It’s kale season. Want to know my favorite way to eat kale? Baked Kale Chips!
If you have kale in your garden or CSA box, try this recipe — your family will love it!
Baked Kale Chips make a delicious snack, appetizer or side dish — serve with sandwiches or soup.
Baked Kale Chips
Ingredients
Kale, (1 bunch)
Olive oil (3-4 TBS) — where to buy olive oil
Garlic (3-4 cloves)
Sea salt to taste — where to buy sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional: Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Equipment
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Core kale and rinse and dry leaves.
3. Flatten kale leaves and use the point of a knife to remove tough center ribs.
4. Stack leaves and roll them together, then slice crosswise into one-inch strips.
5. Peel and crush garlic.
6. Place kale in a mixing bowl. Toss with olive oil, garlic and sea salt, making sure leaves are well coated with olive oil.
7. Spread evenly across a large baking sheet.
8. Bake, tossing once or twice, until leaves are crispy but not burned, 2-5 minutes.
9. Optional: sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve.
Photo Credit: Hamburger Helper, on Flickr
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you have a photo of the finished chips?
No I don’t — I’ll try to get one
Hi Ann Marie,
I was just wondering… the directions say “Stack leaves and roll them together, then slice crosswise into chiffonade strips 1/2 inch wide.” but they don’t look like that in the picture – and 1/2″ sounds more like strips then chips to me. Is that part of the directions correct?
Sorry I need to fix that… one sec
We grow kale, and I’m sorry to say a lot of it goes to waste (well, gets fed to the goats as a treat!) because we haven’t tried that many good ways to prepare it. I will use this to spur me to make some more kale chips! Thanks.
I have 6 bunches of kale in my frig right now
I made kale chips last week and just finished them. So good! I’ve seen lots of recipes online with different oven temps and cooking times, but yours is the highest cook time I have seen.
Hi Ann Marie,
Are you aware of the way to make “cheesy” kale chips with fake cheese? This recipe I found uses nutritional yeast and miso:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/cheesy-kale-chips/
I’ve also seen red pepper used.
By the way, I recently published a fun exploration of kale’s history and super-powers! Please check it out and leave a comment if you like it:
http://superhumanfoods.org/2012/11/kale-the-king-of-vegetable-superfoods.html
What is the trick to keeping them crispy after a day or two? I made a large batch, stored them in airtight containers and the next day they were all soggy and limp. The only thing I did different from above was not use garlic. Any suggestions?
I love crispy roasted Kale, but I was told that roasting Kale you lose allot of the good benefits of it.
Does anyone know if this is true?
Take Care,
Annie
That is incorrect. Eating raw kale is actually bad for you — it has a lot of antinutrients. It is best cooked.
Hi AnnMarie,
Thanks for you information.
I know that Raw Kale, and other Raw green veggies have Oxalic Acid which can rob our bones of calcium, and can cause kidney stones etc, and should be steamed etc!
I was just told that roasting Kale does take some nutrient out of Kale.
Just find the info I was wondering about, and Roasting,& Steaming is healthier.
Thought I would pass this little info on.
Goitrogens
For people with hypothyroidism, baking kale, rather than eating it raw, will de-activate a chemical compound in the vegetable that can affect thyroid function. Isothiocyanates, found in all cruciferous vegetables, are a goitrogenic chemical. Goitrogens are chemicals that interfere with thyroid hormone production; but only for people who already have impaired thyroid function. People with normal thyroid function will naturally compensate for the goitrogenic activity of kale.