Healthy Snacking – ‘Crispy Kale’ (Kale Chips) with Gomasio

One of my first ever blog posts, back in June 2011,  was about ‘crispy kale’ and, to this day, it remains one of my all-time favourite snacks

While a lot of health food bloggers are currently enjoying raw kale salads or kale smoothies, my taste buds aren’t quite there yet. I do, however, LOVE crispy kale and will happily munch my way through handfuls of the stuff.

Crispy kale is also one of the best ways I’ve found to encourage Lil’ L to eat kale. I often put a bowl out as a starter or as a side dish and, before I even get to sit down at the table, the whole lot’s been demolished!

Kale

Over the past three years, I’ve been refining the way I make my crispy kale. In the early days, I had the oven temperature too high, so the kale would quickly burn on the edges. I’ve slowly lowered the temperature from 180C, and found 150C to be spot on – the kale becomes totally crispy with no burned edges or soggy leaf in sight.

Roasting the kale at the lower temperature also makes it stay crispier for longer. In an airtight container, it will stay crispy for days. (I’ve only trialled storing it for test purposes mind you, as there’s never any leftovers in my house!)

Crispy Kale

My favourite way to serve crispy kale is with a touch of salt, sugar and sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. I tend to grind the sesame seeds first, as it helps them to stick to the kale leaves. As you probably know, ground toasted sesame and salt is a Japanese seasoning called ‘gomasio’. You can buy it ready made in health food stores, but it’s super simple and cheap to make yourself.

Gomasio (Toasted Sesame Seeds & Salt Seasoning)

I use gomasio as a seasoning for lots of our Asian dishes, including stir fries. Since I like to liberally sprinkle it on, I only add a small amount of salt. I find that toasted sesame has a great flavour anyhow. It just needs a touch of salt to make the flavour ‘pop’.

Thanks to the two main ingredients – kale and sesame – this is one super healthy snack! Just one cup of cooked kale provides 354% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A, 89% of the vitamin C, and 1328% of vitamin K! Kale also provides good amounts of calcium and iron, as well as protein, dietary fibre and omega 3 essential fatty acids. Sesame seeds are also packed with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, rich in minerals including calcium and iron, and a good source of protein, dietary fibre and B vitamins.

Crispy Kale (Kale Chips)

Here’s the recipe for what is, for me, the perfect crispy kale. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

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Crispy Kale (aka Kale Chips)
Great as a starter, side dish or as a snack on its own, its taste is not dissimilar to the crispy seaweed served in Chinese restaurants. We love to flavour our crispy kale ‘sweet and salty’, but feel free to experiment with your favourite spice mixes.

Serves 2-3
Hands on time: 6 minutes    Ready in: 20 minutes

Ingredients
4 large handfuls of curly kale, thick stalks removed (about 100g)
½ – 1 TBSP coconut sugar or unrefined caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ TBSP olive oil
3 TBSP gomasio (see below) or sesame seeds

Method
Preheat the oven to 150C (130C fan) / 300F. Line two large baking sheets with non stick baking paper.

Wash the kale and tear into large bite-size pieces (the kale will shrink as it cooks). Use a salad spinner (or kitchen paper) to dry the kale. Place the kale in a bowl and give it a final dab with kitchen paper. Sprinkle in the sugar, salt, oil and sesame seasoning. Massage the kale with your hands until it is fully coated in oil.

Spread out the kale out on the prepared baking sheets. Make sure that none of the leaves overlap or are folded over,  otherwise they will steam (rather than roast) and won’t crisp up. Depending on the amount of kale you have and the size of your baking sheets, you may need to cook the kale in two batches.

Place in the oven and cook for 14 minutes. Check the leaves. If they are not 100% crispy, continue cooking and check at 2 minute intervals.

Crispy kale is most delicious eaten warm, straight from the oven. However, it can be stored in an airtight container where it will keep for up to a week.

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Gomasio
This makes a wonderful seasoning for stir fry dishes as well as crispy kale. The authentic version is made with unhulled sesame seeds but I tend to use the hulled variety (as that’s what I have in my store cupboard!) The traditional ratio of seeds to salt is about 15:1, but I prefer to use slightly less salt so I can sprinkle to my heart’s content!

Makes: about 80g / ¾ cup
Hands-on time: 5 minutes    Ready in: 10 minutes

Ingredients
80g / ¾ cup sesame seeds
¼ tsp salt

Method
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan (skillet) on a medium heat, stirring continuously until they start to turn golden and fragrant. Tip onto a plate and leave to cool. Roughly grind the sesame and salt with a mortar or pestle, or electric coffee/spice grinder. If using an electric grinder, you will only need a couple of quick blasts and the gomasio is ready (too much grinding and you’ll end up with sesame butter!)

