Kale chips

May 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »

A few days ago I was walking around the market trying to figure out what to make for myself during our cookout. I grabbed a bunch of kale and figured I’d try kale chips for the first time. I’ve been hearing a lot about them, but have never tried it. I washed my kale, spread it out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkled the kale with salt, pepper and nutritional yeast flakes. I baked it for a few minutes until it got nice and crispy. As soon as I took them out of the oven I popped one in my mouth and was pleasantly surprised. These were in fact delicious, crispy pieces of heaven. Seriously. Wow!

I brought them outside for everyone else to try. Juan’s cousin loved them more than anything. He was convinced they tasted exactly like another green plant. But I won’t go there. What I will tell you is that everyone loved them. Everyone except Juan that is. He said they tasted too green. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Kale just may be my new favorite vegetable. To tell you the truth I never thought of baking kale. Ever! Who knew you could turn kale into a chip? And why am I just now finding out about this? I feel so out of the loop right now.

Polenta fries

May 18, 2010 | 8 Comments »

I tried polenta fries for the first time a few months ago from Candle 79. I thought it was one of the best things I had ever tasted. I never thought of making them myself because I assumed they were too complicated. It’s not really like me to walk away from a challenge, but I was afraid of messing up so badly that I’d never get to enjoy them again. I’m weird like that. Well, tonight I wasn’t very hungry. I wanted to eat something small and I totally wasn’t feeling a smoothie. I had some polenta on hand and figured I’d give in and try making those delicious fries myself. If I messed up it’s no big deal. I wasn’t so hungry anyway.

I looked up some recipes online. Most called for using the tube version which I don’t care for AT ALL. I watched some videos on YouTube and took a little bit of info from each video and decided to just wing it. I boiled 2 cups of water and added 1 cup of polenta. I stirred it up and added some salt and vegan parmesan and continued to stir until the mixture thickened. Then I placed the mixture into a lightly oiled baking dish. I spread it out evenly and then refrigerated it for about 2 hours. Once it was completely hardened I flipped the dish over the counter and sliced the polenta into strips. Then I fried it until golden brown on each side and seasoned with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. These totally hit the spot. I only wish I had that delicious chipotle ketchup to go with them. Maybe next time?

These were definitely much easier than I imagined. Why did I wait so long? Silly me.