Kale Soup & Potato Chips

I spent part of my day cooking. I made potato chips and a kale soup (no, not mixed together). Both turned out delicious! I listed the recipes on the sidebar (under "Yum Eats") but I'm blogging my experience with these two recipes here.

Yes, I actually made potato chips. They turned out tasty and no oil or frying was used so I'd say they're pretty decent for you. Click on "Potato Chips" on the list of recipes (sidebar) for the original recipe I started from but below is what I did:

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Water
• White vinegar (other types of vinegar would be fine)
• Kosher salt
• Olive oil or PAM
• Parchment paper

Directions:

• Wash the potatoes. You can peel them but I kept the skins on.
• Slice the potatoes. I use my wonderful food processor with the slicing blade attachment. If you don't have this, slice the potato about 1/16".
• The original recipe says to sprinkle salt on the potatoes then soak them in water for 10 minutes. I did this with half my batch. The other batch I salted, then soaked in white vinegar (I was going for a salt and vinegar flavor chip). I did soak the vinegar ones for about 10 minutes but next ime I will soak them longer for a stronger flavor.
• Dry the potatoes on paper towels, patting them dry.
• Single layer the potatoes onto parchment paper that has been sprayed/rubbed with a little olive oil or PAM.
• Sprinkle with salt or other seasoning (you could get really creative here: garlic powder, parsley, cajun seasoning, etc).
• Place another layer of parchment paper on top of the potatoes.
• Place in the microwave (yes, the microwave!!) and nuke for about 5 minutes. You want the chips to curl and become a very light golden color (if they're too golden, they'll have a burnt taste. You may have to play around with your first batch or two to get it right).
• Cool and eat!

Okay now onto the Kale soup. What is Kale? It's a leafy green related to the cabbage family and it's super duper good for you (loaded with Vitamins K, A & C). It's also thought to help in preventing the body from various cancers. To learn more about kale and it's health benefits click here.

So, raw kale is kind of pretty but when you cook it (in this case boil) it loses it's "prettiness." Don't let this fool you....it really is quite tasty. I made a delicious soup today and we had it for dinner. It is one that we will be doing over again. The original recipe calls it "Tuscan Kale Soup" but I think it's more of a Portuguese style that a Tuscan one.

I'm not going to write out this recipe. Instead, click on the link, "Kale, Chorizo & Potato Soup" on the sidebar (under "Yum Eats") and note the following additions/changes below:

• I didn't measure anything, except the liquid.
• I used 4 C of chicken broth & 4 C of water instead of the 8 C of water the recipe called for.
• I added about 3 large cloves of garlic (minced)
• I added some salt (but go easy because the chorizo is salty)....maybe add at the end.
• I chopped up the kale more than the original recipe called for.
• I diced the potatoes instead of slicing them and I didn't mash them....I left them diced. I also used purple potatoes and left the skins on.
• Next time I will serve some type of dense bread (French or Portuguese) with it.