Kale Chips

These are so good that when I served them the other night, we didn't have enough of them.  That's right, an entire bunch of kale (admittedly, a small bunch) wasn't enough.  If you have some reason to believe that the health benefits of kale are drastically reduced by time in the oven, please don't tell me.  I can assure you that cooked kale is better than no kale, and those are the options at my house.  Maybe someday we'll expand our horizons, but for now we're eating kale chips until we turn green.

There's talk on the internet that kale chips taste just like potato chips.  If you think that, I strongly recommend that you never eat a potato chip again.  You've clearly forgotten what they taste like, and that must work wonders for your self-control.  If, like most people in this country, you remember very clearly what a potato chip tastes like, don't listen to these people.  Kale chips taste salty and crunchy, which is awesome.  They do not taste like potato chips.

I like the curly kale best, although all the kinds I've tried work.  Trader Joe's is selling bags of washed and cut up kale to make this extra-easy, although I haven't actually tried it.   Mark Bittman recently broke my heart by making a convincing argument against bagged salad.  My convenience foods seem to get chipped away one by one.  I make so many things from scratch...can't I just have a factory somewhere get my salad ready for me?

Speaking of buying kale, it seems to last a really long time in the fridge if you put it in a glass of water like a bunch of flowers.  My mother says it looks like I've decorated the inside of my fridge.

But I digress.  It seems like an exaggeration to call this a recipe, but here's how to make kale chips.

Take a bunch of kale and cut the leaves off of the big thick stems.  You can cut them into big pieces of small pieces, it doesn't really matter.  Wash them and dry them in your handy-dandy salad spinner.  You want the leaves really dry, so I try to do this ahead of time and then leave them out to dry more before the next step.  I've heard rumors that there are climates where leaving kale out on the counter doesn't actually dry it out, but it works very nicely here.

Then put the kale in a big bowl and toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  It doesn't seem like much for all that kale, but trust me, it is enough.  Then sprinkle on plenty of salt and pepper and put it on a sheet pan with a silpat on it.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  When they're crispy all over, take them out and serve.  Sit down in front of the TV and mindlessly eat an entire bunch of kale.  Not bad, eh?