Balaboosta Crispy Kale with Nigella and Sesame Seeds

Kale chips are not an uncommon output from my kitchen.  Baking kale to thin crisps is a great way to use slightly wilted, leftover kale that I recommend everyone try.  

However, my kale chips aren't usually that special - just some olive oil and salt.  I've thrown some garlic on kale chips on the past, but that's about it.  

I've never felt a desire to gussy up this approach until I checked the Balaboosta restaurant cookbook from the library, on the recommendation of a co-worker.  I've never been to the Balaboosta Mediterranean / Middle Eastern restaurant in NY, but one of my London-based co-workers highly championed this cookbook, so why not?  

The Balaboosta Crispy Kale with Nigella and Sesame Seeds recipe provided just a few slight variations to my usual kale chips approach.  First, you bake the kale chips for a longer period of time (approx. 30 min) at 275 degrees instead of a shorter period of time at a higher heat.  Second, you spice up these chips by adding nigella and sesame seeds, as well as the optional ingredients of lemon juice, tahini, and garlic.  I ended up using just the nigella seeds, citrus juice (lime instead of lemon), and garlic, and omitted the tahini.

The final dish, pictured above, was good, but not great.  The citrus, nigella, sesame, and garlic added just marginal, additional flavor to the chips and didn't really "wow" me.  That being said, this might be a good approach for a Mediterranean / Middle Eastern dinner party in the future.

In addition, at least this approach retained the general simplicity of my kale chips recipe and probably just adds 1 minute to the overall preparation time.