Crispy kale chips seem to be spreading like a house-o-fire over the last year as a healthy tasty snack alternative. At the grocery store a small bag goes for about $3! As some of you have discovered it’s pretty durn easy to make and a heck of a lot cheaper than buying it at the store.

No matter the year we seem to have an over abundance of dark greens. My husband, Mike can’t just plant one he plants many. We end up eating mountains of the stuff, blanching more, and taking the extras to the food bank so it turns out to be a win-win. This year is no different….

Step 1: Getting the Kale

I head out to pick some kale. Now this year I have two big change-up’s for my crispy kale chips. The first is to use ‘Dinosaur Kale’. It's also known as Tuscan kale, Lacinato kale, Black kale, or Cavolo Nero.

It’s got more meat to it. The problem when you bake kale is you need to watch that it doesn’t get over cooked. When it does it gets a bitter taste. Typical kale with the curled edges tends to burn because the edges are thin. Meaty dinosaur kale doesn’t have curled thin edges.

So out I went out back to do a little harvesting….

Drat! It seems as though every type of pestilent bug and insect has found our garden.

After a little more searching I found a fairly untouched kale plant.

Step 2: Ingredients

Dinosaur kale (AKA- Tuscan kale, Lacinato kale, Black kale, or Cavolo Nero)

Olive oil

Soy sauce

OK! The soy sauce was my second change up!! The problem I’ve had with crispy kale in the past is I like a little salt on it. Chunky sea salt looks great in those food blog photos but in reality the salt tends to fall right off after the kale is cooked. Replacing it with soy sauce gives you that salty goodness built right into the chip! I KNOW! The best idea EVER!!

How much of these ingredients? Well as particular as my recipes get when I’m baking this one is a bit of ‘toss some in here’ and ‘add a pinch over there’. I’ll explain more in the instructions.

Step 3: Prepping the Kale

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

Clean the kale and shake the excess water off.
On your cutting board slice the center vein out and give them to your chickens. No chickens? Go get some….
Cut ‘chip’ size pieces from the kale

Step 4: Tossing It All Together!

In a medium size bowl add a few tablespoons of olive oil and a few shakes of soy sauce. If you want them really salty add more soy sauce.
Toss the kale into the bowl and massage the oil/soy sauce mixture into each piece. Your don’t need it thick on the kale but you want each piece to be completely covered. You may need to add in more oil and/or soy sauce as you go (trust your inner Martha).

Step 5: Baking the Kale

Place the kale on a cookie sheet. The pieces should not be touching.

Put in the oven for a total of 15 minutes taking them out and flipping them at about 8 minutes time.

What you don’t want is for it to turn black. This is when it gets over cooked and a bitter taste. If they are cooking too fast lower the temperature (I live at high altitude your results may vary) and adjust the overall time.

EAT!!

If you liked this project follow me! You can also see lots of other projects I do with my husband Mike on our blog, Mike and Molly's House. It's where we do 'mighty projects on our mini farm'!