Kale sprinkles

A brilliant idea by Jill Dupleix as Christmas gifts–  you make a batch and seal in small jars, ready to sprinkle over anything from rice and noodles to scrambled eggs, tofu or fish. You can even sprinkle on top of bread or pastry.. a ready to go flavour bomb.

Pictured: Kale sprinkles

500g curly kale, aka green kale – 1 bunch or so

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp sea salt (not table salt)

½ tsp cracked black pepper

1 tbsp caster sugar

3 tbsp Asian crisp-fried shallots

Optional  -  ½ tsp ground chilli – depending on how spicy you want it, (I love chilli but prefer only pinch in this recipe)

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Prepare the kale – strip the leaves off the stems and tear into smaller pieces in similar sizes to cook evenly. Massage the oil into all the leaves to coat well. Spread onto the trays and bake for a minimum 10 minutes. Start watching it carefully every few minutes to check when the first leaves start to crisp – you need them all dry and crisp tp blend well and store well. Remove any as they crisp up and continue cooking any that still feel soft until they too are crisp. Depending on your oven etc will vary the time this all takes, it can be easily a 20 minute cook til they crisp, but you do not want them to burn so keep an eye on it carefully.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry fry pan until browned, and then cool them before blending as per below ( they will sweat in the mix and change the texture etc)

In a food processor, blend - kale, sesame seeds, sea salt, pepper, sugar, shallots and chilli if using. Blend carefully until you have fine sprinkles, seal in clean dry jars.

Will keep stored well for up to 2 months if you have dried and crisped the kale well and let the sesame seeds cool.

Makes 4 x 50g jars

Pictured: Kale sprinkles with noodles