Kale Chips

This recipe for kale chips is simple and fast, but the end result is delicious and crunchy. If they kale is a sweeter variety, they taste a lot like potato chips - crunchy, salty, yum good! And the carb count for a serving is negligible, which means you can eat a whole pan of them by yourself if you want!

Kale and Bacon chips

1 bunch kale (about 5 cups of unpacked leaves)
1/4 cup of bacon grease
2 tablespoons butter
1-2 teaspoons salt
garlic powder to taste

Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F. Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry the kale pieces with a salad spinner.
Add the butter to the bacon grease and gently warm until in liquid state. Add salt and stir.
Put the kale in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Add the liquid bacon grease and butter mixture. Don't seal the bag completely, you'll need to be able to shake the kale leaves around to get them coated completely. You may even need to get your hands in there and rub the grease on the leaves. You're looking to get rid of the "dry" look to the leaves, and make them shiny green.
Pour out of the bag onto the cookie sheet, and use your hands to make sure all the leaves are coated and in a single layer. Sprinkle with garlic powder and more salt if desired. Repeat the process if you have more kale than will fit in a gallon bag.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the leaves start to dark green, and are crispy, but are not burnt.
I sometimes sprinkle on some very finely grated Asiago cheese at the end just for an added flavor level.
Tip: put the same size leaves together on the cookie sheet. If you have small leaf pieces, try to put those all together in one baking batch. Otherwise the smaller leaf parts begin to burn before the larger ones are done.

Nutrition: 1 cup cooked: 62 calories, 6 grams fat, 1 gram protein, 1 gram carb.

Kale is easy to grow, and is winter hardy. It's still growing strong when all the other vegetables have been killed by the fall frosts. We grow kale each year in our greenhouses, so I've had to cook lots of it. This kale chip recipe really is this easy and good.

Here are a few other tips on cooking kale.