Store the gomasio in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for weeks.

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Crispy Kale (Kale Chips)

Do you make crispy kale / kale chips? If so, I’d love to hear what your favourite seasoning is. Have you tried Chinese, Mexican or Indian spices yet?

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17 thoughts on “Healthy Snacking – ‘Crispy Kale’ (Kale Chips) with Gomasio

  1. I’ve like kale chips and do make my own (now and again). I have a fan oven and bake them at 140 degrees. I LOVE your flavouring, I must try making the next batch like that.

    The trouble with making kale chips is no sooner have they been cooked they’re eaten – we never have any left over to “store”!

    1. I never have any left over to store either! Fortunately, I find it doesn’t take much effort to make a batch. Lately I’ve been enjoying them as a lunchtime snack (on days when I’m working at home). I often make a batch on a weekend too (so the boys can share!)

  2. I love kale and usually add if to my smoothies. I also make kale chips (or buy them) quite regularly, I’ve found cooking them on my lowest oven setting gets them close taste/texture wise to store bought ones, I need a dehydrator to make them even better though!

  3. Funnily enough, I was a convert to marinated fresh salad kale, and kale in smoothies, way before I came around to kale crisps. In fact, I am still a bit unsure about kale crisps a lot of the time! I find them hit and miss, but will say that the few times I’ve made them at home I’ve liked them much more than the commercial ones. So, this recipe sounds like something to try 🙂

    1. I really need to try and get into kale salads and smoothies. I just find the flavour so strong. Even if I add the tiniest amount to my smoothie I can taste it :/
      I recently tried a packet of store-bought kale chips for the first time (dehydrated ones). I was surprised to find that I didn’t like them at all! I much prefer home-baked ones. My favourite way to eat them is warm, straight out the oven 😛

  4. I’m going to try this over the weekend, Sharon, as my curly kale at the allotment is rampant! I CANNOT imagine, though, that my children will follow Lil L’s example or even try it; they are deeply suspicious now after I sneaked tomatoes (enemy no. 1) into cake 😉 Will let you know!

    1. Good luck Sarah! Yes, do let me know how you get on. For your first attempt, it might be worth omitting the gomasio seasoning and simply roasting the kale with oil, salt and sugar. Not everyone adds sugar to their kale chips but Lil’ L found the kale too bitter without it. As soon as I added a touch of sweetness, he happily munched away 🙂

  5. I had no idea gomasio was just sesame seeds and salt. Thanks for that! I love learning…

    I will have to try my hand at making these. I usually do kale chips in the dehydrator because they are fool-proof, whereas every time I cook them in the oven I burn them!! But, no dehydrator here, and a beautiful bag of kale in my fridge, so oven it is! I will see if the magic 150 C works for me! I can’t wait to try these!

    1. I’ve honestly never had a fail with baking them at 150C. They always come out super crispy and no burnt edges. Really hope it works for you too! xx

  6. They sound absolutely delicious! I’ll have to give them a try! Almost every time I make a batch in my dehydrator I make Cheesy Kale Chips. I have made salt & vinegar ones too which were delicious, which reminds me I need to put the recipe up on the blog. I also made a Mexican flavour batch but they were WAY too hot!

    1. Ooh salt and vinegar sounds lush! Definitely going to have to give that one a try.
      I don’t think I would have the patience to wait 6 hours for kale crisps… I can just about hang on 12 minutes then as soon as the oven pings, I dive straight in. Half the time they don’t even make it into a bowl lol!

  7. Believe the hype!! Amazingly lovely – very much like crispy seaweed. I used my “parmasio” recipe from Robin Robertson that I mentioned on veganrecipehour, Sharon, and it was fabulous. Will definitely be making frequently. Thank you 🙂
    Parmasio: half cup of sesame seeds, dry toasted as above then ground with an equal amount of nooch/Engevita Nutritional yeast and half a teaspoon of salt. Keeps well in a jar in the fridge.

    1. Crispy kale is amazing isn’t it? So pleased that the recipe worked out for you 🙂 I’ve definitely got to try the sesame and nooch combo. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe xx

  8. I LOOOOOOVE Gomasio, my partner always garnish his rice with gomasio and furikake (seaweed seasoning) and stir fries, haha, just like you ;). I’ve never used gomasio on crispy kale before, that’s a clever way to eat them this way with an Asian twist! I’ve never made crispy kale or kale chips (I prefer crispy kale over chips, that term is very common in the U.S. because they aren’t chips to me, haha), but I’ve had a variety of crispy kale, mostly nooch on them. Mmm, hard to say what is my fave seasoning, I really like five spice pepper, salt/pepper (asian) and in everything else, including furikake! ❤

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