Veggie Chips

golden beets, long red beets and zucchini (you can see how the beets "stain" the zukes!)

So I think I may have found my ultimate new snack- it's healthy and tasty all at the same time. If you use low starch vegetables even better! And you can be sure you are getting the daily requirement of your veggies. All in all, a winner in my book.

These "chips" have a huge advantage over store bought by a zillion miles- the reason obviously is that you make them yourself, but really what I noticed and like is that there is more moisture content. You get the true essence of the veggie coming through- no cardboard taste here folks!

All I did really was to take out my trusty japanese mandolin-and carefully (please use the guard here!) sliced the veggies thin but not to thin. Here you need to experiment with thickness- too think doesn't get you the crunch- too thin burns quickly so just practice til perfect.

I have found that the best vegetables to use here are the root veggies- and I purposely stay away from potatoes to keep it all low starch (and I can eat more this way too !). Beets, turnips and parsnips are wonderful and get a great crunch- the zucchini in the photos was an experiment and I did like them but they may have just too much water content to work as well.

Nevertheless, the "recipe" is no more than slicing the veg, then laying them out on a large sheet pan in one layer (overlap is not good in this case since we are going for the browning factor). I also use a piece of parchment which helps in the browning but really makes clean-up a breeze- just toss the paper out when done- no mess!

Just brush with olive oil, sprinkle on some coarse salt and grind on some pepper- they go in the oven at 400° for 45 minutes to an hour. I turn them at about 20-25 minutes. It will really depend on how thin you slice them. Remove them from the baking pan to a platter and sprinkle with a little more salt. My go to here is Maldon sea salt- it is flaky and chunky and helps bring out the flavors even more.

If anyone does try this, I hope you will let me know how it turns out for you and that you will become a convert as I have done from the over-salted over-processed store bought variety! If you have any other suggestions for other veggies to try, please let me know that too!