A nutritious and delicious snack made from one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world. This is ridiculously easy to make and tastes so good, you won’t be able to stop eating it. You may very well be mistaken for thinking you’re eating junk food!
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Total Time15 minutesmins
Servings: 4people (depending on how hungry you are)
Set the oven or air fryer to 180°C/350°F. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Wash the kale really well (I find it easiest to soak it for a few minutes in a basin full of water then swish it around to let the dirt fall to the bottom of the basin), then dry well, either in a salad spinner, or put it in a clean tea towel and spin it around a few times to get the droplets of water off the kale and onto the towel!
4 stems of kale
Cut along each side of the stem and discard the stem. Then chop the leaves into big bite sized pieces (be aware that they do shrink while roasting so you don’t want them too small). (Depending on how big and fibrous the leaves are, you could just tear the pieces off the stem instead of using a knife to cut it - see video)
Put the chopped kale into a big bowl and add the oil. Use your hands to rub the oil into the kale leaves. You really need to make sure it is rubbed into both sides of each piece so that it all cooks evenly.
1 tablespoon olive oil
Once covered in a thin film of oil, add the nutritional yeast and salt, and mix so that the flavouring is evenly distributed among the kale pieces.
1½ tablespoon nutritional yeast, ⅛ teaspoon salt
Oven Method
Pour the kale onto the lined baking sheet and spread out thinly.
Roast in the oven for about 10 minutes at 180°C / 350°F, turning the leaves half way through cooking. (Check the kale at 5 minutes to turn the leaves, then check again at 10 minutes. It may need a minute or two longer if it is not quite crispy but keep a close eye on it).
When it is dark green, just tinged with brown, and perfectly crispy, take it out of the oven and pour into a bowl. Serve immediately.
Air Fryer Method
Put the oiled and flavoured kale leaves into the air fryer basket with something heat-resistant with holes all over it, over the top of the kale leaves to hold them down. (You need to do this otherwise the leaves fly about everywhere and can get stuck in the fan). I use an upturned metal steamer basket which holds them perfectly in place whilst letting the air circulate because of the little holes.
Cook for 6 minutes at 180°C / 350°F (turning half way). (Make sure you use oven gloves to remove the steamer basket as it will be desperately hot to touch!). Serve as soon as it is slightly browned and crispy.
Notes
Kale stems are really tough so it’s best if you buy whole stems so that you can easily cut off the soft leafy bit from the stems rather than buying the packets of ready chopped kale that always seem to be chopped across the stem.
If you’re not into the nutritional yeast flavour, leave that out and just use the salt or you could sprinkle on some of my favourite “Everything But the Bagel Blend” after you take it out of the oven, just before serving. See the blogpost for more ideas of flavour combinations.