I've been dying to make my own homemade vegetable crisps for quite a while now, after seeing similar recipes countless of times over the internet (I probably stalk too many health/fitness blogs for my own good). Today was the day granting my wish to put my extremely limited culinary 'skills' to the test. Not that these recipes require any cooking skills whatsoever, mind you - I think even a 3 year old could manage to make these.
So I began with the kale crisps - I rinsed the curly kale (one large pack cost me £1.25 in Tesco, so pretty inexpensive) in water and dried it slightly with paper towels. Apparently it's better to bake kale when the leaves are dry - don't ask me, I'm no kale expert myself (this is in fact the first time I've ever cooked or tasted kale! What a deprived life I've lived so far, huh?). I then spread out the kale on a foil-lined baking tray and drizzled around 1tbsp of Olive Oil on to the whole lot - followed by a dusting of salt (Himalayan sea salt, no doubt) and pepper. Et Voila - in the oven they go, bake for around 12 minutes at 400C/gas mark 6 for my old school oven.
In the meantime I decided to prep my carrots by washing them and cutting the tops and tails off. Now FINELY slice your carrots (I used two large carrots and that was enough for one tray's worth of crisps - do more if you wish, but you'll need to prepare a couple of baking trays so they're evenly spread). And when I say FINELY in caps locks...well, you know what you need to do.
Melt 1tbsp coconut oil in the microwave for a minute, and mix half a teaspoon plus a teaspoon of cinnamon powder separately. Mix your very finely chopped slices of carrot with the oil and spread evenly on to the baking tray, then dust with your mix of salt and cinnamon. By the time you're finished your kale should be nice and crispy, so replace them with the carrots and bake them for 20 minutes (or more depending on how good you were at chopping - I did a poor job and it meant my carrots didn't crisp as well as I'd hoped even after 30 minutes of baking. Apart from a few that were literally BURNT to a crisp. Not to worry, I ate them anyway).
And there you have it - delicious and moreish snacks to devour tonight in front of the telly-box with an alcoholic beverage or two. Beats Walkers hands-down, right? (don't be giving me that look - yeeeah I saw you!).
FYI: Kale is another amazing source of magnesium that you absolutely need to integrate into your diet, along with dark, high-quality cacao (see previous post!). If you didn't know already, our cardiovascular system, digestive system, nervous system, muscles, kidneys, liver, hormone-secreting glands, and even our brains all rely on magnesium for their basic metabolic functioning. It's a pretty cool mineral, you know.
Seriously - who ever said healthy food had to be boring? Pass this recipe along and join the buzz for healthy snacking! It's what 2013 is all about.
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