Desperately Seeking Savory ... Kale Chips

I'm still in search of some kind of crunchy, maybe salty or spicy chip type of thing.

I've made homemade kale chips using a vegetable spray and kosher salt. It was sorta OK, and the calorie count was right on mine (low.)

I was in the organic food store today and spotted these versions of kale chips, so I decided to do a taste test.

The Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips, Bombay Curry flavor, had a little bit of kick, a sweet curry taste and some good crunch. But they just didn't quite offer what I was hoping for. The other issue is that they have a surprisingly high number of calories. One 2-oz. bag of chips has two servings and each serving has a whopping 210 calories, 9 g fat, 16 g carbs, with it's biggest redeeming quality of 5 g of dietary fiber. The bag says instead of being fried, they're "air-crisped" at a low temperature. My take is that they're too many calories for what you get.

The Kale Chips from Kaia Foods on the right with sesame seeds had sort of a bitter taste to them, and didn't have enough body to stand up to any kind of topping, which would probably be one of the main reasons to try them.

The best of the three was the Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips, Kool Ranch flavor. It's the only one of the three that I want to try again. No bitterness. Good crunch. Nice flavor. But again, high calories for only half of the 2-oz. bag. I was looking for more.

Not enough bang -- or taste -- for the calories in any of these chips. My pursuit continues.

And today, still on the stall at 211.2 pounds. Sigh.

Onward,
Carol

Crunchy, Tasty Kale Chips -- and Fast!

I mentioned my "head hunger" for a snack in my last post and my wonderful friend Cheri almost instantly came to my aid with an idea about low-cal, super-good-for-you kale chips.

I just happend to have organic kale on hand. Found a recipe that turned out great in a regular oven and didn't take hours like an (expensive) dehydrator would take -- and of course, changed it up. Chips were bright green and would have worked to dip -- but not scoop -- into a nice, hummus, baba ghanoush or another slightly thin dip. Nothing too thick or heavy as a dip or you'll leave the whole kale chip in the dip. Cooks in only 20 minutes.

Here's how I made them:

First, heat your oven to 275 degrees.

Ingredients:

Several leaves of kale

Sea or kosher salt

Olive oil cooking spray like PAM®

Directions:

Wash and dry the kale. Tear the leaf part away from the stems and into smallish pieces. Put them in one layer on a baking sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray, then salt lightly. Turn over each chip and repeat.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until crisp.

I found them very satisfying.

Enjoy!

Carol