Edible San Marcos's Blog

By Suzi Fields

1 Lg bunch Kale with mid ribs torn out
1 Red Bell Pepper
1\3 Cup Activated Raw Cashews (soaked in warm water for 4 hours)                                                     Water from soaked cashews
2 Cloves Pressed Garlic
1/2 Lemon Juiced                                                                                                                                                       1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/4 tsp Cayenne
1/16 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1. Wash kale remove mid ribs and dry. The mid ribs are the large veins down the center and they are bitter, get rid of them!   Here is a photo. 
2. The proper way to wash greens is to put them is a pan of water and agitate them this removes the debris in them.  Then you lift the greens out.  You will find dirt in the bottom of the water, that is why you don’t want to pour the water out with the greens in the bowl, you will get the dirt right back in the greens!

1. Now,  put the kale in a large mixing bowl.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix until smooth. Add  just enough water  from the soaked cashews to make the sauce very smooth.   The sauce should taste good.
3. Pour mixture over kale and massage into kale for a few minutes to soften kale. You  will feel the texture change of the kale as the acid from the lemon juice or the vinegar breaks down the kale, it is really amazing. This is what it will look like before you put it in the dehydrator.

4.  Place kale in a dehydrator at 110 degrees for about 6 hours until crisp.  You may use the oven on low setting if you do not have a dehydrator.

This recipe tastes like you are eating nacho cheese chips, it is hard to stop eating them!  They are packed with vitamins and nutrients.  This recipe can be varied greatly. Sometimes I just use the vinegar or I may use cider vinegar, or just lemon juice.  This time I only had orange peppers in the garden so that is what I used.  I make this recipe with rapa or collards as well. You can also add nutritional yeast to make it extra cheesy.

Everyone will ask you why it tastes so cheesy, so let me explain.  Many raw foodists or vegans use raw nuts to make a cheese substitute by soaking nuts and then adding lemon juice and olive oil and blending it up.  You can make sour cream and all kinds of yummy things this way.  If you want to know more about this wonderful phenomena just ask me and I will be glad to help you along. So what you are doing is making a seasoned vegan cheese, so to speak and putting it on the kale. Pretty cool stuff!