Parmesan Kale Chips

Kale was just named the “healthiest” vegetable around last week, with the most nutrients per bite than anything else out there.  Heavy doses of vitamin k, vitamin a, magnesium, fiber, calcium, omega 3 fatty acids, a extremely high antioxidant count and detoxifying compounds. Impressive, right?

Also impressive {to me, at least} are those people that can eat plain steamed or sauteed kale.

If you’re not quite at that level yet {kale beginner}, these crunchy, crispy, dissolve in your mouth parmesan kale chips might be a much better place to start. So much so, you might even like eating them. To like eating all those vitamins and minerals = not a bad thing.

These little snacks were {9 & 10 year old girl} tested and approved this past weekend when I was doing one of my healthy eating & cooking family sessions- with screams- literally screams of delight- as they came out of the oven. If that doesn’t make you think about trying them, I don’t know what will.

Ingredients:

2 heads kale* (dinosaur, red or green or any combination of the two)

organic, extra virgin olive oil

organic parmesan cheese, grated (or nutritional yeast if you are dairy free)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Wash kale and remove inner stem. Tear kale into small pieces, or keep as a long leaf, depending on the look you want. I’ve done both, but bite size pieces are less messy to eat and easier to store.

2. Add to a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil and toss with your hands, so each leaf is coated evenly:

3. Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper:

5. Bake until crispy, around 25 mins. Remove from oven, sprinkle with cheese and place back in oven until the cheese melts.

Eating your vitamins never tasted so good. These probably won’t last very long in your kitchen. But if they do, store in a airtight container, for up to 4 days in the fridge.

*The volume of kale will reduce to half after they are cooked.