Dehydrated kale flakes are an effortless and nutritious way to preserve nutritious greens and incorporate on your next backpacking trip!
Can you dehydrate kale? It’s a common question – if you are reading this now, you are probably asking that yourself.
Here in Arizona, we have some pretty lovely weather year round. The weather in the fall/winter tends to be much more forgiving than the weather in the summer – as a result, we do a lot of hiking.
One of the biggest challenges I find with hiking is bringing healthy snacks along with. While healthy snacks aren’t quite as exciting as oatmeal pies (thanks Little Debbie…), I have to say I feel a lot better when I’m stuffing my face with dehydrated kale versus pillows of ooey, gooey sugary goodness.
Not that I don’t like oatmeal pies, because I do… but I also feel really yucky if I eat too many of them.
Dehydrating veggies is the best way to have fresh veggies with you wherever you go – and it’s completely possibly to dehydrate kale and have it go along on a hike.
Kale is definitely a superfood, with tons of nutrients. Even more, it’s light to carry and can be added to almost any kind of meal that you make. While fresh kale can spoil pretty fast in your hiking pack on a hot day, once it is dehydrated it becomes invincible.
While kale pesto is definitely a great way to use up an abundance of kale, dehydrating kale is also a wonderful option, too.
Dehydrated Kale Flakes
Dehydrating dark leafy greens is such an easy task – not to mention, very versatile. You can crumble them down and add with salt to make a veggie salt. Or, sprinkle them on your eggs, stir into your pasta or simply rehydrate with a bit of water.
By dehydrating kale, you remove all the moisture from it giving it a chance at survival in even the hardest of temps. Then, go a step further and crumble it into flakes. Don’t worry about smushing kale chips because it’s already broken.
Kids are more likely to eat flaked kale pieces than large leaves (which can be a little more scary to them).
No matter what you make, dehydrated kale can mix right in, and give your food a little extra flavor (and nutrition at the same time).
Do your kids like popcorn? Go a step further and sprinkle your dehydrated kale flakes right on over your popcorn. Or stir it into your scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Dehydrated Kale Flakes
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 130 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.
Nutrition
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Getting ready to try this! Confused though because heading says 5 hours and instructions say 8 hours??
Can be anywhere between 5-8 hours. It all will depend on temp and type of dehydrator.