I’m always being asked about healthy snacks for kids, in fact I have a whole class devoted to healthy kid snacks in the curriculum I’m developing. One of my favorite vegetables for snacking is kale. Sounds strange right? Like chomping on leaves for a snack? But crispy kale chips are a perfect snack. I like them better than popcorn! Roasted kale chips are crunchy salty bites of goodness that will disappear fast and make your kids beg for more. Here’s a step by step photo tutorial for a healthy snack that’s ready in 15 minutes.
Kale is pretty affordable. I usually get a head of kale for $1-$2 at the most. There are a couple different varieties, and they all work well. Just make sure to get one that’s a dark green or bluish green with out any yellowing leaves. I usually make one leaf of kale per person, but if you want to make more it will get eaten!
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then begin ripping the leaves off of the tough main stem, and tear those leaves into bite size pieces.
Press the leaves between paper towels to absorb any water. You don’t want any moisture on the leaves because then they will steam and get soft instead of crispy.
Place the kale on a cookie sheet (one with rims is easiest) and drizzle them with olive oil, about 2 TBS worth. Use your fingers (freshly washed!) to mix the leaves and coat them with the oil.
Once the leaves are well coated, place them in a 350 degree oven for 8-12 minutes. I check them starting at 8 minutes and every minute after that. You want them crispy, but not turning brown.
Sprinkle the crispy kale chips with salt and eat immediately! When my doctor told me I needed to get more leafy greens in my diet (which I forget sometimes in winter when we don’t have a CSA), I was excited to have an excuse to eat kale chips as often as I wanted. Every movie we watched last week we snacked on these babies!
I remember trying kale chips once. I thought it was the oddest thing at first, but now I really enjoy it. I’ll have to tyr and make a homemade version one of these days.
Our kitchen at school made these as a snack for the kids. About 6 kids loved them and the rest wouldn’t touch them. 🙂 Of course, we didn’t get them freshly prepared. I think they were done in the morning.
I’ve never heard of kale chips but I will definitely make them for my kiddos. They guzzle the green smoothies that I make every day so they are definitely not scared to drink green – hopefully they won’t be too nervous to try it crunchy! What an awesome idea and I can’t wait to try them myself. I’m adding kale to my grocery list right now.
Jenn and Abigail, you’ll have to let me know how they turn out when you make them!
Karen, I think they’re much better fresh from the oven. They can get a little soggy and bitter after sitting out. It’s all in how you present it too. I’ve had kids get so excited when I tell them that they can make their own chips, or given them fun names like “Mean Green Crunchy Chip Things”!
So, Diana I think you are amazing if you can get kids to gobble these up. As a child I had an adversion to food with chorophyll. You do the world a service in helping them eat better!
I’ve been meaning to make some kale chips, but I was never really sure exactly how to go about doing it. Great tutorial! These will be a great snack.
Can’t wait to buys some Kale tomorrow! I’m wondering if I can get my three year old to buy into them! =0)
Just made these as a pre-dinner snack – me and my 2yo daughter love kale (although she has no idea what it is, just that she loves it in soups) so it was not a big surprise that we both scarfed these down right from the baking sheet LOL Thanks, Diana for this yummy (and super nutritious) snack 🙂 Btw, maybe my oven runs hot but i found lowering my temp by 10 degrees and taking them out at 7mins worked best (my first batch at 350/9min tasted bitter and slightly burnt – not that dd minded, she still ate them :). Great recipe!
I made them but I think i left them in a little too long. They turned slightly brown. My 2 year old loves them! He said, “Don’t you dare eat all of em.”
Perhaps using a more temperature resistant oil and sea salt would make these a bit healthier?
All ovens are different, so make sure figure out what temperature/timing works best for you. That’s why I stand by and watch them the first time I made them. So glad everyone’s loving them!
You can definitely play with different oils and salts too! I often use alaea Hawaiian sea salt and find it absolutely delicious. I use olive oil because I love the taste of it and because the chips will be taken out of the oven before the oil reaches a burning point. We don’t eat a ton of meat so appreciate the good fats in olive oil, but I’d love to hear of any successes you’ve had with other oils Mike, thanks!
I like to put onion powder/garlic/powder and Cajun seasoning on mine… my mother has used crushed red peppers, cinnamon and sugar, she tries different things they have all been so good. We use the canola oil with grapseed…. yum try different things. if you let the children pick their own toppings it gets interesting too.
Great tip Wendy! I really love getting kids involved in the kitchen and letting them choose flavors, this recipe would be perfect for that. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been wanting to make it, but couldn’t find any tutorials with pictures that made me understand it! I’m going to try it today!
You’re so welcome! Glad I could help.
Just stumbled across this. Got some Kale in my Veg Box this week, and don’t just want to throw it in a pasta or a soup again. This sounds really interesting. Can’t wait to try it this evening. : )
Awesome! We really love these and they’re so popular in my cooking classes. Let me know what you think 🙂
Made the Kale Chips a little while ago. My partner said they were delicious. We managed to get through about 6 full leaves of Kale. (Though have much of it left, so will be having it again this week!) I’m considering your Kale & Spinach Penne for some of it. Mmm.
I found the Kale Chips similar to seaweed that is served in Chinese restaurants, with regard texture and flavour. The difference being that it’s a guilt free pleasure to be in charge of how much salt and oil is used! Thanks so much for giving us a new way to use Kale. 🙂
Yeah it’s totally a similar texture. I grew up snacking on seaweed in Korea and Hawaii so maybe that helped me love kale chips so much. Kale is also good chopped up in anything from curry, to stir fry, to soups, or pastas. I throw it in everything!
The health food store had them with parmasean cheese or ranch dressing in a bag. they were extremely expensive, so i’m glad i found your recipe but i’ll dip them into ranch dressing or sprinkle them with parmasean cheese with the olive oil & put them in the oven. Thanks!
Isn’t it funny how many prepackaged health foods you can make yourself, cheaper and tastier! Parmesan sounds like a great addition.
My entire family LOVES Kale Chips. When I first started making them, I also made them in the oven, but found they didn’t crisp very evenly. After I tried making them in my dehydrator, I decided I’d never go back. For anyone trying these for the first time, you can add just about any flavoring you want: oriental, lime & chili powder, garlic salt & pepper, etc. I’ve heard that Parmesan Cheese is good, but I’m vegan so I haven’t actually tried that (I bet the vegan Parmesan would be good though). I usually just go through my cabinet to see what I’m in the mood for; haven’t made a bad flavored Kale Chip yet! Enjoy!
Sorry I didn’t see this earlier Mary Lou, but I LOVE your flavoring ideas! Will definitely try some of these.