Air Fryer Kale Chips with Parmesan

If you crave crunchy, salty snacks on a low carb diet you have to try these air fryer kale chips. They are flavored with lemon, parmesan and garlic to make a healthy low calorie keto snack that you can make in about 5 minutes in the air fryer. A great way to get your greens in, there are only 90 calories and 1.4g net carbs in a half batch of these crispy kale chips.

You might also like these low carb crisp bread crackers.

I haven’t made kale chips in years and since it’s January and I’m into all things healthy, I decided to try these air fryer kale chips with the flavors of lemon, parmesan cheese and garlic. They turned out so crispy and delicious in the air fryer that now I am hooked again.

For those of you who thing of kale as unappetizing, let me tell you that you won’t taste it at all. The result from air frying is a super tasty, crunchy snack that’s really easy to make. They make a great healthy substitute for regular potato chips.

Health benefits of kale.

Kale is a hearty green vegetable that is full of nutrients and also fairly inexpensive. It’s great for many dishes like salads but even better for making veggie chips like we are today because the leaf is so

Kale is a cruciferous family of vegetables and there are quite a few different types. Today we are using curly kale leaves which are the most common.

Not only is kale high in betacarotene, vitamin C, vitamin K and niacin it is also low calorie so it’s perfect for this low calorie and low carb snack.

One cup of raw kale has only 7 calories, 1gram of carbs and 1 gram of fiber. Learn more about the the healthy benefits of kale here.

Recipe ingredient I used and substitutions.

The simple ingredients I used to make this healthy snack is fresh kale, lemons, garlic powder, olive oil and parmesan cheese. I also used some salt at the end.

Fresh Kale Leaves
I bought a package of thoroughly washed and chopped fresh kale from Aldi. It was very convenient to me but the pieces were small when this recipe was done. So if you would like bigger chips you might want to buy a fresh bunch kale leaves from the grocery store.

When you do, you want to cut the tough stem away from the leave and then chop the remaining parts into pieces the size of the chip you want.

Lemons
You are only using the zest of the fresh lemons to add that fresh flavor but if you want you can add a squeeze of lemon at the end. I did not though. You can even skip the lemon zest if you want.

Garlic Powder and Olive Oil
I usually use fresh garlic in most of my recipes but you need to use the powder for this one. It distributes throughout the leaves better. I used regular olive oil but you can substitute with any kind of oil you want.

Parmesan Cheese
I used grated parmesan cheese which added so much flavor and it really coated the leaves well. If you use shredded I would consider adding it to a food processor or high speed blender and grind it until it was a powder. Again you want to this to distribute well over all the leaves and coat them so the grated is better.

If you are dairy free you can also substitute nutritional yeast which has a cheesy nutty flavor and a great healthy substitute for parmesan cheese.

Optional seasonings to try with this recipe are hot pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne for a little heat or even a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.If you want to play around with other seasoning ideas are dry ranch seasonings, everything bagel seasoning or even buffalo seasoning blend you can buy at grocery store.

How to make air fryer kale chips with parmesan.

Step 1: If you kale is not washed and chopped then do so. Make sure to dry it thoroughly them with paper towels and add to a bowl.

Step 2: Pour the olive oil over the kale and massage the leaves to coat all of them with oil. This will soften the leaves.

Step 3: Mix together half of the parmesan cheese, lemon zest and garlic powder in a small mixing bowl.  Pour over top and mix well to make sure the spices and cheese coat all the pieces of kale.

Step 4: Spray air fryer basket with nonstick spray and then spread out the kale chips in a single layer in the basket. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese over top.

Step 5: Air fry kale chips at 360°F for about 5 minutes or until the chips are crispy and the texture you like. Make sure they don’t burn though.

Step 6: When done place in a bowl or on a plate and season with salt then eat immediately. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

These keep pretty well out on the counter at room temperature or you can put them in the airtight container. If they need to crisp you could probably add them back to the air fryer for a 1-2 minutes more to crisp them up.

To make this delicious snack in the oven, preheat oven to 300°F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet. Spread out the seasoned kale leaves and bake for 20-30 minutes or until crispy.

However my husband and I ate the whole batch of these crispy kale chips which only had 180 calories and 2.8g net carbs. It was the perfect low carb snack for us.

More healthy veggie chips to try.

I love making chips from veggies, especially in the summer when my husband has a big crop of zucchini. Below are some of the vegetable chip recipes I have that I made in the air fryer, dehydrator, oven or even the microwave. These all make low calorie and low carb snacks.

• air fryer cabbage chips
• air fryer apple and pear chips
• nacho flavored, Za’atar flavored and cinnamon sugar zucchini chips
• microwave summer squash chips
• beet, carrot and sunchoke chips.

I also have keto buffalo chicken, parmesan and ham & cheese flavored chip recipes if you want to try them.

These air fryer kale chips were really good to me and the air fryer made them so easy to make. I will definitely be making them more often, especially when I’m craving a salty snack. I love that they are low carb and low calorie as well as healthy.

I also want to play around with more flavors of seasonings so look out for more posts in the future. I hope you like them as much as we did. Enjoy!

The nutritional data for ½ batch of homemade kale chips is 90 calories / 8.3g fat / 2g carbs / 0.6g fiber / 2.6g protein = 1.4g net carbs