What the Kale??

Kale---that curly leafy vegetable I would see in the produce section that always seemed to allude me.  It looked interesting, but I had no idea what to do with it.

And then I met the Zuppa Toscana at the Olive Garden, a yummy sausage and potato soup with kale that my husband and I love so much.  We decided to try to make it at home and our first attempt wasn't bad.  We had no recipe to follow, just went by our taste buds.  It wasn't the same, but it was good and it was close, but something was missing.  We weren't sure what to do with all the leftover kale we had, though, because a whole head was entirely too much for the soup.  Alas, it eventually went bad in the fridge and I tossed it into the compost before I could figure out how to use it.

Sometime later, I found a recipe that we tried and it was pretty close to the soup served at the chain restaurant.  Thus, when I would buy kale, my husband knew I was going to be making soup because quite honestly, I didn't know what else to do with it and any leftover kale always ended up in the compost bin.

That is, until my cousin told me about "kale chips."  Crunchy little pieces of kale, baked in the oven, sprinkled with salt.  Intriqued, I bought some kale and followed her simple instructions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, wash and dry the kale.  Spray cooking oil over a sheet of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet.  Cut or rip up pieces of the kale and lay them on the foil, lightly mist with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt.  I also sprinkled a little pepper over them as well.  I baked them for 10 minutes, 12 max.

Fresh out of the oven, they were crispy and delicious.  Some of the pieces with stems were a little more chewy, but tasty nonetheless (you can cut the leaves completely from the stem prior to baking if you prefer).  And healthy, oh so healthy!  And low calorie!  One whole bunch of kale is about 58 calories!  Half a kale is a sufficient snack tho, although a whole kale would be enough for two, but you'd have to do at least four trays for a whole head of kale.  This is a wonderful alternative to edamame (soybeans), another favorite snack.  Comparatively, a 1/2 cup of shelled soybeans are 120 calories.   Kale chips are a fantastic alternative to potato chips and I'm pretty sure kids would like them too, if you don't tell them how healthy they are for you.  I've heard some people sprinkle parmesan cheese over them as well, but if you're looking to keep it low cal, forego the cheese.  You won't regret it!

Now my compost bin will never benefit from kale again and, it's going to be alot harder to save some for some soup.  I may end up buying two heads. . . because after all, two heads are better than one!