This week we received a generous amount of kale from our friends’ garden. I wish taste was available over the internet, because fresh (and raw) kale is delicious:  a nice crunch, tasty stem, and explosion of bitter flavor. We made many salads, a kale pesto, and these kale chips. Someone in the house enjoyed them very much, and asked for them time and again, until we ran out. And I was happy to oblige, as they are super easy and fast.

Ingredients:
one large bunch of kale (flat kale works best)
two tablespoons of olive oil (experiment with sesame or other oils for added flavor!)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
generous pinch of smoked Hungarian paprika
freshly ground black pepper

Steps:
1) Turn over on to 350 Fahrenheit  Lower temperatures take longer, and I like to stay by the oven anyway, so this temperature works for me. You can lower to 250, but be advised that it will be a longer wait (25-35 minutes, on my last trial).
2) Thoroughly wash kale. I like to wash all of the greens by filling up the sink and adding just a bit of vinegar, separating the leaves, and letting them air dry. Towel drying is much faster. The drier they are, the quicker they bake.
3) Remove the steps of your leaves. Depending on the size, this may not be necessary if you have small leaves with a thin stem.
4) Again depending on the size of the leaves, you can tear them by hand, roughly chop them, or even separate parts as they naturally appear on the leaf (see chips in photo above).
5) Toss olive oil with salt and paprika, mix in torn leaves, and make sure everything is distributed evenly.
6) Spread the kale on a cookie sheet or any sheet pan, parchment or Silpat makes it an easy clean up effort. Leave some room between the leaves, you don’t want to overcrowd. And if you have any excess oil mixture, leave it behind. You want the leaves coated, but not drenched.
7) Put in oven, in the middle rack it takes about 8-12 minutes (depends on how hot your oven is, and the size of the kale), the top row usually is a little quicker. Just monitor until the leaves have shrunk, and you can feel the dry chips.