Crispy Spinach Chip
Ha! Circa ‘twenty some years’ ago, if you would ask me to eat spinach, that quote right there would’ve been exactly what I would’ve said. I can still recall my parents waiting persistently at the dinner table til near bedtime waiting for me to swallow my last bite of cooked spinach from my plate. No joke. And to be honest, I’m still unsure of eating a boiled pile of the stuff…However, I do LOVE spinach in many other forms, especially raw in a salad. Fresh…I’ll eat it every single day! In chip form…just as often. Why more “chips” on the blog? Well, as probably mentioned before, crispy, crunchy chips are my kryptonite. My kind of “chocolate cake” if you will. So for the lovely and long 40 days of lent, I’ve decided to give up my salty frenemies.“No problem” I thought to myself. Lately, I’ve been scarfing down my Spiced Tuscan Kale Chips like they were going out of style. This got me thinking…what else can I make chips out of? Mmmm…if it works so well with kale: the curly, leafy green, then why not with spinach leaves, which incidentally are the perfect shape of a chip already! So, I followed my recipe for the kale chips, but added an extra little ingredient, which I’ve been testing out lately…lemon zest. Oh my yum, these turned out GREAT! Salty, spicy, bitter, crispy…healthy! Trust me, if you liked the kale chips, you’ll love the spinach chips as well. And be sure to stay tuned to the blog, because I’ve got a couple of other “chip” recipes up my sleeve…Now here’s my new little tip when roasting…instead of using parchment paper, place a “cooling rack” on your baking sheet and place the spinach leaves on top…this will create a wonderfully new crispy texture to the chips. I also found it makes them turn less brown. AND it actually gives them a little bit of a “crinkled chip” look and texture. To me, this tasted better than placing them on the pan. When doing so like that, I found them to be too “flat” and paper like, rather than like a crispy, crunchy, glorious chip.
Equipment
- 1 oven
- 1 baking sheet
Ingredients
- 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves stems trims
- 1/2 – 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- 1/2 – 1 tsp coarse sea salt
- 1/2 – 1 tsp crushed ancho chilies
- zest of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Wash and pat dry spinach leaves and trim stems.
- Place in large bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and chilies and toss to coat.
- Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet, and place all the spinach leaves on the cooling rack, ensuring they’re all on one layer.
- Grate lemon zest over layer of spinach.
- Bake in oven for 10 minutes, but make sure to watch them in case they start to get too dark.