So, last night I was watching Scandal (my new favorite show) on Netflix and trying to figure out what to do on a Wednesday night after a long and exhausting workday. I naturally spent some time browsing through Pinterest and eventually found something that I could do – make kale chips! I was already somewhat of a kale fan, but my delight with the nutrient-rich veggie has always truly depended on how it’s made. I have a DELICIOUS kale salad that I make every now and then, but the only kale chips that I’ve eaten and liked were Brad’s “Vampire Killer” Kale Chips from Whole Foods Market. Since I clearly didn’t have that much experience to base my opinion of kale chips on, I figured that I might as well give it a try since I had most of the ingredients that the recipe asked for.
The simple recipe that I found was for salt & vinegar chips and called for only a few ingredients: sherry vinegar, olive oil, kale, and salt. Super easy right? I didn’t have sherry vinegar so I just substituted it with red wine vinegar. Preparation for making the chips was just about as easy as the ingredients list looked. I first made sure to wash and thoroughly dry a bunch of kale that I’d previously bought for making salads. Since the leaves were already cut up and somewhat de-stemmed, this process went a bit quicker than if I’d used a fresh bunch from the produce isle. While the leaves dried in my salad spinner, I added about ¼ cup of vinegar, a few pinches of sea salt, and a little less than a tablespoon of olive oil to a big Ziploc bag. I then filled the bag to the top with the dried kale, sealed it, shook it up, and massaged everything together to make sure it was well combined. Next, I laid the leaves out onto a foil lined baking sheet and popped it into my oven, which was preheated to 300 degrees. I let my chips cook for about 20 minutes and they came out perfectly delicious and crisp! I really loved these kale chips and was so surprised that I actually liked my own chips better than the flavored ones that I usually buy from Whole Foods.
If you ever have the time and are a health nut looking for guilt-free snacks like me, I suggest that you try to make your own chips as well! If you want to try the recipe that I used or feel adventurous enough to try out another yummy flavor of kale chips, click here to navigate to where I found my tutorial! Enjoy!!
Macarons, Midterms, and Manolos 