Fuel : Garden Season - Kale chips!

My friend, Shawnelle, brought over a few children to play with mine, and a whole lot of produce.

I felt rich!  Fresh goat's milk, goat cheese, herbs, and a huge bag  of kale and another of beets.

I had just made and canned 11 quarts of borscht (mmm....), so i was thinking of things to do with beets, and what on earth to do with all that kale?

But, we have found a winner recipe!

And best of all, paleo friendly :)

For months/years people have told me about kale chips.  Finally, a chance to try it out.  I decided to try two methods and have a taste test with the littles.

First, to prepare the kale - wash the huge leaves free of caterpillars and their eggs.  Then, using a sharp knife, cut out the tough inner vein.  Then, tear them into roughly potato chip size pieces.

After they were all torn up and clean, i put a few handfuls in a big ziploc bag, poured in some olive oil, and gave them a nice massage through the bag, getting oil all over them.

Then, i took them out of the bag one by one and spread them on a cookie sheet (being careful to spread them out flat) or a dehydrator tray.  Sprinkled with coarse salt, and some batches with table salt (table salt was much less salty).

Then, i put the cookie sheets in the oven at 300 degrees, and the dehydrator sheets into the dehydrator at top temperature.

The oven baked kale chips were ready after about 20 minutes or so - they got a little golden and were completely dry and crumbled to tasty dust as we crunched on them.

 In paleo eating, i often crave something crispy and this fit the bill.  I also have a history of kidney stones, and these are full of oxalic acid, so when i eat them, i have to be careful to drink a lot of water!

The dehydrated chips came out the next morning, and they were surprisingly still beautifully green.  Crispy, yes, but some of them were still chewy.  Probably if we had left them in the dehydrator a little longer, they would get just as crispy.  They did have far more "kale" taste than the other chips, which i thought was a plus.

But the children all voted for the oven baked.  I think we will end up making both, as the dehydrated kale chips are likely more nutritious.