Salt & Vinegar Kale Chips
Monday, January 23, 2012 24 Comments Tweet
Kale chips are crazy good. They sound like hippie food, I will not argue with that fact. You may have to go on trust here. We’ve established trust, haven’t we? After all, I am the same person who brought you this moist chocolate cake and those whoopie pies with salted caramel buttercream.
Quite frankly, I could have titled this post “how to eat an entire bunch of kale in under 5 minutes”. Because that’s pretty much what happened.
The kale chips are brought to you by a sale on greens converging with the arrival of a fantastic cookbook in my mailbox – “The Cleaner Plate Club“. Whenever I am asked to review a cookbook, I make it clear that I will not write anything unless I feel the book is something wonderful that my readers would love. This one fits the bill!
The Cleaner Plate Club’s tag line is “raising healthy eaters one meal at a time”.
Let me digress a moment and say that I am a skeptic when it comes to kid-focused healthy cookbooks, as I am very firmly against hiding spinach in brownies, which is sadly the going trend. Kids are smart, they will catch you. Deceiving children in this way only confirms to them their belief that vegetables are horrible things to be avoided, and does nothing to establish a healthy relationship with food. It is a band-aid solution at best. And why would you violate a perfectly innocent brownie like that?!
The Cleaner Plate Club is aligned with the approach I take in my practice when it comes to feeding kids. I encourage parents to make vegetables taste good, make them visually appealing, and lead by example by gobbling up your own healthy share while the kids are watching. No fights, no coercion, and certainly no concealing. The book is packed with lots of good, down-to-earth advice along this same train of thought, with fantastic references – not just anecdotal tips.
Most importantly, I appreciate that the recipes appeal to grown-up foodies, not just picky kindergarteners. And the pendulum doesn’t swing in the health nut direction – ingredients include butter, cream and sugar. No “good foods” vs. “bad foods”. Just tasty foods (like Pumpkin Gnocchi with Walnut Cream Sauce!), using whole, nutritious ingredients. This is important because my hope would never be just to raise healthy eaters, but to raise adventurous eaters who love good food.
So back to the Salt & Vinegar Kale Chips that emerged from this book I am gushing on about. Basically, you take grassy, cruciferous green leaves, lightly coat them with oil & vinegar, and toss them in a hot oven. In a matter of minutes, they are transformed into a delicious, addictively crisp, salty snack that could rival kettle corn on movie nights.
Kale chips are totally different experience from the steamed kale you may have met as a side dish. Sworn green haters need to try this. Vegetables that taste awesome, high five!
P.S. I was not paid, just my thoughts, promise.
A note from the author of the recipe: If the chips start to brown, they can taste burned. If you find the chips are browning before the kale is crispy, reduce the oven temperature.
I’m giving you the recipe as written in the book, with my notes added in parentheses.
Salt & Vinegar Kale Chips
From The Cleaner Plate Club by Beth Bader & Ali Benjamin
- 1 bunch kale, 6 to 8 stems or 12 ounces
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar (*I used regular white vinegar because I was going for a salt & vinegar chips flavour from my childhood thing – it was subtle, but nice!)
- kosher salt
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Wash the kale, dry thoroughly in a salad spinner, and tear into bite-size pieces. Toss in a large bowl with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, if desired. Rub the leaves to make sure each gets a coating of oil so they crisp up well. Oil a baking sheet. (*I forgot this step, and there was plenty of oil to prevent sticking without it).
3. Place the kale in a single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste. Bake for 6 minutes, then stir and turn kale, and bake for 6-9 minutes longer. Remove crisp pieces as they are done to prevent burning and allow remaining kale chips to get even heat. (*in order to do a single layer, I needed two baking sheets. A single layer is important for crispy results, rather than steaming them. By using 2 sheets I avoided the need to remove crisp pieces as they were done, and the kale was crisp after about 9 minutes total).
