So you guys, I have to confess something. I am a super picky eater. SUPER picky. I don't want to be, I want to be able to sit down to a huge lettucey salad and think "Mmmm yes please", but I think iceberg lettuce is the most wretched thing there ever was. If you made me eat even one stalk of raw celery, I would sit there in a foot-stomping gagging fit wondering when the nightmare would be over. But ne'er you worry about my vitamin intake because I have a new BFF and their name is kale chips.
When I first heard about kale chips, I was pretty skeptical. I'd had kale before and I didn't hate it but I definitely didn't love it. It was kind of bitter tasting and we just weren't a love match. But despite my pickiness, I'm a "try anything once" (within reason) kinda gal, so a few weeks ago, in the midst of a super delicious dinner at my favorite restaurant, I noticed some crispy kale on my plate and thought it was worth finally determining if these were as delicious as everyone claimed. To my delight, they were. They were amazing. I thought about them for days and finally decided to hunt down a recipe to make some of my own.
There are a lot of recipes out there, and you could really do whatever you want with them, but trust me when I say that they don't need much fancy-ness. This is the basic recipe that I used and it's awesome.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale (any kind) 1 tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Thoroughly wash kale and let it dry completely or you can gently pat it dry with a paper towel.
Once dried, cut the kale, removing the stalks and any big ribs. Make the pieces whatever size you want, but remember that they'll bake down smaller in the oven.
Toss the pieces gently with the olive oil, making sure they're thoroughly coated. Curly leaf kale takes a little more work to get coated, but it's my favorite.
Once coated, lay the pieces down on a couple of baking sheets, lined with parchment paper. They don't have to be super spread out, but don't stack them on top of each other.
Salt and pepper to taste. Don't go crazy, a little salt goes a long way.
Bake at 300 for 20 minutes. If your oven is super lame like mine, turn the baking sheets with about 5 minutes left to make sure they cook evenly. If your oven isn't lame, don't take it for granted.
They're ready to eat straight out of the oven!
Apparently, they don't keep well and get soggy after a while, but I've read that you can put them in a container or baggy with rice at the bottom to keep them crisp. I wouldn't know though, we never have any left after we're done elbowing each other out of the way to get to them.
They're good for your heart, good for your eyes, boost your immune system and they're crazy delicious. Hope you guys enjoy!
