Kale Chips

Is your garden simply overflowing with kale? Do you have so much kale that you don’t know what to do with it all?? No? Me neither. But, that was the case for my friend Caitlyn, who recently (and generously) gave me three large, thick stalks of the dark green leafy vegetable.

Having never eaten kale before, let alone cooked with it, I didn’t know what to do with all of it. Luckily, Caitlyn also supplied me with a great idea.

The Recipe

Kale Chips, by Peasants’ Plot Sustainable Farm in Manteno, Illinois

Apprehension Meter

The recipe? Couldn’t look easier. The main ingredient? That’s another story. This was my first ever encounter with kale. I wasn’t sure what it would look like exactly, how it would taste, what the texture would be like… but again, the recipe was so simple that it kept the meter reading pretty low for this one.

Here’s How It Really Went

First of all, the recipe tells you to “de-vein” the kale. I didn’t know you could de-vein something that wasn’t shrimp (although I’ve never done that either), so I took a guess, and I think I got it right.

Starting with three large leaves, I cut the main stem in the center of each leaf out leaving several halves of kale on my cutting board. I then cut, and sometimes tore, those halves into about 1” pieces. Although, I did find out that the leaves cook down quite a bit when they’re in the oven, so if you want bigger chips in the end, don’t hold back!

I added my leaf chips to a bowl, and combined them with a minced garlic clove (even though the recipe says crushed; I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly), olive oil, and salt. I didn’t really consult the recipe very closely when adding the salt and olive oil, thinking that with a vegetable this dark green and this thick, it could probably use a little extra help.

But what I learned was that these hearty leaves wilt and crisp down to a fraction of their size, and using lots of olive oil can really weigh them down. Sticking with what the recipe says, about 1 tablespoon per pound, sounds more like the right amount. Lightly coat them.

I was also surprised to find that I overdid it a little with the salt. The recipe doesn’t say how much to sprinkle on (not that I would have listened anyway), so I went with a few very generous pinches. The final product tasted good, of course, but the taste of the baked kale was so delicious and flavorful on its own that you really don’t need much salt at all. For three large leaves, two medium pinches would have probably sufficed.

I laid the leaves out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and popped them in the oven for about 8 minutes. I could smell them almost immediately, and they smelled fantastic.

I took them out of the oven once they were crispy-looking and a little brown on the edges. After letting them cool for a few minutes (it doesn’t take long because they become so thin) I popped one in my mouth.

And it practically melted. The chips were almost as light as tissue paper, and had a rich, earthy, just-barely-burnt taste, which was complemented well by the garlic and olive oil.

The Verdict

I have to admit, after these turned out so well, I became a little smug. Who else, besides Caitlyn and I, made kale chips? It was something I could name-drop in a conversation with a foodie friend and be the expert. “Oh, you’ve never tried kale chips before? You simply must!”

Well, not that bad, but you get the idea. My swelling ego, however, was deflated this weekend (probably for the better) when I saw Giada De Laurentiis making a fancier version on the Food Network, and did a Google search and saw that SmittenKitchen took on kale chips a good six months before me.

Oh well. What can I say? They’re good. They’re healthy, quick and easy to make, and believe it or not, you really could snack on a bowl of these during a Sunday afternoon football game in place of your Ruffles and French onion dip.