Kale Chips

I can't believe I've never made these before. It's not like I hadn't heard of them or read about them before. It's just that I thought they sounded - I don't know - like they were hard to make.

Kale tossed in olive oil + Mom in the background

Boy howdy was I wrong about that. Wash the kale, toss it in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 15-20 minutes. So, so easy. It comes out thin, crispy and delicious - kind of like potato chips - only not really. And more delicious. I'm so glad my mom suggested making them - and I'm glad we had fresh kale from KCCUA's transplant sale.

giant kale chips

We tried crumbling our kale chips into our popcorn, as per someone's suggestion on Smitten Kitchen. It worked okay, but we couldn't make it stick. In truth, I was happy with the Kale Chips alone. They don't need anything else to make them great.

Here's the recipe from Smitten Kitchen who, remarkably, doesn't like kale (?!)

Baked Kale Chips
Adapted from a bunch of inspiring places

1 bunch (about 6 ounces) kale (I used Lacinato or “Dinosaur” Kale but I understand that the curlier stuff works, too, possibly even better)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs. Cut into large pieces, toss with olive oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet (I needed two because mine are tiny; I also lined mine with parchment for easy clean-up but there’s no reason that you must). Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.