Kale Chips
If you've somehow missed that kale chips are a "thing," with recipes flooding cooking sites and packages of commercially made chips now turning up even in ordinary supermarkets, trust us: Tossing torn leaves of kale with oil and salt and baking them until crispy is a worthwhile endeavor. The slightly browned leaves take on a nutty, sweet taste and a pleasing, brittle texture.
But the standard oven approach isn't perfect: It's hard to get the leaves evenly browned; plus, it's difficult to drive off enough moisture so that the chips stay crispy when stored for more than a few hours. So when we noticed a few blogs promoting a microwave method, we were eager to give it a try.
We found that the microwave dehydrates the leaves evenly and thoroughly, so they stay crispy longer — and the chips cook a whole lot faster than they do in the oven.
Here's our take on the technique.
Note: For the best texture, we prefer to use flatter Lacinato kale. We also found that collard greens work well, but we don't recommend curly-leaf kale, Swiss chard, or curly-leaf spinach, all of which turn dusty and crumbly when crisped.
5 oz. kale (about 1/2 bunch)
4 teaspoons oil
kosher salt to taste
- Remove stems from kale.
- Tear leaves into 2-inch pieces; wash and thoroughly dry, then toss well with 4 teaspoons oil in large bowl.
- Spread roughly one-third of leaves in single layer on large plate and season lightly with kosher salt.
- Microwave for 3 minutes.
- If leaves are crispy, transfer to serving bowl; if not, continue to microwave leaves in 30-second increments until crispy.
- Repeat with remaining leaves in 2 batches.
- Store chips in airtight container for up to 1 week.
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