Easy kale chip recipe

I went for my first training run for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon this morning! Seven glorious kilometers in torrential downpour. It was divine! It was coming down so hard, I hard to stop at a 7-Eleven on the Danforth to get a bag to put over my iphone so it didn’t go to a watery grave. The man was very kind and didn’t charge me the five cents he’s supposed to (which is good, ‘cause I didn’t have any cash on me). My DS-Trainers are sitting beside me at my desk, drenched, but they look happy to have been used – I bought them just before I got the diagnosis and they have been sitting in the front room mocking me since.

Of course, if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this post, the short answer is, nothing. I just had a great run this morning. Onto kale!

Kale often gets pushed to the side and ignored on the weekly trip down the produce isle. Left there to be consoled by the dandelion greens and swiss chard, this dark green nutritional powerhouse should be making it into every runner’s shopping cart! One serving of Kale (also known as dinosaur kale) contains 206 per cent of your daily vitamin A, 134 per cent of your daily vitamin C, nine per cent of your daily calcium, and six per cent of your daily iron*!

What’s even better than the nutrition, is that this dark leafy green can be turned into chips! Yup – a quick sojourn in the oven and out come tasty, crispy and nutritionally-packed chips. I’ve had these chips several times, but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that someone told me how to make them and how freakin’ easy it is. Here’s the recipe I use:

Kale Chips
4-5 Servings (or one big popcorn bowl full)

Ingredients:

• Kale (it’s usually sold with three stems in a bunch around here, so I just grab one bunch)
• Oil (my preferred oil for cooking is grapeseed, but whatever floats your boat)
• Salt & pepper
• Nutritional yeast (completely optional, but very yummy)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
2. Wash the Kale and either pat dry or use a salad spinner.
3. Using a sharp knife, remove the central stem/vein and tear up the leaf into pieces.
4. Place all the pieces into a bowl and toss with 1-2 tbsps of oil so that the leaves are lightly coated. Salt and pepper to taste (if you’re using nutritional yeast, sprinkle some of that on now too). Toss again to distribute the salt/pepper.
5. Place the pieces onto a cookie sheet. Don’t overlap or stack them – that will make your chips chewy and gross.
6. Bake the chips for 7-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them as they can burn. My oven is pretty hot, so seven minutes is all they need.
7. Allow chips to cool and enjoy!

See, told you it was really simple. Let me know how your chips turn out!

*Data from http://nutritiondata.self.com — a fantastic (and free!) nutrition resource!