Christmas has long since passed and here I find myself yet again, trying to get back on the healthy eating wagon. So, with that in mind, I've been looking for tasty alternatives to fatty food. I came across Victoria's Tweet recently, declaring her addiction to kale.
I thought it sounded alright, I imagined it would taste a bit like crispy seaweed that you get from chinese restaurants and potentially replace any craving for salty snacks like crisps. So, I came back from shopping with a bag of curly kale, ready and hopeful about this new discovery and tipped half the bag on a baking sheet, sprinkled with some Maldon sea salt and popped it in the oven.
Now let me tell you, if you're planning on trying this - you need to watch it carefully, as it can burn very quickly - you can see in the first photo that some of ours has slightly burnt bits on. I think we cooked ours for about 10 or 15 minutes (I know, I should really have timed it) and I think really, it could have done with ever so slightly less in our oven, with it being fan assisted.
The end result is errrm, interesting. The kale does go very crispy, but it is also very delicate too so a light hand is needed when picking it up, as it does have the tendancy to collapse in your fingers and go everywhere. My initial taste of the finished product did kind of remind me of seaweed, but then I got an aftertaste... not a very nice one. It reminded me of the smell of cigarettes, mixed with cabbage - I don't know if this is because it was on for slightly too long or not, but as a non-smoker, it made me feel ill. I couldn't finish it, and I'm too scared to try again - ha, wimp I am.
So, a fairly unsuccessful mission, but at least I tried. Have any of you tried this before? Can you report back to me if it is normal to have this weird aftertaste, or was I just unlucky?
