going through, nor the heart to share everything right now. It’s tough to be a content creator whose job revolves around sharing your life with the world when your own world comes crashing down, over and over again.
While I’m in the very unlucky 1% of women who lose three or more pregnancies in a row, I know I’m not alone and that there are many more grieving mamas with broken hearts and unconditional love for their unborn babies.
We don’t talk enough about pregnancy loss and its impact on families. I hope to change that in my own small way as our own family continues to navigate this journey together, but right now we’re healing.
And today we’re celebrating our beautiful Earth Angel’s 5th birthday. I truly don’t know how or if I’d be able to cope with all of the losses without her, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
I’ll be back with more “regularly scheduled content” tomorrow as I’m opening the doors to my home canning course this week, but if I’m otherwise a bit scarce right now, you know why.
Thanks for being here and for your ongoing support through all of the ups and downs 🙏
I get a lot of questions about how to know if a canning recipe or method is safe.
Often times these messages come from people who have been handed down old canning recipes and cookbooks from their parents and grandparents, or have fond memories of old recipes but want to know if they’re safe to can according to today’s standards.
The fact is, many of the canning recipes and methods that our grandparents and even our parents used are no longer considered safe. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make them safe!
Join me this Saturday, July 24th for my free live training, How to Stock Your Pantry Like A Pro: 6 Simple Rules for Safe Home Canning.
I’ll teach you what you absolutely MUST know and do to ensure your home canned food is safe to eat, as well as how to safely adapt canning recipes and even how to take favourite recipes and make them safe for canning!
Plus I’ll be answering your canning questions live at the end of the training!
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to thehouseandhomestead.com/safecanning to save your seat!
In the meantime, leave your canning questions below👇 in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them all on Saturday!
I hope to see you there 😊
Sometimes when I look at our pantry full of home-canned food, even I find it hard to believe that I started canning just six years ago.
But while I’m 100% confident when it comes to canning food nowadays, I definitely didn’t start out that way.
When I canned my first batch of applesauce, I was so afraid that it would make my baby daughter sick that I refused to feed her a single spoonful, and I ate the rest with my fingers crossed that I’d live to tell the tale!
Then came my first batch of green beans. I hid around the corner as the pressure canner hissed and rattled, afraid it would blow up my kitchen. And after all was said and done, I was so scared to eat the beans that I had lovingly grown from seed and preserved that I ended up tossing every single jar in the garbage. Talk about a waste of food! (Not to mention time and effort).
After A LOT of time spent researching, learning and honing my canning skills, I now can HUNDREDS of jars of food each year, and I do so with absolute confidence knowing that each and every jar is safe to eat.
Nowadays I cringe when I see bad and even downright DANGEROUS canning advice floating around on the Internet (and sadly there’s A LOT of it out there). Because the last thing you want when you’re canning homegrown and/or homemade food for your family is to make them sick… or worse!
Luckily, canning food is 100% safe so long as you know the few simple rules you need to follow.
If you’re ready to start canning your own food at home so that you always have a pantry stocked with healthy, delicious and SAFE home-canned food to feed your family, ai’m hosting a free webinar this Saturday, July 24th where I’ll be teaching you the 6 simple rules for safe home canning, as well as how to safely tweak and adapt canning recipes, and even how you can take a favourite family recipe and make it safe to can.
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead to save your seat and bring any canning questions you have! I hope to see you there 🙂
You may know him from his popular YouTube channel, @thejustinrhodesshow or like me, you may have first discovered him from his 2018 feature-length documentary, The Great American Farm Tour. Or maybe you’ve been lucky enough to have met him in person at one of the Homesteaders Of America conferences. Either way, odds are if you’ve been part of the modern homesteading world for any length of time, you’ve probably come across Justin Rhodes and his family before. And if you haven’t, then I'm thrilled to be the one to introduce you to the man of the hour!
A self-proclaimed "apron-wearing, permaculture chicken ninja-master," Justin opens up his permaculture homestead to almost one million people every week through his YouTube channel and inspires people to live a more sustainable and abundant life through homesteading, and specifically, through implementing permaculture principles and practices to their own homesteads in order to work smarter, not harder and produce more with less input.
He sat down with me for the permaculture issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine to talk more about his own personal philosophy and approach to homesteading, work and life in general, and to help break down the principles of permaculture into practical steps and concrete examples that anybody can understand and use to lessen their own workload while increasing their yields, and to bring a little bit of permaculture to their own homesteads, no matter how big or small.
