Tamari Sesame Kale Chips

I like kale chips as a snack, but had never tried making them until today. Partly I was inspired by Gena at Choosing Raw, who posted a kale chip recipe this week, and partly I was inspired by our trip to the vegetable stand this weekend where organic kale was only $0.59 per bunch (we ended up with 5 bunches in the fridge!). I decided to make up my own recipe for the kale chips, as Gena’s looked delicious, but a little higher maintenance than I was ready for. Often, kale chips are made in a dehydrator, but since I don’t have a dehydrator, I made them in the oven. They are super easy and quite tasty, though I made them a bit spicy, so you may want to adjust the cayenne if you’re sensitive to heat!

The Recipe

5-6 cups kale, cleaned and torn into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoon low-sodium tamari

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients (except kale). Mix the sauce around. In a large mixing bowl, combine the kale and the sauce and stir well until all kale pieces are coated with the seasoning sauce:

Spread kale evenly on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. In the middle of baking, use a spatula to fluff the kale so that it cooks evenly.

The edges will brown, but you don’t want them to burn, so watch them carefully. The kale should be crispy. Remove from oven and enjoy!

If you don’t eat them all in one sitting, store in an airtight container. You can certainly play around with the seasonings. I was thinking after I made them that some sesame seeds added to the mix would have been good. You could also do a cumin-coriander version, or a curried version, or a sweet cinnamon version or….? Any ideas?