Parmesan Ranch Kale Chips

Parmesan Ranch Kale Chips

So, I’ve made kale chips before, you know…olive oil, salt and pepper. I’ve even gotten crazy and added a little onion powder. That said, I kept seeing all these blog posts for cheesy (vegan) kale chips, that everyone claimed were out of this world. I wanted to try. However, I didn’t have any cashews, and they’re kind of high carb for me right now. Plus, I don’t really care whether or not the final result was vegan. Hence was born…3 ingredient Parmesan-Ranch Kale chips. Sooo good. Sooo easy. The hardest part was not eating both pans worth!

1 head of Lacinato Kale (the flatter kind…they crisp better, in my opinion without burning)
1/3cup ranch dressing – I used Ken’s Buttermilk ranch, because that’s what I had.
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Wash and spin (or dry on paper towels) your kale and de-stem it. Rip each leaf into a few pieces and place in a large, clean bowl. Dump ranch and parmesan on top of the leaves and use your hands to mix it well. You want ranch dressing on Every. Single. Leaf.

Once ranch-ed and cheese-ed, add the salt and pepper and mix again.

Using 2 large baking sheets (or 3), lined with parchment paper (don’t skip this step…they will STICK!), lay your kale leaves out as flat and as single-layered as possible.

Turn your oven on to 325 and place pans in the cold oven. Allow it to heat up with the chips inside. Check after approximately 15 minutes. You might need to pull some out, if they are crisp. Flip some over, you get the idea. Put anything that’s not crisp back in the oven and check every 5 minutes so that you don’t burn them, but they all end up nice and crispy.

Try not to eat the whole pan, or 3. If you have any left, save them in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. If they get un-crispy, just stick them back in the oven for a few minutes.

(This would probably work with other kinds of kale, however, I have never had luck cooking curly kale into chips evenly.)