Check out the video version of my interview with Justin on YouTube (link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://youtu.be/Ip2ymf9q_J8 to watch), OR read the full print interview with Justin, plus get access to even more exclusive content by subscribing to Modern Homesteading Magazine! Link in bio or go to thehouseandhomestead.com/magazine to subscribe for free and get the latest issue delivered straight to your inbox!
Have you ever gleaned food before??
If you're not familiar with gleaning, it's basically the act of harvesting and collecting excess or unwanted crops so that they don’t go to waste. Historically, gleaning was actually considered a human right in parts of Europe and the middle east. In fact, the right to glean was even written into the Old Testament!
It was common practice to leave the excess crops in the field for the poor and peasant class to come glean, and in 18th century England it was the legal right of those without enough land of their own to grow food, to glean the fields of local farms after the majority of the crops were harvested. Similar laws existed in France too at the time.
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Luckily gleaning is making a comeback in communities across North America and the world, and community food recovery programs are popping up all over to facilitate the process.
Every summer our family teams up with one of our local food organizations (@lushvalley) to glean unwanted food from around our community. Farmers and private owners will call to say they have crops that they need help harvesting, or a fruit tree or a grapevine that's dropping fruit that they don't want, and then a team will come out to glean it. In the end, the gleaners keep a portion of the food, the owner keeps a portion (if they want it) and the rest goes to local food banks and to those in the community who need it most.
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I remember being so nervous when I canned my very first batch of applesauce...
It was the first thing I ever canned at home, and I was sure I was going to get botulism and die if I ate it, or worse, that I would feed it to my 6-month old daughter and she would get botulism and die and my life would be over.
This might sound a little crazy for a seasoned canner who knows what they’re doing, but it’s a legitimate fear for new home canners who don’t yet understand the process.
In the end I did eat it myself, and lived to tell the tale! But I was too scared to feed it to Evelyn until about a year later when I was confident in what I was doing.
Nowadays we can hundreds of jars of food every year, both with our water bath canner and our pressure canner. But if you're just starting out, water bath canning is the way to go. It's easy, it doesn't require a lot of special equipment, and there are sooo many foods that can be water bath canned and preserved for the winter!
Jams, jellies, pickles, pie fillings, sauces and salsas, fruits and fruit butters... The possibilities aren't exactly endless, but there are enough recipes to keep you going for a long time without ever getting bored.
Now is the time to learn how to can if you haven't yet! I'll be opening the doors to my canning course next week, but in the meantime, click the ink in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/water-bath-canning-beginners/ to get started!
🧺 I've heard some horror stories about homemade laundry detergent.
Many people claim that homemade laundry detergents are either bad for your clothes, bad for your washing machine, or both. I’ve read many articles that claim homemade laundry soaps and detergents either don’t work (ie. leave clothes looking and smelling dirty), have discoloured people’s clothes (leaving whites yellow and colours looking dull), or left soap residue in the fibres of clothes. Some say it even ruined their washing machines, specifically front loaders and HE washing machines.
Not to mention the many online sources that claim that if your washing machine goes on the fritz during your warranty period and you’ve been using homemade laundry detergent, your warranty will be void.
On top of all of that, borax -a common ingredient used in homemade laundry detergent- has been called into question for safety reasons, as it can be toxic and even deadly if ingested or used indicated on skin.
It's enough to scare you away from ever trying to make your own laundry detergent at home 😱
However, I’ve been making and using homemade laundry detergent for about 2½ years now, and not only have I never had a problem with the recipe that I use, our clothes are as clean as ever, and our brand new (as of three years ago) Electrolux-brand HE front loader washing machine still runs perfectly well and has no built up soap residue.
Since we started making our own, we’ve easily saved a few hundred dollars on store-bought laundry detergent, which is honestly the biggest reason why we make our own at home.
I've been getting requests from readers for a homemade laundry detergent recipe for years now, but I wanted to find one that I was happy with before sharing. I can say with full confidence that I am very happy with the recipe I'm sharing with you today, but I can only say what has worked for me and my family. I implore you to do some research on the pros and cons of homemade detergent before making your own.
That being said, if you do decide to make your own, this is a great recipe! Link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-recipe/
I sent a pretty vulnerable email out to my readers last weekend…
(Post 1/2)
I admitted that I spent my Sunday morning “crying in my coffee” because I feel like I’m really struggling in the garden this year; Moreso than any other year.
Our beans have been decimated multiple times by pill bugs (they even outsmarted my Diatomaceous Earth AND peppermint oil applications by resorting to eating the bean sprouts underground before they even had a chance to sprout!). Our cucumbers and squash are growing at a snail’s pace, and I’m still troubleshooting to figure out why. We’ve just overcome blossom end rot on our zucchinis and have yet to even taste one (normally they’re big enough to beat someone over the head with already). And I suspect the heatwave put a stop to our broccoli production, because we’ve got big leafy plants with no offshoots, and heads that were smaller than my fist this year.
