Cauliflower Leaf Crisps

I PROMISE you  it has nothing to do with weirdo diets. And everything to do with I hate to fail in my gardening efforts. 

Those of you who grow cauliflowers will understand.

Despite netting, protecting and slug removal my cauliflowers this year have ended up as so :

• 3 about the size of a golf ball,
• 2 the size of cricket balls
• 1 lovely large full head that was attacked by slugs.

I honestly don’t know how our ancestors stayed alive. 

Maybe they ate slugs. Maybe the slug eating was why the Romans left. 

I don’t know. 

Anyway. The one thing that I HAVE managed to grow successfully is a huge amount of cauliflower leaves.  Maybe they might have had the odd nibble by a caterpillar on the edge, but mostly i have had a LOT of leaves. 

So here’s where I go a bit ‘clean eating’  but only because I know cauliflowers are closely related to Kale. And I quite like a bit of kale.  However the cauli leaves are quite a bit tougher, so you can’t really use them in place of kale in salads or stir fry.

However…as I have discovered through sheer bloody minded resolve to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING from my love and attention to these brassicas, the leaves make a darn good crisp. 

How do I know this? Well, I stuck some in the oven, slicked with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and some spices.

VOILA! Crisps!

And I’m very glad I did. They withstand the heat of the oven better than kale and stay crispy in a Tupperware container longer.  That is if you can keep yourself from munching them all at once.

So, just like that, my frown has turned upside down and I can say my cauliflowers were a success this year, because now I have crisps. 

And who doesn’t love a crisp.

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Cauliflower Leaves Crisps

A nifty, thrifty way to make cauliflower leaves taste delicious

Author: Louise-Claire Cayzer

Ingredients

• 10 or so Cauliflower leaves
• 1 tsp extra virgin Olive Oil
• salt to taste
• sprinkle garam masala OPTIONAL
• sprinkle smoked paprika OPTIONAL

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to around 180C

2. Remove the stalks from the cauli leaves and cut into pieces around 1" square

3. Slick the olive oil onto the leaves and sprinkle with salt and spice of your choice

   
   

4. Put the cauli leaves onto an oven tray & bake for around 20 minutes until crispy

   
   

5. Greedily apply to face.