There are regular potato chips and then there are veggie kale chips! These green vegetable chips completely changed the way I saw “chips”. Crispy, crunchy, healthy and made with just 3 ingredients within 20 mins from scratch!
I took the first batch out of the oven and went “crunch”, one more “crunch”… I ate almost half the tray before taking them outside the kitchen for Sikander to try 😛 I had never had kale chips before. In fact, I heard about them only a couple of weeks ago when we went for volunteering at the school community garden.
The garden educator told me that kids love to grow a lot of kale because they make kale chips in their cooking class. At first, I thought they must be seasoning normal chips with kale but then she said, “no! they are simply kale leaves, baked till crisp in the oven.”
I had to search and try making them. I looked at a few recipes. While the basics of making kale chips in an oven are pretty much same across all recipes:
- Wash and thoroughly dry kale leaves
- Cut/ tear into small pieces
- Rub with some oil and salt (+more seasoning if desired)
- Bake until crisp.
Most recipes differed in their oven temperature. Since I have just moved to this new home and I was using the oven for the first time, I wanted to err on the lower side. I can always bake the kale for a longer time at low temperature than have them burn too quickly at a high temperature.
Just when I had this thought, I decided to check just one more recipe and Dana at Minimalist Baker had like read my confusion in her post! She says, and I quote,
“By baking at a low temperature for a longer period of time, the kale gets crispy without browning or burning, yielding perfect chips every time.”
So here’s the recipe for crispy, crunchy, super easy kale chips made with just 4 ingredients. I’ve used salt and cumin for seasoning but you can season them how you like. Check out some ideas in the recipe notes below.
Till now, I used to kale much like I used spinach — sauté with mushroom or in vegetable soups but these crisps are my new favorite way of cooking and eating kale! And don’t stop at just kale greens. I tried the recipe with Swiss chard and that came out perfect too. I am sure the same recipe can be used to make veggie chips with many greens. Would love to know what all you have tried or would like to try.
How to make Kale Chips in Oven
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- 1 bunch kale greens (About 2 cups when chopped. I have used 4 dragon kale leaves, but you can use regular curly kale or even baby kale)
- 1 tbsp Coconut oil
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp cumin powder (See notes for more seasoning options)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 107ºC (225ºF). Place parchment paper on a baking tray.
- Wash and dry kale leaves using a salad spinner or simply dab it dry with a kitchen towel.
- Remove the center stem and cut into small pieces.
- Place the chopped leaves in a bowl, add coconut oil, salt, and cumin powder.
- Mix and rub the kale leaves with your fingers so that they are well coated in oil and spices.
- Spread on a baking tray such that there is minimal touching. This would allow the kale to crisp up evenly.
- Bake for 15 mins, take out and turn over. Bake for another 5 mins. (With curly kale it takes about 5 more minutes to crisp up nicely)
- Remove from oven and enjoy fresh!
Notes
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