We’ve had more plants eaten and ravaged by soil problems, disease and extreme temperature fluctuations than we’ve ever had before. The weeds were worse than they’ve ever been this spring (we finally got those under control with a lot of cardboard and mulch), and we’ve yet to really see a decent harvest from any of our vegetable crops.
BUT, the challenges we’ve faced this year have forced me to grow as a gardener, try new and innovative ways of dealing with problems, learn more about soil health, how to fix the issues we’re dealing with now and how to hopefully prevent these issues from being a problem in the future.
They’ve also made me grateful for what is working and for the crops that have produced. Many nearby farmers and gardeners lost their berry crops in the heatwave this year, but miraculously our strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are doing better this year than even before. Our herbs have done great and will provide us with more than we need for the year. Our peas were slow to start but did well in the end, basil and greens are going strong and we’ve got the most beautiful echinacea flowers in bloom right now from seeds we planted last year.
We also have our own compost for the first time ever.
(Continued in comments).
*** CONTEST CLOSED ***
Congratulations to our winner @suzi.mayhem !!! Check your DMs for a message from me on how to claim your prize!
🍀Are you feeling lucky???
Because it’s time for a GIVEAWAY!!!
To celebrate Modern Homesteading Magazine’s upcoming two-year milestone, and in appreciation of our current sponsor @planttherapy (my favourite essential oils company in the world), we’re giving away a one-year membership level subscription to Modern Homesteading Magazine, which includes unlimited access to our entire digital library of issues, PLUS a 7&7 Set of essential oils from Plant Therapy.
To enter:
✨Like this post
✨Make sure you’re following @thehouseandhomestead and @planttherapy
✨Tag as many friends as you like below who might also be interested in this giveaway (every person you tag = an entry to win!)
✨Share this post to your IG Stories for a bonus entry!
You know the drill 😉
Contest ends Wednesday, July 14th at midnight PST. Winner will be announced on July 15th.
In the meantime, if you haven’t yet subscribed (for free) to receive new issues of Modern Homesteading Magazine straight to your inbox, head to the link in my bio to subscribe OR become a member and get access to all past issues right away! (If you win and you’re already a member, you can either choose to get your next year free once your membership is up for renewal, or you can gift your membership to a loved one:)
And if you wanna get your hands on the 7&7 Set (or any other Plant Therapy set), now is the time because right now you can save 20% on all Plant Therapy sets for a very limited time. Just enter code SETS20 at checkout OR enter code HOMESTEAD to get 10% off everything else site wide!
Links in bio @thehouseandhomestead to check out all of the above ☺️
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour!
🍒 July is synonymous with cherries, and that means CHERRY PIE!!!
But there’s only so much cherry pie one can eat on hot summer days. So instead, why not preserve some cherry pie filling to enjoy all year long!
This recipe for cherry pie filling includes full waterbath canning instructions so you can have your pie and eat it too, at any time of year!
Recipe link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/can-homemade-cherry-pie-filling/
Summer pie season (and canning season) has officially arrived 😉
🍔 It took me 33 years to try making my own hamburgers from scratch.
I know, I know… I preach about making everything from scratch, and burger patties are like, entry level.
But if I’m being really honest, I never liked homemade burgers patties growing up. They were always dry and flavourless. My mom would bulk hers up with breads crumbs and huge chunks of onion, hardly any seasoning and then she’d cook them until they were charred and very well done. So when I grew up I found a grocery store brand that I liked and we always just bought those, along with some store-bought buns and called it good.
But as I started making my own mayo and BBQ sauce and pickles and relish and started topping our burgers with homegrown tomatoes and lettuce, I just couldn’t come to terms with the fact that I was using store-bought buns and patties.
Now, don’t get me wrong: we use store-bought burgers as they’re good in a pinch, but we’ve also perfected our homemade burger game, from the patties to the buns to the condiments and everything else in between!
The secret to our homemade patties is using grass fed beef and BACON. And no extra filler, other than seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and Worcestershire sauce).
But what really makes these next level are freshly made homemade hamburger buns! There is nothing like homemade bread of any kind, and hamburger buns are no exception. Plus they’re quicker and easier than you might think to whip together!
Click the link in my bio to get the full recipes for both my homemade Beef & Bacon Burger Patties AND my Homemade Hamburger Buns. You’ll also find links to my Homemade Mayo and Homemade Rhubarbecue Sauce to top your burgers with:)
To BBQ season! And to replacing store-bought everything, one simple recipe at a time;)
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