Saturday, April 2, 2011

Let's make some Kale Chips!

Last fall I planted some kale seed to see how it would grow in the hoop house. The kale was a very successful. Everything else in the hoop houses either went dormant or died off through the hard winter, but the kale actually grew! Now that it's warming up and is a little sunnier, I don't think it's frozen in the hoop houses in several weeks, and the kale is growing great. Here's a picture from last week, taken with my cell phone camera (hence bad quality):


I'm planning to pull out that kale soon, since it's been growing since last fall and it's in the bed that I'm planning on growing peppers in this year. I've vowed to not waste food from the garden this year, so I've been trying to think of interesting stuff to make with it that the family will eat. I saw online somewhere that you can roast kale in the oven and make kale chips, so I decided to give it a try.

First step is to pick some kale and wash it. I went out with some scissors and picked about enough to fill my salad spinner. I washed it with some water and spun it dry:


Next was to prep it for roasting. I got two baking sheets and spread out the dry kale. I used my Misto olive oil sprayer to mist it with oil, and added Kosher salt, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Both sheets went into the oven at 375 degrees:


After about 15 minutes in the oven, the edges were brown and they were crispy to the touch. Here's how they looked when they came out:


These are actually pretty tasty! They have a good taste from the seasonings and the sort of broccoli-ish flavor of the kale itself, and a satisfying crunch! Even the kids like them.



5 comments:

  1. I had never heard of Kale chips until recently. I really want to give them a try. I found my way here through Daphne's Harvest Mondays. I am glad I did :)

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  2. Kale is such a wonderful food plant. It is so hardy, productive per square foot of garden bed used, tasty, and nutritious! It has everything going for it. Your bed and harvest looks superior.

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  3. Your kale looks great. We love kale chips too!

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  4. I've seen so many posts about kale chips, but sadly my kale won't let me try them. They got eaten by caterpillars last fall and recovered, but they are still tiny. I keep hoping they will grow this spring, but so far not so much. They look so good, that I really want to try them.

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  5. I planted Kale in the open air more than 2 weeks ago. Then it froze and stayed frozen until recently. We're in south central PA. I laid plastic over them during the freezing time, and they survived. They're thriving now. Thanks for the Kale chip idea. I can't wait to try it.

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