Kale Chips — Easy, Good and Good For You
Back in 2009, I did a newspaper column with a recipe for kale chips. I predicted that kale was becoming an “in” superfood. That column was pretty much ignored, as kale was barely on the radar. Fast-forward a few years, supermarkets are selling kale chips at $5 for a small bag. Health food markets sell powdered kale and kale drinks. There are recipes for sauteed kale, kale au gratin, kale pizza, etc. and recipes for sauteed kale, kale au gratin, etc.
Kale is definitely in the superfood spotlight right now, and deservedly so. According to an article on WebMD one cup of chopped kale contains 33 calories and 9% of the daily value of calcium, 206% of vitamin A, 134% of vitamin C, and a whopping 684% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds.
But I wonder how long the kale love affair will last. Ditto Greek yogurt and quinoa — two other current health-food darlings. Those who have been around awhile might remember the oat bran craze of the late ’80s, when studies linked oat bran to lowered cholesterol levels. Suddenly the market had enough oat bran products to choke a horse — oat bran doughnuts, anyone? Pretty soon people were sick of oat bran and moved on to the Next Magic Bullet.
Instead of these crazy, short-term love affairs with certain foods, I’d like to see more of a long-term friendship where we are OK with eating kale, quinoa, Greek yogurt, pomegranate, or olive oil on an occasional basis, not overkill. And, I have foodie friends who are going to be really happy when the kale craze is over!
One of my favorite soup recipes, Presto Zuppa Toscana, uses 4 cups of chopped kale. It’s a riff on the Olive Garden soup. I’ve never bought kale chips in the store, so I don’t really know if they’re the same as my homemade recipe. Mine are crispy, but fragile and brittle. I think they would disintegrate into crumbs if packaged in bags. I like them, but they are an acquired taste.
When my husband tried these, he said, “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever tasted!” He did ask for one more bite, though. I used the curly-leafed kale for this batch of chips. My friend, chef Letty Flatt, has a recipe for Crispy Roasted Kale using Tuscan kale, with flatter leaves. Either way, they are pretty simple to make.
12 large kale leaves, rinsed
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 250°F. Fold the kale leaves in half, and cut out the large stems with a chef’s knife. Arrange leaves in single layer on 2 large baking sheets and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss the leaves lightly with your hands to spread the oil evenly, and then arrange the leaves so they are back in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until crisp, about 30 minutes for flat leaves and up to 33 minutes for wrinkled leaves.