Crispy Kale Chips

[fitfool]

For a while there, it seemed to be all the rage to post Crispy Kale photos. It sounded intriguing but I just filed it away in the Recipes To Try folder. My boyfriend doesn't care much for kale, you see. So we got spinach instead for our leafy greens. But then last summer I saw kale chips being sold for $8 for a small box and remembered that I had seen lots of posts online about making them at home. So a few more months later, I finally tried it. Yum! When I finally got around to trying the recipe, just as so many of those other food bloggers had written, my thought was "I'm sorry I waited so long to try this!" Just a very light crispy texture that melts away in your mouth. After the first batch, I learned to serve it up with each of us getting our own bowl so we didn't fight over the last bites.

Made this for my sister's family too when I visited her. Her husband hadn't eaten kale before and found he loved it. Even before we had popped it into the oven, he tried a piece of the oiled kale and liked eating it raw. I don't really like kale until it's been cooked but this seems like a great recipe for winning over people who say they don't like kale. Or maybe good for using the kale that keeps showing up in your CSA box.

For my first batch, I forgot the chipotle powder so I used salt and a few squeezes of lime juice and that enough to get us hooked. I remembered chipotle powder for the second batch and that adds good measure of heat to this snack.

The trickiest part is baking them long enough to get everything uniformly crispy but then not so long that it burns. It's a very fine line between almost-done and irredeemably burnt. Seems to be important to keep them in a single layer. It might also be helped by making the pieces more of a consistent size. Is smaller better than bigger? Not sure on that. Apparently you can make the pieces too small. My sister tried using the ready-washed and cut bags of kale at the grocery store and those burned. Maybe she could've used them if she had pulled them out of the oven sooner.

Crispy Kale Chips

1/2-1 bunch of clean and dry kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces (remove any tough stems)
1-2 Tb. olive oil
1-2 large pinches of spicy seasoned coarse salt- see above
juice from 1/2 lime (or to taste)- optional

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
   
   
2. Drizzle some oil over the kale and "massage" it into the leaves. I like to rub the leaves with my fingers until they are uniformly shiny green. The kale I used for this post was an unusually large bunch. I’d say I used half the bunch and 1-2 tablespoons of oil.
   
   
3. Next, you’ll want to spread your oiled kale onto a sheet pan…
   
   
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Bake until the edges are just crispy, but the kale is still quite bright green. Do not overcook! I've even started checking on the batch in 15 minutes and taking out the pieces that are already done.
   
   
5. Season the kale chips as soon as you take them out of the oven:
   - Sprinkle with a few pinches of spicy salt and then squeeze on the optional lime. (To make spicy salt, mix 1 tsp of coarse sea salt with a pinch of ground chipotle powder.)
   - Or if you don't like spicy, just sprinkle with some salt a few squeezes of lime juice
   
   
6. Enjoy! I have no idea how long you can store these since we usually finish the batch within minutes.
   

Original Recipe:
http://blog.healthy-green-lifestyle.com/spicy-crispy-kale-with-lime.html

Cross-posted to vegrecipes: http://vegrecipes.livejournal.com/1726171.html

Other posts about baked crispy kale:

• Jaden’s Crispy Kale - http://steamykitchen.com/6926-crispy-kale-recipe.html
  
• Not Derby Pie’s Kale Chips - http://www.notderbypie.com/crispy-kale-chips/
  
• Vegan Visitor’s Roasted Kale - http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/crispy-roasted-kale/
  
• The Kitchn’s Crispy Kale - http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/ingredients-vegetables/unmeat-how-to-eat-a-bunch-of-kale-in-one-sitting-078886
  
• Monica Bhide’s Chaat Masala Kale Chips - http://www.monicabhide.com/my_weblog/2010/01/chaat-masala-kale-chips-january-2010.html
  

Comments

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

I've been in love with kale for years now and have roasted and baked kale in various forms. I've made kale chips a few times. One new kale chip recipe I want to try I got from a friend of mine who eats raw. Her recipe is similar to the baked versions, only she dehydrates hers. I imagine this would maintain even more of the kale's good properties and taste similarly good. But I must investigate.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Ooh...I've toyed with the idea of getting a dehydrator. I wanted to take homemade just-add-water meals with me when I went camping.