Baked Kale Chips

Getting your greens…

Our kids have been eating steamed Kale, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, Broccoli and Broccolini, basically from since they started eating solid food. We joke that they’ve already eaten a lifetimes supply in their short lives.

My son recently said that he’s just Kale-ed out, but would love to eat it: Kale Chip style. I had only ever made Kelp chips for my son, which he loves; He craves them from time to time – likely his body telling him he’s getting low on Iodine!

For some reason, however, I never made Kale Chips. I guess because there was never a need – everyone was getting their daily requirement the old fashioned way. About a year ago, my friend brought over some dehydrated Kale Chips and he still remembers liking them to this day.

Since I don’t have a dehydrator (yet!) I decided to make a batch of Kale Chips to see what might happen. I made two batches, because the first batch got over cooked slightly…they’re not great overcooked even by a margin. I tried to push them on my son – “just try one, tell me what you think?”, but he called me on it right away. “Mom, these are burnt”. So with the second batch, I kept watch like a hawk. Some were perfect while others could have used a few more minutes. So I removed the chips that were just right and kept the others on the tray and slid them back into the oven. Watching all the time.

They should look a vibrant green when cooked just right and be crispy to the touch. They still taste great if undercooked – they just lack the crispy chip crunch, fall-apart texture, which are better for storing in an airtight container…if there’s any left for storing that is! Try as I may, the batch gets eaten up before I can ever get them to the container. Not such a bad problem to have. Except, for the fact that it’s me and my husband who devour the batch. My son still prefers the dehydrated Kale Chips…Can anyone recommend a great food dehydrator?

INSTRUCTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

Bunch Organic Kale (Purple Kale, Lacinato Kale [also known as Black Kale or Dinosaur Kale] and Curly Green Kale…are there more varieties?)

Remove Kale from stem – discard stem

Tear Kale into preferred size for chips

Wash Kale

Spin dry with salad spinner or towel dry

In a big bowl drizzle a small amount of Olive Oil – careful not to use too much – 1tsp.(?)

Add a light sprinkling of Sea Salt

Use hands to massage oil evenly over Kale

Lay Kale on a baking sheet (I use parchment on my cookie sheets)

Place in oven

Set timer for 10 minutes

Do Not walk away or get distracted…this is a quick operation

Enough time for clean up or a 4 Minute Tabata…am I being pushy?

By 6 minutes it becomes obvious that Kale is cooking

By 8 minutes most pieces will be ready – at which point I take out the sheet and start checking for done-ness.

And return to oven the ones that need a bit more time.

Watching all the time.