Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Experimental Tuesday

I failed at being consistent with "Experimental Fridays" so now I'm just going be experimental when I can!


Today I decided to try to put my kale to good use. I'm not a huge fan of kale, despite how healthy it is supposed to be for me. There are plenty of other greens that I really love to eat, I haven't felt the need to force feed myself one that I didn't like much. However, I get kale in my CSA box pretty much every week. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I give it away to my neighbors, and sometimes it just goes to waste and I end up tossing it.

This week it occurred to me that I could try to make chips with it. I turned my oven on to 400 and lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I then washed and drained my kale (something I should have done on Sunday before it even went in the fridge). I removed the stems (all the way up the leaf, so you are just left with the green part on either side). Then I tore the leaves into chip sized pieces and coated them with olive oil. I VERY lightly salted the chips and then used my microplane to grate some parmesan cheese on top. I popped the chips in the oven for 10 mins. They came out perfectly. Since it only took me about 5 mins to prep the chips my oven wasn't fully preheated to 400. For the second batch I reduced the heat to 375, repeated the 10 mins and they were perfect. So, if you fully preheat I wouldn't put the oven at more than 375 and 10 mins is the max I'd cook them at.


Even my toddler loved them. I liked them so much I had eaten 1/2 of the first batch before I remembered to take a picture!


Anyhow, these were a total hit and I'm pretty proud that I totally winged it with a green I'm not too fond of and managed to create something I love. And seriously, it took 15 mins max to make one batch of these from start to finish.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome Mo!

    Hey, kale is also great in soup. I used to get a ton in my CSA box and I always souped it up.

    BTW, I winged a potato gratin tonight -- it's still baking -- despite a couple tastes I've sneaked. Will share on my blog if it "turns out"!

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  2. Yeah, I've put it in soup, but I just don't make soup that often. I need to make it more. Also, the bean won't eat soup...weird, I know. :) I love potato gratin! There is a William's Sonoma recipe I absolutely love. It's always a hit.

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  3. Kale is REQUIRED for classic Minestrone, IMO :)

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