Recently a Coppell Farmers Market customer and committee member asked how Nasser Maz makes his kale chips. The marketing committee went directly to the source to find out.
Maz’s goal is that every ingredient is wholesome in Wholesome Habit’s kale chips because as a health coach certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition every ingredient matters to him. He reports, “I carefully choose what I put in my products. I strongly believe that we should eat organically and absolutely avoid GMO.” (Note: By present FDA labeling, a GMO or genetically modified organism, cannot be certified organic.) Choosing to eat organic is one of the best choices you make for your family because you don’t want to eat all the chemicals they spray on produce and the soil; by consuming organic food you make sure to get the most nutrition from food.
“Sourcing organic ingredients is my biggest challenge since they are not always available and the price is changing all the time. 95 percent of the ingredients I use to produce my kale chips are organic. Also I add freshly ground flax seed and chia seed to make the chips even more nutrition dense. They are more like a meal than chips.”
To make kale chips, he first washes the organic kale, de-stems the leaves, and dries them thoroughly, followed by coating with the varietal additions plus flax seeds and chia seeds. The next step is the manually time consuming gentle massage of the kale leaves until each one is evenly coated with the mixture. (Note: massaging kale leaves is a step in many kale recipes.) The prepared kale leaves are placed on dehydrator trays and air dried at a low temperature for up to 15 hours.
To control the quality of the added ingredients, he even soaks and sprouts the chickpeas, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds used in certain varieties, and personally dries the habanero peppers in the dry powder coating on his Hot Kale Chips. Additionally, fresh bell pepper, fresh ginger, and fresh lime juice accentuate his focus on freshly sourced ingredients. This attention to detail extends to the choice of unprocessed Himalayan sea salt as well. The resulting kale chips are low in calories, high in fiber, have zero fat and are full of nutrients.
Maz explains his production philosophy. “My passion is all about food, cooking, nutrition and the impact of food on our body and mind. Because my father was working for a food production company as well as mushroom farming I had the opportunity to work there as well and become familiar with farming and the food business at a young age.”
After leaving his home country of Iran, he tried various jobs but felt dissatisfied so he “decided to start my own company and study nutrition to be able to produce healthy products. During my health coach study I learned how food can impact your body and health. How important it is to eat ‘whole foods’ that are nutrient dense rather than ‘processed foods.’ Nutrient dense foods provide nutrients for your body such as fiber, vitamins and minerals. Foods can lose much of their vitamins and minerals during the processing, and heating sometimes can change a product to be dangerous to our health.
I have learned and believe that our body needs local, fresh, and non-processed food. Since processing takes essential nutrition from the food, our body doesn’t get as much nutrition as it gets from non-processed foods (such as whole food based). Our body cannot recognize processed food. Whole foods are more likely to protect against disease than processed food. More information can be found on his company website, Wholesome Habit.
Come down this Saturday morning and get your day kicked off! The winter market continues on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays through March, weekly markets resume in April. Hours remain 8 a.m. to noon, rain or shine (but not ice) at 768 W. Main Street in Old Town Coppell.