Hello Kale Chips! Healthy Snacking with Chef Jacques Pépin

Goodbye potatoes hello kale!

 

If you mention kale chips to a hardcore traditional snack indulger they may furrow their brow and assume you are a vegan food pusher from Boulder.    Here’s a challenge:  make these and see how many snackers you can convert!    Kale chips are and amazingly delicious option to satisfy any craving for crunch or salt, and lately, we eat them by the bowl for movie night instead of popcorn.

There are several additions and variations to kale chips, but first, the basics:

– Hit the farmers market for the freshest organic kale if you can.  When preparing the kale, wash it well, and then dry, via salad spinner or paper towels.   The drying part is key here, because if you do not dry it thoroughly, it will not crisp properly in the oven. Follow Chef Jacques Pépin’s basic recipe below and adapt it per your preferences.

Chef Jacques Pépin’s Crunchy Kale Chips

1 large bunch of kale
1 tbsp of olive oil
Salt to taste

In Jacques words more or less, take the kale (enough to fill up a nice sized bowl, washed and dried, tough stems removed and leaves torn), add salt, add about a tablespoon of oil, toss with your hands and place on top of a wire rack placed on a baking rack or cookie sheet. “Cook it at low temperature!”, (Jacques says that in the 300’s or 400’s it becomes too black in color.) He cooks it at 250 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, then it’s crunchy and ready to eat.

And that is the basic recipe. It’s fail safe. Actually the entire world of recipes should rotate among Jacques Pépin’s techniques, but that is another post! How you customize or bling it up is up to you, get creative and find your favorite. Our specialty is to cook it without salt, and add toasted sesame seeds and truffle salt at the end. Try it and let us know if you love it as much as we do!

The Health Foodie, a vendor at Phoenix AZ farmers markets, adds brewers yeast and ground cashews to one of their mixes. There are thousands of kale chip recipes in the bloggerverse, adding garlic, parmesan cheese, sprinkles of soy sauce, or curry powder among many variations.

Regardless of your method, happy healthy snacking!

xo
Savory Tv

Episode 217 of Fast Food My Way
(The entire episode is great, but skip to 16:20 on the video for the kale chips. PS. Do not watch if you are trying to watch your carb intake, because you will have an instant craving for potato pancakes!)