Try Something New - Veggie Crisps

I've mentioned that we get the majority of our produce from a local Community Supported Agriculture farm. Sometimes we get to try a new or unusual vegetable or fruit. Last week, we got kale. I can't remember ever eating kale before in my life. It looks like you could make a hearty salad out of it but a raw bite of it did not appeal to my salad taste buds.

I remembered seeing a Martha Stewart episode where she baked up some crispy curly kale that looked fun. A search of her website unfortunately yielded no results. So a quick Swagbucks search brought me to Mollie Katzen's website - Mollie is a well-known vegetarian cook and author of the famous Moosewood cookbooks. I used her simple instructions and added garlic salt because I like garlic salt.

All you do is pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop off the stems of the kale. I chopped fairly small pieces and left the middle parts in but if you want to use as more of a chip you could chop bigger pieces, and remove the middles. Line a baking sheet with foil and brush or spread 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread the kale on top of the oil and using a spatula, mix it so that the kale gets some of the oil. Sprinkle with garlic or other seasoning and put in the oven. I put it in for 10 minute intervals, then turning/mixing to ensure that the crisps are evenly cooked. Bake for a total of 30 minutes until kale are crisp. Cool and serve!

Mine wasn't curly but it baked up quite nicely and although it doesn't look all that pretty, they are actually very crisp and different. Tell your family to close their eyes to try it. These offer a change of pace from your usual chips and I will serve these in the future with maybe a light spinach dip, or other creamy dip. These might also be good sprinkled on top of mashed potatoes or other side dishes.

The Grocery Cart Challenge has done it again - lots of great recipes in the weekly swap, fresh ideas for the New Year! Head on over there to check it out.