Kale Chips fo’ real
Kale is a wonderful, amazing, yummy vegetable packed with nutrients with so many different preparation possibilities. If you love Kale, I swear you’ll become addicted to these Kale chips. If you think you don’t like Kale, you haven’t had it “your” way yet so just promise me you’ll give this a whirl. Kale can be great raw, steamed, sauteed, marinated in a dressing or baked into chips – and EVERY form tastes different. So before you knock it, try it!
I’ve found quite a few Kale recipes out there but none of my chips ever turned out quite right and by “right” I mean light, crispy and bright green. Well, I figured it out – here is my recipe with the secrets that other recipes have not yet figured out…
Ingredients:
2 bunches of Kale
- you will usually see 2 types at the store, either 1. Lacinato or “dinosaur” Kale or 2. Curly Kale. Either one will work for this recipe, although most of my friends and family claim to love the shape and texture of the Dinosaur Kale.
1-2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
sea salt to taste
options and variations
- you can try other spices and experiment with flavor. I’ve tried sprinkling Cayenne or Jalapeno powder on them for a spicy version. You could also try a little cumin, brewers yeast (gives it a cheesy texture while providing extra B vitamins), pepper, etc. I recommend starting simple for the first batch.
The How-To
1) Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees F – if you have a convection bake function, use it. No worries if you don’t!
2) Wash the Kale and shake dry – doesn’t have to be perfect but you don’t want it too wet.
3) Begin by cutting away and removing the firm stalks from the larger Kale leaves. You can leave the stalks of the smallest Kale leaves intact, if tender enough.
4) Cut the Kale leaf perpendicular to the stalk cutting – I usually end up with one larger whole piece and the 2 “tails”
5) Place your Kale pieces into a very large mixing bowl. Add 1 Tablespoon per head of Kale to the mixture. Honestly, you can use slightly less and they are still amazing! Sprinkle with salt to taste.
6) Now, ya dive in! Mix the Kale, Olive Oil and salt by hand. This, in my opinion is totally necessary – it’s fun, it gives you a better connection to your food, AND it’s the best way to evenly coat all the leaves. Mix away until all of the leaves are shiny. At first, you’ll doubt that 1 tablespoon is enough olive oil but as soon as you get in there you’ll see it’s all going to be OK.
7) On a large baking sheet, spread the Kale out evenly. You’ll probably have some overlap, but try to get them as close to one layer thick as possible. You could also separate them into 2 batches but mine usually turn out great even if they are piled a bit too high. Here is when you might add your variation – sprinkle your addition across the chips before the next step.
MMMMMM-K! You’re ready to bake these yummy snacks – HERE IS THE SECRET!
Place the Kale chips in the oven. Ok, part of the secret is the temperature. Most recipes I’ve seen out there have you set the oven to 350 and bake for 20-30min. Well, that temp will result in a quicker cooking time, but you’ll end up with a sort of nasty, brownish, not as yummy or good for you version. So, the temps gotta be 250…maybe 275 if you really feel like getting spunky.
Like I said, it’s not as fast…you’re going to want to cook these for 45min-75min depending on your oven.
Here’s the second SECRET —— even on convection bake, I’ve found the moisture released by the Kale will keep things a bit too wet and interfere with your chip-y-ness. So, I like to take something like a hot pad or a wooden spoon to hold the oven door ever-so-slightly ajar (you may need to wedge it into the oven latch to trick it into staying on). This may not be the most efficient thing, but the temp isn’t all that high and the door only needs to be about a 1/2 inch open to let out some moisture.
These chips are pretty low maintenance. In a perfect world, you shuffle and stir them once or twice while you cook them. I have to admit, I’ve gotten distracted by some house project and realized I hadn’t touched them in 45min and they’ve turned out great.
Learn to love Kale, trick your kids into eating something healthy and loving it, trick yourself! This is one of my favorite snacks….hope you enjoy!
An itsy, bitsy crack to let the moisture out = chips!
So, so yummy… thanks for this tutorial!