I’ve heard rumors of “tasty” kale chips – just as delicious as potato, and so I thought I should give it a go this weekend. The results? They need some developing. Eric, the fiance, loved them “as is”, but for me it wasn’t quite there. Here’s what I did recipe wise.
Ingredients
Most of one head of organic, local kale
Organic Olive Oil – a drizzle
Sea Salt and 4 color pepper to taste
*I did not preheat my oven totally. I let it go for about 4 minutes, then threw them in there. I don’t know if this helped or hindered my process. I set it for 300.
1. Wash kale well and fully dry – otherwise they won’t be crispy. I laid mine out on paper towels, and patted dry every 5 or so minutes. Took about 20 minutes overall until I felt they were good.
2. Rip the kale leaves from the center stalk at the bottom. You can leave the little central vein at the top, but anything thicker than about 1/8 of an inch, discard (or feed to your chickens!). My bigger pieces were tastier. Put in a large bowl.
3. Drizzle kale with olive oil. Toss with tongs gently until coated.
3. Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Place the kale leaves on the sheets, preferably with no leaves touching one another. If they overlap they lose the crunch.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Since this was my first attempt I wanted to keep it simple to see how they would taste relatively unencumbered. I will say though, that I think there may be some better options here. Maybe curry, chili powder, or garlic next time.
5. Bake until crispy, checking occasionally. Mine cooked relatively evenly, so I pulled them all after just 20 minutes. A few were a tad too crunchy though, so consider pulling done ones in batches. I will consider this for the future.They will be light as air when finished, nearly floating off of the trays.
Overall, I felt these were not OK on their own. Eric gobbled them down like candy though, so there is some merit to just salt and pepper. I got bold, and made a dipping sauce out of what was around. The sauce was good anyway, but would have been better with 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup mayonnaise instead of all mayo. With the sauce I assisted in eating nearly a whole head of kale in minutes.
1/2 cup Smart Balance Mayo
1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tsp fresh dill
1/2 tsp garlic granules/powder
Salt and pepper TT
Mix it all up and dip!
kelynskitchen 
I fell in love with kale chips a couple summers ago when my CSA had tons of kale. I started adding sesame seeds, garlic salt, Old Bay, celery salt or seed, oregano and curry (not all on the same batch!) or tossing the kale pieces in soy sauce before baking.
Small Pond – amazing suggestions, thank you! So excited to try soy and sesame! 🙂
i love kale chips!!! just had you have to eat them asap and can’t really store them 😦
You can store them in wax paper bags for a short period. And really – how hard is it to demolish a head of kale in chip form? 🙂