Home Farm Herbery

How to Make All Kinds of Healthy Vegetable Chips©

By Arlene Wright-Correll

First off let’s talk about potato chips and what you can use to make them. You can use just about anything including string beans.

You need a one or two potatoes to serve four people as a side. (When using radishes, squash, sweet potatoes, zucchini, Kale or baby spinach, just figure out how much you will need per person.) They make a totally great accompaniment to burgers—or a pan-roasted sirloin. I like them a little bit thicker than a standard potato chip. I also like to leave the skin on the potato. If you prefer, though, peel the potatoes before slicing. Slice them into thin rounds.

If you have the time, soak potatoes or sweet potatoes* in ice cold water for about an hour to leach out some of the starch. (Less starch = crispier chip) and if you don’t, put them in a colander or strainer and give them a good, long rinse under cold, running water. Shake them around under the water to get them good and wet. Pat them dry with paper towels. You want to get as much water off them as possible. (Water splatters when it hits hot oil, and nobody likes a grease burn.) *No soaking for other veggies.

Line a baking sheet with a few paper towels. Set a rack on top. Set it aside.

Put about 2 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Set it on the stove over high heat. Heat the oil to about 380 degrees, if you have a candy thermometer handy. If you don’t, heat the oil until the surface shimmers, then start testing it. Dip (carefully!) the edge of a potato slice into the hot oil. If bubbles start to form furiously and immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry. If not, wait a minute or two, and then test again.

When your oil is hot enough, add a handful of potato slices to the pot. Pull them out of the oil with a wire skimmer or slotted spoon when they’re light brown and crisp. This should take about 2 minutes, depending on how thick your chips are.

Transfer the hot chips to your prepared rack. Sprinkle with Home Farm Herbery’s Oriental Potato Chip Seasoning. Repeat with the rest of the potato slices until you’ve fried them all. Enjoy.

Next let’s talk a little about the oil you will use. Two of the healthiest oils that you can use are sunflower and olive oil. These oils have a high flash point, and they contain healthy unsaturated fats. However, peanut, safflower and canola oil are great contenders for making chips or just for deep frying.

Once you have deep fried whatever chips you have made then you are going to season them. You can just season them with salt or a salt and pepper mix.

We like a lot of oriental flavors, so at Home Farm Herbery we made a wonderful Oriental Chip Seasoning  that is not only great on the chips it is great on sirloin steak or burgers.

Another one we created that is a big hit is our Barbecue Chip Seasoning  and we also find that is seasoning is quite versatile as it complements sandwiches, burgers, soups and more.

If you are anti-deep frying here is the one way we do our sweet potato chips with either seasoning.

Begin sprinkling the potatoes with either seasoning making sure they all get the blend of seasoning. Reserve some of the seasoning.

To a lined baking sheet, or multiple baking sheets, begin laying down the potatoes.

Place in the oven and cook for about 14 minutes (depending on your oven), then remove them, and turn the potatoes over, cooking for about another 10 minutes, or so until they are nice and crisp, but not burnt.

Keep an eye on them after the flip because all ovens are different and if you do not keep an eye on them, they can begin to burn, of which will leave a slightly bitter taste. If some become crisper then others, simply remove them and place them in a serving bowl.

Once all of them are crisp, add the remaining seasoning, toss, and serve.

I offered these up to the family one Sunday afternoon while grilling burgers.

The entire family loved them! They were a huge success and as I was going to offer them up with the grilled burgers, they did not last! They were just that good. Simple, home made, and packed full of that sweet heat, it was a great introduction to something new and interesting that is always a success when feeding my kids.

This is a great event to make into a family fun night. Everyone gets a chore, peeling potatoes, cutting, washing the various veggies, picking their own choices and making them. We even made deep fried pickles one time. Lots of laughter, conversations, not to say anything about the kids learning how to cook!

Teaching kids healthy eating and cooking as opposed to buying a bag of some kind of chips from a factory some where is a good option.

In the meantime…

May the Creative Force be with you.

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery