A few days ago, I had a large bag of curly kale in the fridge and was a bit stuck for ideas on how to use it all up. I had seen kale crisps (kale chips for the Americans out there) mentioned on a couple of blogs recently so decided to give it a try. I’ve made a quick tutorial to in order to spread the kale love; after making these crisps I will never be stuck with kale in the fridge again, in fact I can’t wait till they appear in my veg box so I can make them again!
If you’ve not tried kale before it’s a really pretty type of cabbage, which comes in green or purple. I used green curly kale.
Take each kale leaf and strip the stalk out, then cut into bite size pieces. I found that the easiest way to do this was to cut the stalk out with a sharp knife then tear the leaves up by hand. The stalks can be discarded.
Wash the leaves, then dry as thoroughly as possible, using a salad spinner if you have one. If you don’t, try patting it dry with a tea-towel or some kitchen roll. You’ll need the kale to be as dry as possible in order to crisp them up.
Once the kale is dry, spread it out over an oven tray or two, then drizzle with a little olive oil and some seasoning to taste. I just used salt & pepper, but you could try seasoning this with pretty much anything that comes to mind.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C (Gas mark 4/350°F) for 5 minutes, then check every couple of minutes until they are done. They should be brown and crispy round the edges and feel crispy to touch. If your oven is anything like mine, you’ll probably have to retrieve the outside ones first as they are cooked then put the others back to finish off.
Here is my finished bowl of kale crisps, a few of them were brown all over but still tasted great.
They were so good, I had to hide a portion for Small Child’s lunch the next day, and the rest vanished swiftly! Do leave a comment if you’ve made these and can recommend any tasty seasonings; I have a feeling they’ll be on the menu in our house again sometime very soon.
Grace
Ludicrous Mama says
I save the stems for blending into smoothies. Makes them somewhat gritty, but I’m eating it for the nutrition, not as a dessert substitute!
I hear melted butter and minced garlic is DIVINE! I’ve only tried olive oil and garlic powder, as I’m much lazier!
Thank you for linking up at Tried-It-Tuesday!
Melissa says
Delicious! Can’t either child or hubby to try them though – something to do with them being green I think. Oh well more for me
Teresa says
My daughter made some to go with a sandwich for lunch & we loved them. Very moreish, in fact when we had finished the we were looking round for more. We will definitely have them again.