At the beginning of this gardening season, I gave my four year old a bunch of half-used seed packets that had been languishing in my seed box. (Oh, the seed box… a topic for another post.) I buy seeds compulsively, similar to someone with hoarding issues might, I suppose. I have a (relatively) small garden, so there is no way that all those seeds could be used. So… my son gets the extras and his own raised bed. The results have been somewhat astonishing. His crops seem to do 2x a good as mine, despite his haphazard planting style. (Think carrots all planted in one big pile rather than neatly aligned in rows.)
At this point, after a successful harvest season that included gorgeous carrots, beans, and spinach (not to mention assorted flowers)—his bed is almost entirely kale. I’m not even a huge kale lover, so I’ve been at a loss as to what to do with all the kale.
When I saw this recipe for kale chips, I was quite skeptical. Kale chips? It seemed counter intuitive to what I know about kale, but I decided to give it a whirl. The recipe is oh-so-simple:
Cut the stems from the kale and arrange on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. (The first time I skimped on salt, but from now on will be more generous.) Bake at 350 for about ten minutes, long enough for the edges to brown but not turn black.
The result is astonishingly chip-like. Kind of like eating salted air. Hard to explain, but tasty, and a great use for all the excess kale in the garden (Next time, I think I’ll try them with a bit of freshly grated parmesan.)
Whoa! Despite never having eaten kale before, this recipe actually looks really interesting! I can’t imagine how it tastes. It goes against most of my cooking knowledge to roast greens but if I happen to run across some kale, this would be fun to try. Thanks for sharing!
Over a year later and I stumbled across this again, ironically, just days after making Kale Chips for the first time. I found them to be pretty good–as long as they are cooked long enough to be crunchy. Reminded me of roasted broccoli. I had found a bunch for sale at a local farmer’s market.and I remembered that a while back you posted about how you don’t always wash your vegetables unless there was visible dirt. Well, I didn’t wash the Kale. It looked clean and since most farmers there were local and organic I chanced it. It turned out just fine. In fact, had I washed it it might have turned out soggy unless I dried it excessively.
Anyway, I even got my picky roommate to try them and she liked them well enough to eat a few more! I’ll always be grateful to the post that introduced me to Kale Chips!
Laurel–so good to hear from you!!! I am glad you enjoyed this recipe. I was just saying to a friend today that I think dirt on vegetables makes them taste better. 😉