Baked Kale Chips
Aug 13, 2010, Updated Oct 03, 2017
Kale is one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables out there, even beating out spinach and chard for the top title. It’s low in calories, and is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, manganese, lutein, and iron.
A couple months ago, a friend told me about making baked kale chips, and I must admit, my first thought was, “Hey, that’s crazy!” Turns out, I was the one who was crazy to wait so long to try it.
It’s fantastic! Light, crispy, and crunchy, the kale sort of melts-in-your-mouth. It has a slightly earthy, almost sweet, and definitely salty flavor. Not quite as decadent as potato chips, of course, but it’s got a similar “snacky” feel, while conveniently avoiding any of that “guilty” feel.
We simply devoured them.
So… go bake some Kale. Do it. Do it NOW.
Baked Kale Chips
Ingredients
- 2 cups kale leaves
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- several pinches sea salt
Instructions
- Wash and dry the kale. Tear or cut the leaves into pieces, cutting out the tough center stem.
- Toss the leaves with the olive oil, and then sprinkle on a few pinches of sea salt.
- Lay the leaves on a cookie sheet (see pic below) and bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes.
- Careful, though: If you bake them too briefly they won't get crispy, but go too long and they'll be burned. Check them at 9 minutes, and if they're not crispy yet, give them a couple more minutes and check again. You may need to pull some out sooner than others.
where do you get Nutritional Yeast–would like to try it–could not find it in Williamstown Ma.
I’ve found Nutritional Yeast at health-food stores (like the smaller co-ops), Whole Foods (in the supplements aisle), and online. Sometimes it’s in the bulk bins, too — but that’s usually only at the “hardcore” health-food shops.
Online, you can get it on Amazon and directly from Bob’s Red Mill.
Andrew, Thanks for the Kale recipe. When your mom & I tried it we did way too much salt & were a bit off on the timing. I like Connie’s idea of using a dehydrator.
Also, could you use other leafy greens such as swiss chard?
Sorry it was too much salt! Checking the doneness every few minutes is definitely key. A fellow foodie friend of mine made it with Nutritional Yeast once, and it was delicious, so you could try that too (instead of the salt).
I have also found that the chips come out best when the kale is very fresh. Using Kale that’s been in the bottom bin of the fridge for a week just doesn’t crisp as nicely.
Not sure about swiss chard or other greens. Perhaps you could give it a try and let us know how it turns out! 🙂
the baked kale chips were delicious! but, as you said, we had to be careful because some leaves will start to burn while others still were moist. last night, we tried making them in my dehydrator for the first time — those were also delicious, and had the bonus ease of not having to worry about timing. the flavor of the dehydrated chips is slightly different — they don’t have the char flavor, and have a little stronger of a raw kale flavor. regarding the battered ones you saw, if you go to erewhon, you’ll find about a gajillion types of kale chips. i saw several battered type kale chips there, and tried one of them. it was tasty. it was a raw/vegan/organic type, and the batter was made of sunflower seeds, cashews, yeast, etc., ground up and then spread throughout. there are several recipes for that type of kale… Read more »
Awesome! Glad you like them.
Last week my friend CG The Foodie (www.uncoveringfood.com) brought me some Kale Chips. She sprinkled Nutritional Yeast on them, and it was delicious. Definitely worth trying. 🙂
Kale ftw! I had some a while back and used a Turkish yogurt as dip. Yummy!
I don’t think ours would have worked for dipping — they were too fragile. I wonder if it was a different type of Kale?
yum! coincidentally, i just tried some of a friend’s kale snacks from erewhon earlier this week, and wanted to go get some. your recipe sounds easy and delicious. i will definitely try it!
Sweet! Let us know how they turn out.
Incidentally, I saw some for sale at Follow Your Heart (an awesome veggie grocery store slash restaurant), and they looked like they had been lightly battered before baking — kind of like the coating on wasabi peas. Not sure what that was, but it looked interesting. Further investigation is needed!