Day 28: Baked Crispy Kale Chips - April 14, 2013

Does making tasty vegan food get any easier?  Not really! Kale chips.  They are a quick, easy, and tasty.  And, they can be made with dozens of variations to suit every preference.  We wanted to try since lately it seems that kale is the newest super food. Of course, millions of people throughout the world have long recognized the nutritional wealth that kale offers. Not only is kale packed full of vitamins and minerals, it is filling, inexpensive, and beautiful.  It can be added to almost any dish on the menu, and can be cooked by itself or with other ingredients in a multitude of different ways.  Baking it into chips seemed like a good fit for this versatile vegetable.

Since these are made differently each time, we are going to list the most basic ingredients without amounts.  You will have to judge the amounts for yourself.  Also, you can add spices and seasonings that you like;  you can add salt, pepper, garlic, hot chili pepper flakes, or anything you want.  You can put  sesame seeds to make the chips look pretty, or you can leave them plain.  You can even choose different types of kale to achieve different looks and different textures.

We used curly kale, but many recipes that we have seen called for Lacinato Kale (a.k.a. dinosaur kale) which is more flat leafed and straight.  There is red kale if you like to mix up the colours, and the spear leaves which allows the chips to be held with the hand and eaten.  We would like to make a note that the curly kale is the most common one in the grocery stores, and makes an interesting presentation when baked.

For this recipe, you will need the following:


Kale leaves
oil
soy sauce
coarse salt
sesame seeds

If you are doing the very strict fasting without oil, then you can eliminate it from this recipe without any changes to the rest of the recipe.

Use whole kale leaves.  You may want to take off the hard, fibrous stem, because for many, that is not so appetising and no so chewable.  If you leave it on, the chips will be more firm and be able to be held in the hand and eaten around the stem.  We chose to cut off the thickest part of the stem, but  leave the leafy part connected to the stem completely in tact.  For each type of kale, this decision may be different.  Wash and dry the kale leaves.  They should be dry before adding the ingredients.

Put the kale into a bowl.  To the kale, add oil, soy sauce, and coarse salt.  Just sprinkle some in the bowl so it looks like it will coat all of the kale leaves.  If you think you need a little less salt because of the soy sauce, then add less.  It really is personal preference.

Mix the ingredients very well.  Use your hand;  that way you can make sure that the leaves get coated on all sides and into the ruffles of the leaves.  Using a spoon may not be as effective in mixing, and it is fun to put your hand in the mixing bowl!  Make sure all is even distributed around the kale leaves.  You will see the smattering of soy sauce and salt all over the leaves.  That will help you know that everything is coated well.

Open up each kale leaf and lay it flat onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  You need to use parchment paper as it prevents sticking!  When we tried this with just a cookie sheet and pan spray, the kale burned and stuck to the pan. With the parchment, there was no sticking, nor was there any burning.  Have your cookie sheet lined with parchment ready and lay out each leaf as flat and closely as you can.

Then, if you want to decorate the kale, sprinkle the sesame seeds over the kale.  The seeds will stick well to the leaves since they are already coated with moisture from the oil and the soy sauce.  Because sesame seeds are optional, you may choose to omit this step.

Now, slide your kale into the oven that was already preheated to 350° F.  Bake them for 10 minutes to start.  They will take more time than this, but start with 10 minutes.  Then, we continue baking for more time checking the chips every 5 minutes until they are as crispy as we want them.  For us, this tray took a total of 25 minutes.  The next pictures show what the kale looked like each time we checked.

Kale after 10 minutes

Kale after 15 minutes 

Kale after 20 minutes. (still a little soft.)

Kale after 25 minutes.  Perfect!

The brown colour is mostly from the soy sauce.  The sesame seeds do look nice with their toasted colour.  In fact, we thought the look of these kale chips were reminiscent of the dried seaweed snacks that are sold in the markets.  Allow the chips to cool some before transferring them  to a serving plate.  Be careful, the kale chips are fragile!  And, depending on the type of kale you chose, some will be more fragile chips than other types.

Serve warm kale chips as an appetiser or as a side dish.  Perhaps you will choose to have them as a snack by themselves.  Any way you enjoy them, enjoy them.  And, enjoy getting a healthy dose of vitamins A, K and C.

When we served these at dinner, a few of the chips were very salty.  A few of the chips were perfect.  They were all crunchy and light. But, we want to make better, more uniformly flavoured chips.  So, we decided that the next batch of these that we make, we will combine the oil, soy sauce and salt in a bowl, beat it so it is somewhat emulsified, then add the kale leaves to the liquid.  If we mix the liquids first, there should be a more even distribution of flavour over the entire leaf.   We would also want to add a little dill and/or garlic.  That would really enhance the flavour of the kale and bring such a delightful kick to the taste.  Regardless, these kale chips were a crispy little treat that we can enjoy any time without hesitation.

"Someone who does not think of himself but thinks constantly of others, in the good sense, will be thought of constantly by God; and then, others will also think of him.  The more one forgets himself, the more God remembers him."

Elder Paisios the Athonite