Crispy Kale!
When we first discovered kale cooked this way, on an outdoor patio, accompanied by a juicy flank steak and an amazing glass of red wine, we couldn’t get enough of it. Three of us devoured a sheet pan of the crispy, salty, melt-in-your mouth roasted leaves in what seemed like seconds, and in that moment we knew it had to be a regular on the Nebo menu.
That first batch was made with the traditional curly kale you usually find in grocery stores (or garnishing hotel buffets in the 1980s). Winterbor, Ripbor, Starbor are different varieties of this kind of kale, and because it’s so widely available, it’s what we imagined we would use at Nebo. But then the Turner Farm (the island farm where much of our produce comes from) showed up with some other beautiful varieties, and we started serving those as well—mainly Red Russian and Toscano, which I think is almost the same as Lacinato, which I often find and buy at Whole Foods. This latter variety emerged as my favorite for the way it cooks as much as the way it tastes.
We were thrilled at the response this seemingly unique appetizer received, and indeed there were times when we couldn’t keep up with demand! We nibbled it in the kitchen and knew we’d had enough when our tongues started to feel tenderized by all the salt. It was only toward the end of the summer that we started to hear requests like “Could we make the kale with less salt” or even with “no salt.” I have to admit that at first we pooh-poohed these comments, saying “it’s meant to be salty—that’s the point.” But though its beauty is its likeness to potato chips, I started to worry that maybe we weren’t preparing it very consistently. So we started some internal experiments in which we started measuring the salt for the first time. Lo and behold—the perfect version calls for a LOT less salt than we were usually using.
We regret that some of our customers got bowls that were just too salty last summer, and if you were one of those people, let us know and we’ll send out a complimentary bowl of the new and improved recipe for you to taste test. Just to be clear, we still like it salty, and we’re using more olive oil than we did before, but we think it’s a big improvement and we thank all the people who had the courage to speak up and let us know when it wasn’t right!
So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for the “perfect” crispy kale:
1 bunch lacinato or toscano kale (though any variety will do)
olive oil to fully coat all the leaves
¼ tsp kosher salt (if you have to use table salt, just use a bit less)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Tear kale from stalks onto a standard-size cookie sheet or into a 9×13 roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil over it and toss with your hands to fully coat each leaf. Sprinkle salt over and toss again to make sure there are no pockets of salt. Kale should fully cover pan surface and should only be 1-2 leaves “deep.” Roast for 12-15 minutes, till kale is dark, almost black, and fully wilted—it should be crispy, not soft, and there should be very little green left.
Scoop off the pan and into a large bowl to serve. Surprisingly it’s great the next day, so feel free to make lots. Our daughter, Hella, loves it!
