Thursday, December 08, 2011

Snack of the Moment: Kale Chips

You can call me late to this particular health foodie party.  Kale chip recipes have made the food blog rounds many times and somehow I never grabbed on to the idea until now. I finally remembered to buy kale, remembered to use said kale, and indeed found myself a fun new snack addiction.

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A Twitter survey revealed that the top favourite kale chip toppers are seemingly:  nutritional yeast, cayenne, and sea salt (not necessarily all together!).  I’ve yet to venture on into the health food store to find the ever popular nutritional yeast but I did embrace the other two seasonings and a couple of mix-ups of my own.

Kale Chips Round One: Sesame Soy

  • low sodium soy sauce
  • rice vinegar
  • olive oil
  • sesame oil (just a few drops will do ya)
  • cayenne
  • coarse sea salt
  • toasted sesame seeds

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Kale Chips Round TwoLemon Parmesan

  • fresh lemon juice (citrus helps us absorb the yummy kale vitamins!)
  • white wine vinegar
  • olive oil
  • dried Italian herbs
  • coarse sea salt
  • cracked pepper
  • fresh grated parmesan cheese

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Kale Chips Round Three: Balsamic Rosemary

  • olive oil
  • balsamic vinegar
  • lots of coarse sea salt
  • minced fresh rosemary

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Clearly it’s a drizzle of this and a pinch of that…no strict recipe required.  Just wash and dry your bunch of kale, remove the stems and cut away any tough veins, tear into bite size pieces, and mix in your ingredients.

A few tips though:

  1. Remember to cut out the coarse stem from the kale leaves.  It tastes like tree bark (or so I would think!).
  2. If you want a drier, crispier chip keep the liquid ingredients reigned in.  Too much oil will give you a chewier, more wilty chip.
  3. Massage your marinade into the torn kale leaves by hand.  Thus ensuring equal coating and distribution of fun flavours.
  4. Although you can do a fast bake of these babies at 375 degrees or so, I like to slow bake mine at a super low temp for about 60 minutes.  (Lowest temp on my oven is 180 degrees).
  5. Providing you don’t eat them all within minutes of removing them from the oven, these chippies keep quite nicely in a zipper bag.

What’s your favourite kale chip flavour combo?  It seems to me that the possibilities are truly endless.

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