[edit: later that day] I weighed the remainder of what I didn't nibble on, and it would appear that a bunch of fresh kale (roughly 1 lb) yields about 2 oz crispy kale chips.
I did three batches with a head of kale; largely because only a third of the leaves would fit on the baking sheet at one time. I found that using a 9x13 glass baking dish did not work so well in evenly drying the leaves. As for flavorings, here's what I used:
- batch #1: coarsely ground Himalayan pink salt with Mrs. Dash tomato/garlic/basil seasoning
- batch #2: lightly sprinkled with black truffle oil salt
- batch #3: lightly sprinkled sea salt
Batch #1 came out way too salty for my taste but light and crunchy. The process is pretty simple and the messiest part is preparing the leaves for baking. Taking time to massage oil into the individual leaves helps the "chips" attract salt and/or spices, or at least stick on better.
As for plating, I suggest a parchment cone in a large glass tumbler or a decorative rectangular dish.
Ingredients
a bunch of kale, washed and stems removed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt, to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
1. After you have washed and dried the kale leaves, remove the thick rib from the middle of the leaf. Tear the leafy parts into bite-sized pieces. These will retain most of their size after baking. Toss in a large bowl with olive oil.
2. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet and lightly sprinkle with salt.
3. Bake for 20 minutes. You could rotate the leaves after 10 minutes of baking, but that depends on how much residual oil is on the leaves. I did not flip the leaves on two of the three batches and they came out okay.
4. Serve immediately.
