Make Kale chips

Do you have kale bursting with sweet leaves?

 It is November and the winter crop of kale in the Pacific Northwest is beautiful!

One of our favorite ways to eat kale is as a crispy seasoned chip. Kale is an acquired taste for some people. Children like salty, crispy snacks. If they are busy reading or watching TV they may not notice they are eatting a nutrient dense plant.

Start by picking or buying healthy looking firm kale leaves.
If you buy kale the leaves need to be firm to be at their best flavor. Kale is in season in winter here.When you get  home get them out of the plastic bag and wrap them in a damp paper or cotton towel in the vegetable bin. They need to be used before they get wilted at all. They taste bitter if they wilt.

I strip the  leaves from the stalks by running my fingers up both sides of the stalk and pull the leaves off. I compost the stalk generally. They can add flavor to soups also.

Rinse and inspect the leaves, you are quality control in your kitchen. Take it seriously! I often rinse with vinegar or acidic water.

It is important to dry the leaves so the seasonings can adhere better. I lay the leaves on a clean dish towel and pat the water off.

I like garlic powder on most everything. A neighbor introduced me to her seasoning of rice vinegar garlic powder and Liquid aminos or soy sauce or tamari or salt.

I work the kale and seasonings around roughly to get the seasoning all over it's folds. Taste a leaf and see if the seasoning is right to your taste. I have tried to make kale chips out of dragon tongue kale, beet and swiss chard leaves, plantain and lovage leaves. Yeah, don't bother, so far only curly leave kale works for these.

Now the hard part patience... We lay the leaves onto the food dryer set at about 107 degrees and dry them a few hours and check them for just the right crisp! Over 107 degrees is shown to destroy more enzymes.

The kale leaves shrink alittle during drying. But that is not the problem. The problem is we eat them warm off the dryer and can't get any in the bowl???

We ate most of them already, again!
I would store them in a large jar if any made it that far.

Experiment with seasonings till you find your families favorite.  Enjoy!!!