New Post! Masala Kale Chips!
Kale chips are on the list of Things I Will Never Buy at a Store. I don’t care how good they are, they’re EXPENSIVE and I can just make my own dang kale chips, thank you very much. But maybe if I’m on a road trip and I’ve eaten too many of my obligatory road trip red vines & beef jerky THEN I’ll buy kale chips. If the rest stop has kale chips, I’m also getting a kombucha. Just so you know.
It’s really the special flavoring that commands the price. I mean… $7 for a bag of cheesy kale chips? There’s not even a whole bunch of kale in that little air filled bag. You’re ultimately paying for cheesy flavoring. These Masala Kale Chips, though? I’d pay the premium if I had to. Fortunately, I can make them myself WHENEVER I feel like it. All I really need is kale and access to my kitchen pantry.
The recipe comes from Aarti Paarti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul. To say these kale chips are fabulous is an UNDERSTATEMENT. You combine curry, ground cashews, maple syrup and nutritional yeast with oil and you saturate the kale with it. Then you bake until the kale is crispy and the topping is nice and golden and OMG YOU CANNOT STOP EATING THEM. I have this weird pet peeve about people drinking their food (you know… tipping a bowl or a bag of chips and funneling food into their mouths) but I would totally understand if you funneled every last crumb from the bottom of the bowl into your mouth. I totally forgive you…just don’t let me hear you doing it. I may or may not have my eyes closed.
And we’re off!
Before we get started, we need to grind up our cashews in a Mini Food Processor.
And we gather.
The original recipe called for cumin seeds but I totally forget to add them to my grocery cart.
Oops. Ground cumin for me!
I also used lacinato kale instead of curly. There’s something about curly kale chips that I don’t like.
It is categorized in the frisee/tumbleweed category in my brain.
We remove the leaves from the stems.
We wash & dry the kale with a Salad Spinner. The key to excellent kale chips is NO MOISTURE.
You want to remove ALL MOISTURE.
We mix our topping together.
We stir the kale in.
Really massage it in there.
And we place the kale on two parchment lined baking sheets.
Off to the oven they go!
DONE.
I call dibs on this chip! JACKPOT.
This recipe apparently serves four….
REAL TALK. I ate the whole batch in one sitting.
Come on! IT’S HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!
Masala Kale Chips
serves 4
recipe slightly adapted from Aarti Paarti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul
- 1 large bunch lacinato kale
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup ground cashews
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil
- 4 teaspoons curry powder
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more if needed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Preheat oven to 300F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Hold the stem end of a kale leaf in one hand and strip the leaf off the stem with the other. Ripe the leaf into big, chip-size pieces. Repeat with the rest of the kale. Wash and spin very dry.
In a very large bowl, whisk together the nutritional yeast, cashews, oil, curry powder, maple syrup, salt and cumin. Drop the kale into the bowl and toss, massaging the curry mixture into the leaves and making sure that they are all evenly coated.
Now, lay the chips on the baking sheets in an even layer, leaving a little room in between each leaf so that they don’t steam and go soggy in the oven.
Pop the baking sheets into the oven, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the kale is dried but not blackened. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on the sheets or on a wire rack. Tumble the chips into a bowl, and when cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
