Savoring the harvest: Crunchy kale

by June

Our family's favorite vegetable is kale. There. I said it. We would marry it if we could.

Winterbor kale fresh from the garden

We batted our eyelashes in delight when it appeared as a baby green crunch in spring salad. We oohed-and-ahhed over it melted into Tuscan bean soups. But we were ready to throw away all caution and elope with it when we discovered how to make crunchy kale.

We have friends who participate in a CSA. They bring home lots of kale. They complain about it. They try to foist their kale off on others (who often foist it right back). So we offered to introduce them to our beloved technique. Just as we suspected, they surprised themselves and swooned (all except for a certain sweet six-year-old who doesn't even, gasp, like chocolate).

Maybe you will swoon too. Kale deserves all the love it can get.

Here's all you do:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wash and thoroughly dry some kale leaves. If they're too big, tear them off the stem into, oh, four-by-four sections.

Massage each leaf with a nice quality extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle them with equally nice sea salt (though not too much because if you're like us, you'll want to put some on again at the end). Pop them into the hot oven. Watch them carefully. In our oven, they are done in about four minutes. In our friends' it was more like nine minutes.

You want them to look see-through green with just a hint of char around the edges. They should crunch like the most ethereal potato chip ever.

the same leaf after crisping in a hot oven

Stay tuned for our continuing series of harvest recipes. We're in full-tilt delight as our vegetables make their way from the garden to the table. Next up, edamame beans.