Crispy Everything Kale Chips Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep kale chips crispy? ›

To keep them crispy, it is important to let them cool completely. Once cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. You could also try adding a few grains of raw rice or silica packs (like those found in store-bought kale chips) to the airtight container. & Perfect for snacking!

Arrange kale on two rimmed baking sheets. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and toss. Season with salt. Bake, rotating trays once, until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes.

If the leaves aren't properly dried, the water can “steam” the kale chips while baking and lead to the dreaded soggy kale chip! Be sure they are nice and dry before you massage in the oil. A salad spinner works great; just be sure not to overload it so the leaves can properly dry.

Don't turn up the heat. High heat can burn the kale and make it taste bitter.

And unlike potato chips, kale retains its nutritional value when made into chips. Kale is high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamin A and calcium, as well as B vitamins, vitamin C and potassium. It's fat- and sodium-free, and the minuscule amounts of olive oil and salt used in my recipe barely bump up those amounts.

Rinse and dry the kale leaves before removing most of the centre stalk, leaving long, thin pieces of kale. Toss the kale in the oil, then sprinkle with the sugar, cinnamon and ½ tablespoon of sea salt. Arrange the leaves in a single layer on a couple of baking trays and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp.

Any variety of kale – curly or flat – can be made into baked kale chips. Some home cooks prefer to use flat lacinato kale, aka "dinosaur" kale, so named for its leathery appearance, and some like the frilly appearance of curly kale.

In the long run, replacing high-calorie snacks (looking at you potato chips) with kale chips can be a helpful component to losing weight. That's because kale chips are more nutrient-dense and less calorie-dense. That's a fancy way of saying they help you feel full with less calories.

Why are my homemade chips not crispy? It's likely that too many chips were cooked at once (a crowded pan is never a good thing) and doing so means the temperature of the oil decreases, resulting in soggy, greasy chips.

There's the cost of the actual ingredients, the labor costs to produce it, the packaging etc. And for kale chips, I think the two main factors are the food costs and labor costs. The ingredients for most kale chips are a base of raw cashews and nutritional yeast, both of which are pretty pricey.

How do you make crispy chips not soggy? ›

Give your chips an ice bath, and leave for 15-20 minutes if you have the time. This will wash off some of the starch – you'll see as the water goes cloudy. Starch on the surface of the chips locks in moisture and causes them to go soggy. Drain the chips and rinse under cold water, then dry thoroughly before cooking.

To get perfectly uniform, crispy kale chips, the key is to bake them for longer, at a lower temperature. Baking kale chips at 300F for 20 to 25 minutes allows the vegetable to slightly dehydrate while it cooks, resulting in a perfectly crispy chip.

Adding salt and squeezing lemon make a big difference by removing bitterness. Adding some spicy or sweet flavors may help tame the strong flavor of bitter kale.

It also has lutein and zeaxanthin, which may help lower your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Also, lutein may help prevent atherosclerosis , a buildup of hard plaque in your blood vessels. Add kale to a salad or eat kale chips as a snack for an anti-inflammatory benefit.

Your chips will keep about 2-3 days at room temperature, or up to a week if stored in the fridge. If you find storing your homemade chips in an airtight container makes them soggy, consider adding something to the container that will absorb moisture like some dry rice.

You can definitely store them in a container, but I never think they are as good the next day. Store in the fridge and warm up to room temperature to eat. Or you could reheat them in the air fryer itself to re-crisp! Store bought kale chips are better for on-the-go snacks.

Storing leftover kale chips – let chips cool off completely before storing in an airtight container and keep at room temperature, do not refrigerate them because they will not keep their crunch.

Kale can be frozen without blanching but should be used within 4 weeks. Blanching greens before freezing stops the naturally-occurring ripening enzymes in the leaves. This will ensure that the leaves taste fresh and will not develop a bitter taste. Blanched kale will last up to 1 year in the freezer.