OK, I admit it – as much as I’m into healthy food I wanted everyone to STOP already with the “dark leafy greens”. I hate the way they look in the market – large unwieldy bunches, rugged and raw, tough to chew. Not appetizing…pass.
However, the health benefits are undeniable and no, you’re not going to get too much dark leafiness from your occasional side salad.
Happily, there are lots of recipes online for a little miracle called KALE CHIPS. Not to be confused with the revolting bagged varieties in health food stores, yuck. The homemade version is. however, delicious! And easy to make.
1. Try to find Lacinato kale, it’s nice because it doesn’t have the big tough stalk in the center. This is the one I buy.
2. Rinse it off in the sink and shake it a bit. Don’t dry it, don’t spin it, don’t take the label off. Just rinse and shake. Put it on your chopping block and revel in the ease of cutting the stems off…the nice farmers made it easy! Chop off a couple inches above the label and voila, all the tough stems are gone in one swipe, toss it out.
4. Chop the kale into bite sized – or bigger – pieces, don’t be too perfect about this.
5. Worthy of another blog post, but for now, my roasting fat of choice is GHEE. Ghee can be heated at a very high temp and not turn into a trans fat. Olive oil…the jury’s out. Until they decide, save good olive oil for cold eating – salads, etc. Ghee and coconut oil are safe at high temps plus ghee is a clarified butter so it’s good for lactose intolerant people (the milk fat is removed).
6. Dot some ghee – I just dug a teaspoon into the jar and pushed little bits off with my fingers. Sprinkle kosher coarse salt liberally. These are going to be potato-chip like, so go for it with good salt.
7. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10 minutes. Pull out and stir – use tongs to get the ghee moving around. See how they’ve reduced in size? That’s why those great big bunches shouldn’t scare you, soon you’ll be wishing you had more.
8. Roast another 10 minutes. There will be brown, crispy crunchy pieces and tender dark green pieces. The picture might not do justice to the crispy crunchy/tenderness of these chips, but just trust me on this.
They are addictive and incredibly nutritious, fast, cheap, and ridiculously easy. Enjoy!