I read somewhere that kale was a new super-veg / leafy thing from the cabbage family sporting magical properties such as the same vitamin k content as 242 baby carrots and other similar super-facts which are actually accurate. I've been looking for more green in my diet for a while and was getting bored of the same old ways that I eat spinach or lettuce so this was a welcome new addition.
The first time I tried the it, I put a bit of olive oil in a pan and sweated off the kale until it was slightly wilted, and it was really quite enjoyable! This brings me to today. I've seen a bunch of recipes and videos on how to bake kale crisps that are as good as, if not better than, regular potato chips / crisps.
The problem with all of these recipes is that they start with whole kale leaves, which are then are ripped into bite-sized pieces. However, no matter how hard I look (my local supermarkets and markets), I cannot find it in this form. It is already pre-cut into thin strips, which is not ideal. But I tried it out anyway.
I started with my kale which I washed and drained in a colander. I then laid out half of my 200g packet on a tray with grease-proof paper / parchment paper and drizzled a bit of olive oil over the top. I also seasoned it with (too much) salt.
After 15 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius I nibbled on a few of the leaves and found them still ... leafy and hydrated; they hadn't crisped up yet, so I put them in for a bit longer. When I eventually took out the blackened, salty kale crisps, I was underwhelmed. It was like eating crispy seaweed, which is fine at a buffet but not something I go out of my way to find, make or eat.
Maybe it's because my batch was over-salted, or perhaps because the kale was thinly cut rather than in large crisp-shapes, but I don't think I'll be cooking kale this way again.
I will however be eating kale again. Two-hundred and something-or-other baby carrots-worth of vitamin-something? That's a big number, and I don't like carrots. Vitamin intake win!
:-)
Elky
