When I bought my Excalibur dehydrator, I tried the Kale Chips. Neither my husband nor I cared for them at all. I saw a lot of raves for the recipe online, but they just didn't do it for us. I tried assorted methods too...with salt, without salt, brushed with a little olive oil, etc. They came out nice and crispy, but they did not taste good to us, and we generally love kale. I found them slightly bitter, and certainly not a substitute for potato chips!

We do pickled turnips both with and without the added beets. They just look better with the beets added since the turnips don't have much color alone. But you need to like turnips as they have a stronger taste.

We just use the standard Spicy Pickled Beets recipe in the Ball Blue Book but you can use the NCHFP too. You can add some dried hot peppers too for more spice if you like them really hot but we pass on that.

Never tried the kale chips but we do like the zucchini chips with sea salt.

Dave

Dave, how thin do you slice the zucchini? Do you dry them until they are crispy like a potato chip?

Thin as you can. We use the mandoline so they are maybe 1/8" slices. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt - flavor will intensify - and dehydrate @ 135 degrees till snappy crisp.

Dave

re Swiss Chard,

I freeze mine after cooking as follows;

Wash chard. Pull leaves off of stems.

Chop stems fine, gently cook in extra virgen olive oil with chopped onion.

Roll up leaves in tight cigar shape a few at a time, slice thin slices off of end of cigar shape chard leaves.

Chop some garlic.

When stems are starting to get a bit tender, add chopped chard leaves and garlic.

Add fresh ground black pepper, red pepper, bit of sea salt.

When done I like to add crumpled up feta cheese. All ready to top our favorite pizza.

Mix gently.

Freeze in freezer containers, in convenint sizes. Very handy to have on hand.

This is great on home made pizza, with mushrooms, olives,some mottzarela etc. My husbands most requested pizza

I mix up the dough ( I just put warm water in bowel, yeast, salt, and mix in flour, "white" whole wheat is good. Let rise, olive oil on a pizza stone, pat out thin crust, and bake some before putting on topping)

Also wonderful on pasta, with lots of olive oil, black pepper, crushed red pepper, olives, cheeses, like parmesean, romano,roasted or sauted red bell peppers,other vegies. what ever you like or have on hand.

And I just made an omlet with the chard & Feta and mushrooms. Yummy. Cooked the mushrooms in a bit of butter, with a sprinkle of soy sauce, and a slight sprinkle in the chard mix, with just a little swiss cheese.

Jeannie

please excuse spelling :)

Grew chard one year, did everything I could think of to make it palatable. Mother said she tried sileage as a kid once and didn't much care for it. She said the chard wasn't quite as tasty. LOL!!

Steve

I really like swiss chard, but I like most greens. I have a bean recipe that tastes swiss chard and I've used it in place of spinach when making pasta, it comes out a lovely green color.

Unlike Dave, I didn't care for the zucchini "chips", like the kale chips they are NOT a substitute for ptoato chips, no matter what anyone says. They are really good for soup, though, and there really aren't that many ways to preserve zucchini. Some dried sliced to toss into sou in the winter is a good thing, though. I sprinkled mine with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, some got a bacon/smoke flavored salt, some got Penzey's Mural of Flavor. I still didn't care for them just eaten out of hand as a snack.

Annie