Kale is one of the easiest vegetables to dry for winter. When I first started drying greens for the winter, I dutifully blanched every last quart of harvested, washed, chopped, and sorted greens. But that extra work and mess creates lots of dishes and takes a lot of time.
I always had lots of dried fruit in our winter food storage but not so many vegetables. And I always said, next year will be different.
Did you know that dried kale and kale chips are the new superfood? My English neighbour says that Kale is just livestock fodder, but the scientists, like Dr.
Mercola , would argue with him. In fact, Kale is getting so much press these days, that what used to cost less than a head of cabbage is now more costly than winter lettuce. Check out Kale in the produce section in February. I even saw frozen Kale for the first time in my grocery store yesterday. This is true. Do the math. But you can make your own dried kale at home from Kale you grow yourself. In fact, many of the health benefits of Kale are diminished when the leaves are cooked.
But you really need to get a dehydrator if you want to do large batches and have a winter supply. This is the dehydrator I recommend. Pick the Kale in its prime. The sugars in the Kale deepen its flavour, replacing the bitterness of summer kale.
Discard any insect eaten, slimy, or brown leaves. The red leaves are fine. And the dark green leaves are also good to use. The deeper the colour the better — more antioxidants and more chlorophyll. Wash the leaves well. If you see any holes in the leaves, evidence of cabbage butterfly caterpillar damage — those little green broccoli worms — soak the leaves in cold water for an hour. Any hitchhiking worms will curl up and drop off into your kitchen sink.
Dry the leaves by draining them in a colander or on a dish rack, for a brief period. On your cutting board, with a sharp knife the one I use , remove the heavy central rib from each leaf. The central rib is fibrous and difficult to dry. Skip to content Recipes Cookbook Resources About. Search for:. Dehydrated Kale Flakes. Ingredients 2 bunches kale or other dark leafy greens, cleaned and de-ribbed.
Tools Food processor Dehydrator. Method Place greens in a single layer on your dehydrator trays, filling as many trays as needed I fill 4.
You may need to break up the leaves into smaller pieces to get them to fit like puzzle pieces. Turn dehydrator on at degrees and dry until leaves are crisp, between 8 and 10 hours. Calories 64 kcal. Author Sheryl. Equipment Dehydrator. Ingredients 1 bunch kale rinsed and patted dry. Instructions Place your greens on a single layer on your dehydrator trays. If needed, break off some of the pieces to get them all to fit on the trays. Dehydrate your kale at degrees for 8 hours or until the kale is dry and crispy.
Crumble the kale and add to a ziploc bag. If you desire kale salt, place the kale in your spice grinder and whizz to a fine powder. Combine 2 parts kale with 1 part salt and store in a spice jar. Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Print. Comments Getting ready to try this! Can be anywhere between hours. What I do love, though, is not wasting food! And as much as I try not to be wasteful, sometimes the amount of kale in my fridge can be a little overwhelming. Especially if I bought a big bag or maybe got a little overly excited at the farmers market!
Kale really is a powerhouse of nutrients and a ranking superfood. The thing about kale is, although for a green it stores petty well and keeps for several days or longer in the fridge, as it ages, it dulls in color and while still perfectly good, becomes more bitter in taste. If you have a food dehydrator, of course, you can use that, but if you have a lot of kale, you could literally be drying for days! The oven is quite a bit faster and really does a great job, and gives you perfectly dried kale to add to your smoothies or other concoctions.
Try sneaking dried kale into some of your standard recipes! Since kale dries up to practically nothing and can be crumbled up, it takes very little room once dried and can be stored in a jar, at the ready.
Oven-Dried Kale will keep literally for months, maybe years, but since I have gotten in the habit of drying smaller amounts at a time when I have too much kale to reasonably use, I just keep using what I have. Speaking of washing, one of the easiest ways is to submerge your kale in water; sometimes I see people say to fill up the sink. Never, never do that!
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