A couple of weeks ago on one of our cooking video segments, I made Spicy Grilled Chipotle Burgers and Homemade Potato Chips.
Once I saw how easy the chips were to make in the microwave, I wanted to try making them with other veggies. Some worked better than others but they all tasted wonderful (except for one.) Two key things to remember when making these is to slice the vegetables VERY THIN and make sure you blot off all the moisture so the vegetables are totally dry.
I decided to experiment with a regular russet potato, kale, sweet potato, parsnip, turnip, and spinach. You can make these in the oven (400-450 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on what you’re cooking) but I used the microwave for all of these.
For my turnip (as with all) I cleaned it, cut off the ends, and then thinly sliced it. You can use a mandolin or a very sharp knife. I own a mandolin but have only used it once because I sliced my knuckles and need to practice more apparently (or wear heavy-duty gloves!) Once you have your vegetable of choice sliced, blot with paper towel. A lot of these vegetables have juice that pops up when sliced and you want that dried off to. Put paper towel on a microwave-safe plate and put your sliced vegetables on it. Try to keep them from touching each other. Brush with olive oil or any oil you want to use. I also used garlic olive oil that we bought in Manitou at The Olive Tap (love that store!) http://www.theolivetap.com/ Then add whatever seasonings you want. I experimented with kosher salt, sea salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, dill, garlic salt and cumin.
Now when I tried the spinach leaves in the microwave (I cooked everything on high heat for 3 minutes and then pulled out the crisped chips, continuing to nuke for about 30 seconds until they were all done), my paper towel caught on fire! I don’t know if it’s because there was oil accumulated on the plate after trying so many different things or if the spinach was too wet…one leaf exploded, sparked, and an actual flame appeared, and burned the paper towel. I’ve never had that happen before but I just wanted to add that as a caution.
Kale won my “favorite veggie chip” award. I just washed, dried, and then tore the leaves in bite-size pieces. Sea salt, pepper and just a bit of olive oil were perfect for it.
Slicing the vegetables as thinly as you can really makes a difference. It they are too thick, they won’t crisp up. You can see the difference here. (If they crisp up correctly, they resemble kettle chips in a way.) But both tasted great!
A few combos I tried were sweet potato with cayenne pepper, along with sweet potato and cumin (I also added kosher salt.) The russet potato with sea salt and cracked black pepper was my second favorite, and the dill sprinkled russet was pretty darn good too. I used garlic salt on the kale but still preferred it with just black pepper and kosher salt.
The vegetables will shrink as they dry up (as I found) so I would use larger sized vegetables.
Again….
- Thinly slice vegetables.
- Place on a paper towel lined microwave-safe plate.
- Brush with oil of choice (it doesn’t take much!)
- Sprinkle with seasonings.
- Microwave on high for about 3 minutes (they vary so I’d start checking after about 2.)
- As your chips crisp up and brown, pull off the plate until they are all cooked (or pop in your mouth as I do the second they are done.)
- Microwave at 30 second intervals to continue cooking them.
- These make great snacks for the kid too.
- Gluten free and vegan.
Kale (that I cooked a bit too long), sweet potato, turnip, kale (cooked perfectly), russet potato, parsnip and spinach…they were all wonderful and didn’t taste healthy! Super easy way to use up vegetables too. *I didn’t picture our spinach once it cooked because I just couldn’t get it to taste good! And the “fire” freaked me out too!