Kale Chips -- crispy, salty, good for you, and easy to make!
Submitted by SueD on
As of a few days ago, we still had some greens in the garden, particularly kale. Recently, I -- a bit of a "gourmet" potato chip fiend -- learned of kale chips as a healthy way to satisfy our cravings for crispy, salty snacks! There are many, many recipes to be found online, most calling for oven baking, with a few instead calling for a food dehydrator. I experimented a bit with the oven methods, since many people don't have a dehydrator and, also, I figured that baking was likely to give more flavor.
The first step is to cut the heavy stem out from the kale leaves. While some recipes I found suggested using a sharp knife, it turns out that you can tear the kale away from the stem readily. Tear the kale into pieces that will be "bite size" once they're dehydrated. About a 3 to 4 inch dimension seems to work fine.
I washed the kale pieces thoroughly in water, and dried them as well as possible. I used a salad spinner and then blotted them with a towel.
Then, I placed the kale pieces in a bowl, and added some extra virgin olive oil (at least I hope it was EVOO -- mine was from Trader Joes). I massaged the olive oil into the leaves, so that all were as evenly coated as possible. Then, I seasoned them generously with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. The coated kale looks like this:
