Caesar Kale Chips with Dip

Sorry for that little hiatus folks! I took last week off from blogging to work on a large advertising shoot. I was assisting a food stylist I love working for- Frances Boswell (of the beautiful Kitchen Repertoire). We had a great time, making everything from sandwiches to lattes, to oatmeal. 

After 5 eight-to-ten hour days of cooking, I just wanted to come home and eat simple, healthy snacks. So I decided to whip up some kale chips. Crispy, salty, crunch, and totally addicting, kale chips are one of my favorite tv night snacks. I can devour an entire bunch of kale over the course of just one episode of Game of Thrones.

That's sort of the magical thing about kale chips. I'll eat as much kale in a snack of chips as I would in a dinner salad. These would be a fantastic way to get a picky eater to eat more leafy greens. The earthy bitterness of the kale is dulled by the crisping, and the garlic and onion powder are what really shines through. 

You can use lacincto kale, as I did here, to produce a more flat, traditional looking chip, similar to a potato chip, or you can use curly kale to get a three dimensional chip with a lot of crunch power. It's important to coat every leaf in olive oil, but don't soak them or they'll take longer to crisp up in the oven. Enjoy!

KALE CHIPS

2 big bunches kale

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1-2 tsp olive oil

CAESAR DIP

1 clove garlic

1 tsp anchovy paste

1 dash worcestershire sauce*

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 C olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard

dash of coarse black pepper

Preheat oven to 300F. Wash kale and thoroughly dry. I use a salad spinner to dry my kale as it needs to be totally dry or it won't crisp well in the oven. 

Remove the large stems from the kale leaves, and tear into 3 inch pieces. Toss with  1-2 tsp olive oil, until kale is coated but not soaked in oil. If you have one of the refillable olive oil spray bottles, they are lovely for this sort of thing. Arrange kale leaves in a single layer on oiled (or parchment lined) pan. If you have a large oven, you can do two pans of kale side by side. Otherwise you will need to do 2-3 rounds of baking to crisp all the kale.

Combine all the dry spices, mix well, and sprinkle over the kale. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pans and cook another 12-15 minutes, until kale is crispy. Remove from oven, and allow to cool on pan for 2-3 minutes before removing. 

While the kale cooks, prepare your dressing. Using a garlic press, press the garlic clove into a small bowl, or chop finely and add to a small bowl, to this, add the lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, anchovy paste, pepper, and mustard. Whisk until well combined.  Continue whisking, and very  slowly begin to drizzle in the olive oil. Whisk hard, and don't pour too fast, the idea is to emulsify the oil into the dressing, so it becomes thick and smooth. You can also use an immersion blender for this (though in that case, don't blend too long or it gets super thick). You won't over-whisk this by hand, so just keep going until the dressing is nice and thick, like ranch dressing would be. Go further than you would for typical caesar dressing, as this is for a dipping sauce. 

Serve immediately, or store the dressing in the fridge and the chips in a nice dry place until you're ready to serve. Enjoy!


*In case you're Paleo, here is a link for a paleo-friendly Worcestershire Sauce