I found out about kale chips from Diana at The Chic Life. The first time she posted about them as a side dish and when she came to visit San Francisco, I asked her for the recipe. She gave me the basics: spritz some olive oil, salt and pepper and bake til crispy. Since then I’ve refined a bit more.
Here’s the illustrated version of the recipe.
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
Start with some nice, crisp, fresh kale.
Tear the leaves off the spine of your kale. I don’t like the hard part. If you like it, then just tear it into small pieces. But I don’t like it so I remove it. Then rinse your kale. I always find some mud and dirt on my kale so I like to give it a good rinse.
Next spread your kale out on baking sheet. I’ve tried it with a non-stick like above and regular as below:
Next we’ll assemble the tasty parts.
I use a spritzer to get the right amount of olive oil on there. Just a light spritzing all over. The first time I put them in a bowl and drizzled olive oil and mixed it all up and they ended up too coated and never really crisped up. So the spritzer works better.
Then I use my electric pepper and salt mills to put a nice layer all over. You could just as easily sprinkle loose salt and pepper.
Finally, it’s time for the flavor. My favorite is to just add turmeric after the salt and pepper. I’ve found this to have the best flavor and turmeric + pepper is a powerhouse anti-inflammatory for the immune system. I’ve also tried oregano and garlic & ginger. The garlic & ginger gave it a kinda asian flavor, and the oregano was just okay.
Then it’s time to pop it in the oven. I put mine in for 22 minutes. You’ll have to play around with yours to figure out what time gives you the crispiness you like.
When they’re done, enjoy! I store them in zip-loc bags. They usually don’t last long in my house — my husband eats them right up — but I imagine they will last at least a week.
Even Minnie tried to get some 🙂
