When my friend Paulina and I got together to learn about cooking vegetables and kale, I didn't realize you could bake it and make kale chips! But, now I do, we did, and I would do it again :)
From the salad post, you'll remember there are different kinds of kale. She recommends the green kale on the right for salads and the dinosaur kale on the left for chips.
The dinosaur kale is darker and is more narrow with long leaves. The green kale is more like lettuce. So, the picture above is the top of the dinosaur kale leaf and the picture below is the bottom. You don't want to eat too much of the thicker stem near the base of the leaves. We learned that during this process- it doesn't make the chip taste good and won't get to be crunchy like you would want.
To make kale chips, we tore the cleaned dinosaur kale up and in most cases ripped the leaves off the thick stems. Then you toss them with olive oil in a bowl. Lay them flat on a foil lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle your favorite seasoning mix on them- we used a brisket rub.
Bake them at 350 for about 7 minutes. They will darken and shrivel a little. When you pick them up, they will be stiffer than pre-cooking. The thinner pieces were the best- they have more crunch and grabbed the seasoning flavors better.
Kale chips are super easy and a great alternative to potato chips with a sandwich or burger.
We didn't have the ingredients to make kale smoothies, but Paulina recommends them. She has tried them numerous ways and thinks peaches, almond butter, kale and greek yogurt is best. Doesn't that sound good? Since kale really needs some seasoning to bring out the flavor, I have no doubt that you could throw it in your favorite smoothie mix and you would never know if was there!
Up next, let's talk okra! I had no idea it tasted good it is wasn't fried!
