Would you try these chewy chocolate chip kale cookies? Defying all logic, the recipe is surprisingly great!
Chocolate chip cookies with kale
Sometimes you do things for the shock value.
After all, how often is it that you come across a recipe idea that not a single other person on the internet has tried before??
So you make the cookies.
But then you are the one who is shocked… because they actually taste really good!
I made chocolate chip kale cookies solely because I wanted to see what would happen (and kind of because I thought it would be funny), NOT because I ever dreamed they’d turn out well.
I had extra kale on hand and figured, “Why not?”
Sometimes I get bored of just making the same old things time and time again, and nothing gives my creative mind more excitement than experimenting in the kitchen and eating the ridiculous results.
And yet, these kale cookies turned out so well that if you didn’t know the kale was in there – i.e. if you closed your eyes and tried one – you would have absolutely no idea!
Plus, the green makes them perfect for Christmas without the use of any artificial colors or sprinkles.
I’m not sure you’ll take my word for it.
You will probably roll your eyes at me and think, “Ugh. There goes another basic influencer taking the kale trend way too far…”
And normally, I would agree with you.
As I wrote in my post for Cauliflower Pizza Crust, I tend to rebel against anything that’s trendy, especially where food is concerned.
Kale is already delicious in its own right, sautéed with garlic and oil or tossed into a salad with ginger-sesame dressing and roasted vegetables.
So why go crazy and put it into ice cream, chocolate cake, soda (yes, kale soda is a thing), or chocolate chip cookies?
Seriously, though, these cookies just taste really good, kale or not!
Sometimes, a recipe can really surprise you.
So try them if you dare!
Chocolate Chip Kale Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup spelt, white, or oat flour, loosely packed (125g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup sugar (or coconut sugar or xylitol)
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp milk of choice
- 2 tbsp oil or melted butter
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup raw kale or spinach (stems removed)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Process kale or dice it extremely fine. Combine all dry ingredients except kale in a medium bowl, then stir in remaining ingredients to form a dough. It will be dry at first, so keep stirring until a cookie-dough texture is achieved. (Add 1 additional tbsp milk of choice only if needed – I didn't need it.) Roll into balls. Place on a cookie tray, and bake 11 minutes. They will look underdone. Remove from the oven anyway, and let them cool 10 minutes, during which time they will firm up. You can also make extra cookie dough balls and freeze them to bake at a later date.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Looks interesting, and I have a friend who would probably love them. One question, though – you specify not to add the kale when mixing the dry ingredients, but then you don’t mention the kale when you talk about adding in the wet ingredients. I assume the kale gets mixed in the with the wet ingredients. Can you confirm that?
Hi, sorry for the confusing wording on my part! Yes, the kale goes in with the wet ingredients. I updated the recipe to be more specific. 🙂
Can you use whole wheat flour?
I’m confused when do you add the kale?
Never mind. I see you already changed the directions. 🙂 thanks
I was wondering what those specks of green were!! I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen kale in cookie form, and I’m pretty impressed by your creativity 😉
This is such a splendid idea on how to use everyone’s beloved or not-so-beloved green! I feel as if you either love kale of you hate it. Anyways, you might want to try making COMPLETELY green cookies someday! It would be a SUPERB unusual recipe! “I do not like green cookies Sam I am!”
Another fun way to get green in your baked goods – Use sunflower seed butter and baking powder!
I usually love your blog. But this has taken things too far. I love kale. I eat it daily. But kale in a cookie!? Just enjoy the treat for what it is and stop trying to make it ‘ Healthy” .cookies are not healthy. They are not supposed to be! Calling a cookie healthy only encourages overeating.
Bad plan.
I would recommend reading the actual post before commenting. It might surprise you 😉
@Chana: This recipe is not a “bad plan”. The idea that we “treat” ourselves with unhealthy things at all is a bad plan and encourages us to look at a bad thing as a good thing. Thank you, Katie, for sharing your kale cookie recipe. I love it and so do my kids!
OMG how fun! I don’t know if I could convince my kids to eat them, but it’s a cool idea =)
Do you think this would work with frozen kale? I have lots of bags of frozen kale, spinach and parsley for smoothies. Though the parsley could be weird…hmmm….
@Genevieve: I used 1 cup frozen kale. Heat it up slightly on the stovetop and hand squeeze it to release as much water as you can. You want it to be as dry as possible before adding to the recipe. 🙂
I’m so excited to try these! How long do they keep on the counter for? (As in, if I make them Thursday will they last until family Christmas tree decorating on Sunday?) (if I don’t eat them all first! Haha!)
Same as traditional cookies… which in my case is not very long 🙂
The specks of green look really nice!
Thank you for posting! I made these with my daughter today and both of my kids loved them! They had no clue there was kale in there. These are great and I will definitely make these again.
This is such a creative idea to get more greens in. I’m definitely going to be making these for my family.
– Charmaine
http://charmainenyw.com
As much as I love kale, I am skeptical of these, lol! But, I would try them! I love how pretty the flecks of kale are in these cookies. They remind me of these chocolate chip avocado cookies that I make…and you would never know there is avocado in them! http://www.bitesforfoodies.com/recipes/avocado-chocolate-chip-cookies/
So creative!! You are right, they are perfect for christmas 🙂
Whenever I make cannabis cookies (it’s legal where I am), I also make a batch of regular cookies to have something to munch on. I love this idea and will be using it to differentiate between the two batches (obviously the weed ones should be green 🙂
I don’t know you and I already love you
My name is Lauren Witsiepe and I have to tell you Katie, I truly look more forward to your emails than any other email that gets sent to me. You have a gift sister. If you have nasty comments coming to you, ignore them entirely. You make your pictures look so beautiful, your recipes are so creative and healthy, actually healthy not sort of healthy. And you’re website is simple, not cluttered like some blogs.
Thank you for sending your sweetness to our emails. Its who you are and you need to remember that sister!