I like to think that as my tastes have expanded and matured over the years, that I am willing to try just about anything. While I still believe this is true, I am certainly much more likely to try something that just sounds delicious to start with. Like red wine braised parsnips, or Mexican black beans with cornbread, or raspberry coconut macaroons (hated coconut macaroons as a kid, and raspberries. And anything with dried coconut. But have you tried the coconut pieces from Costco?! They discontinued them from the Halifax Costco and I nearly fainted right in the store when I found out. But I digress...)
Green things are very suspicious to a picky child. They look too much like... plants. Most other colourful veggies appear mildly artificial, and dare I say fun? So despite my now favourite vegetable being brussels sprouts (admittedly with copious amounts of chevre, pecans, and a healthy glug of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup), I retain a healthy distrust of anyone claiming that a very green vegetable is delicious all on its own. Stir-fried in rice, sure. But all by itself?
Right now you might be thinking "well of course you didn't believe that kale could replace delicious potato chips!" Well, I'm going to tell you something that might make us not friends anymore:
I don't care about potato chips.
Now before you freak out, I don't dislike them. I eat them when they're there, at parties and BBQs, or when Hubby unwisely buys a bag on a road trip. But I don't choose them. I see chips as merely dip carriers, and my least favourite at that. I much prefer a tortilla chip, or pita, something extremely neutral and not-so-salty.
Long story long, I don't really care if the kale tastes like chips exactly.
What finally won me over and made me want to try this was first the half-bunch of rapidly wilting kale in my fridge, leftover from various juicing recipes and that stir-fried rice I mentioned. Second, I do love nori, which is really just the same sort of thing, right?
Well I now humbly submit, crispy kale is pretty damn good, although much like when vegetarians try to make "fake-out" meat dishes and convince you they taste just as good, you are not going to love these as a replacement for potato chips, if you have a love on for potato chips. My friend Mike has a potato chip twitter-blog, and I think it extremely unlikely that kale chips will ever make an appearance. But they are a delicious and virtually guilt-free snack, despite the fact that I'm already planning ways to trash them up in my head, like brown butter and cheese...
Crispy Kale Chips
I make my own seasoned salt (recipe below), which I tend to use in (savoury) recipes as if it was table salt. If you don't have seasoned salt or prefer not to use it, reduce the salt by at least half and add 1/4 tsp of seasonings of your choice (paprika, garlic, and chili would be my choices).
Yield: 2-3 servings
Ingredients:
4 gently packed cups trimmed kale (remove stems and tear roughly)
about 2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375F; toss kale leaves with olive oil and seasoned salt until well coated (an oil sprayer would help tremendously with this, and probably reduce the already minimal fat content even more. If you care about that kind of thing. I don't. The meaning of life is food.)
- Lay kale leaves on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Try not to overlap or crowd them, you want good air circulation. If you have a baking rack, use it in place of the parchment.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until crispy but not browning. If your oven has hot spots, make sure you rotate the sheet halfway through to prevent burning. It's a fine line friends...
- Allow to cool completely before transferring to a bowl. Snack away!
Seasoned Salt
Ingredients:
3
Tablespoons Sea Salt
1 ½ teaspoons
Paprika
¾ teaspoons
Turmeric
¾ teaspoons
Onion Powder
¾ teaspoons
Garlic Powder
½ teaspoon
curry
¾ teaspoon
mustard
¾ tsp
coriander
½ teaspoons
Arrowroot Powder or cornstarch
Directions:
Stir everything together in a small bowl and transfer to spice jar (preferably airtight) for storage.
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