Kale Chips: A House Favorite!

Early this month, a friend mentioned a blog meme that she wanted to start. House Favorites: Vegan.

As food bloggers, sometimes we get so caught up in trying new things that we forget about the dishes that we make all the time. These are the recipes we make repeatedly for house guests and potlucks. The ones our families won’t let us skip on the holidays. Our beloved signature dishes. Our house favorites.

What are your house favorites? This will be a monthly blog event where you can show them off. It will run from the first day of the month to the last.

Now, no one would mistake me for a food blogger, though of course I do eat food, and sometimes I even take pictures of it. The truth is that I’m not very good about either talking about or taking pictures of food. But I’m more than willing to help a friend with a cool meme, even if it means writing a food post! (And even if I put it off until the last possible moment!)

I have a hard time resisting new cookbooks, which means I’m often making new recipes to justify my (ever growing) cookbook collection rather than making certain recipes multiple times. Despite that, I do have a few recipes that I go back to again and again.

Unfortunately most of them are desserts. A couple of them are alcoholic drinks! Really, what would the children think?

Luckily I remembered Kale Chips!

I’d heard many people raving about kale chips, so I finally made a batch in January to see what the fuss was about. And wow! To call them addictive is an understatement. Shortly after that, I was visiting Mary, and kale came up in conversation. Last year when I visited, we had some kale, a green that she hadn’t ever really eaten, and which she wasn’t too sure of. She liked what we made with it, and even added it to salads, but once that bunch was gone she never bought another.

So we tried the kale chips this year. We used the recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes for the first batch, and then refined it to our tastes a bit afterward. The kale chips were a hit, and Mary has made these many times since my visit.

I’ve made this recipe often enough that I am not even sure how many times I’ve made them – they are approaching chocolate chip cookie status! It has even been suggested that I bring them every week to the sanctuary for an after chore snack…

So, after that absurdly long introduction, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale – rinsed, torn into bite size pieces, dried with a salad spinner
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil (or any other oil)
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce or tamari

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix nutritional yeast, oil, vinegar and soy sauce in a small bowl or measuring cup. Put kale in a bowl, pour the mixture over kale, and mix well (with hands is easiest). Spread kale on a cookie sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 10 minutes, check crispiness, and bake for 5-10 minutes more as needed.

Jake is optional.

Jake