The green, salty, crunchy chip

If you don’t belong to a farmshare, you may not have run into the issue of what to do with big bunches of kale that wind up in your fridge. My previous solution was to blanche and freeze it for future use. But that stuff is still in the freezer from last year and I’m now receiving fresh bunches again. This time it must be used or donated.

I think I found a way for us to get through the stash – kale chips.

Of course, it’s no substitute for a potato chip. But they are surprisingly tasty – crunchy, light and salty. Appealing enough that I ate at least a quarter of the bunch of kale in the form of chips. It’s hard to imagine another way of snacking on that much kale.

When I offered “chips” to the two-year-old this afternoon, he was excited and ate up the entire portion. Of course, this was immediately after spitting out the borscht, frozen since January, I was trying to feed him. So perhaps almost anything seemed better in comparison. If he’s still willing to eat kale chips tomorrow, I think we’ll have ourselves a winner in this recipe.

Update: months later he requests them and he stuffs them into his mouth like popcorn, coloring his mouth, clothing and the floor green. It may be due to the salt I add to the “chips” and high sodium content. But for all the good stuff in kale, I think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. Still, I’ve been afraid to pack them in his school lunchbox. I’m too nervous that other kids will mock his version of “chips” and he’ll lose his taste for them.