Make vegetable chips yourself to dispense with chips and other snacks full of additives. Homemade vegetable and fruit chips are natural, delicious and nutritious.=
- How to Make Homemade Vegetable Chips
- Methods to dehydrate vegetable chips
- Sun-made vegetable chips
- Vegetable chips in the electric dehydrator
- Vegetable chips in the oven
- Vegetables suitable for making vegetable chips
Vegetable chips enjoy increasing popularity as a lightweight, nutritious alternative to potato chips. Instead of buying them, you can easily prepare them yourself, which saves a lot of packaging waste.
You can prepare them using regional products or vegetables from your own garden and use your favorite spices.
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE VEGETABLE CHIPS
You won’t need many ingredients to make your vegetable chips. If you want to enjoy the flavor of unadulterated vegetables, you can completely dispense with aromatic herbs and spices, since the natural aromas of vegetables are concentrated during the drying process.
Ingredients (for one serving of vegetable chips):
- 500 g of vegetables of your choice
- 2-4 g salt and a pinch of pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Optional spices and aromatic plants, e.g., curry, dill, paprika, garlic powder, turmeric, cumin, rosemary, thyme…
Elaboration:
- Clean the vegetables, peel them as needed and cut them into thin slices (2-3 mm) with a mandolin or vegetable peeler. If you don’t have anything else handy, you can also use a sharp kitchen knife.
- Put raw vegetables in a large bowl. Add the vegetable oil, spices and aromatics and mix everything well. To intensify the flavor, you can leave the vegetables marinating for half an hour.
- Dry the slices of seasoned vegetables with the desired method.
METHODS TO DEHYDRATE VEGETABLE CHIPS
Regardless of which method you use, make sure raw vegetable slices don’t overlap as they dry. And check regularly, especially if the drying time is long, if the pieces are already dry.
SUN-MADE VEGETABLE CHIPS
A solar dehydrator removes water from vegetables at low temperature and without consuming electricity. It is a pleasure to prepare the chips in summer, when many types of vegetables are in season.
If you don’t have a solar dehydrator, you can also dry the vegetable chips by spreading them in the sun on a tray lined with baking paper. It will take longer than with a solar oven, but who is in a hurry?
VEGETABLE CHIPS IN THE ELECTRIC DEHYDRATOR
Larger quantities of vegetable chips can also be dried more efficiently than in a conventional oven in an electric dehydrator.
In addition to vegetable chips, fruits, aromatic and medicinal plants, mushrooms and the like can also be dried at temperatures below one hundred degrees.
To make vegetable chips yourself, it is advisable to choose a temperature between 55 and 65 ° C. The drying process takes several hours.
VEGETABLE CHIPS IN THE OVEN
If you don’t have a solar dehydrator or an electric dehydrator, you can use the regular oven to prepare vegetable chips.
A temperature of 100 to 150 ° C with a baking time of 30 to 90 minutes is usually enough to dry the vegetable slices.
The risk of the furnace is the chips burning. On the other hand, like higher temperatures, most of the vitamin C and other nutrients are lost.
It is advisable to use the lowest possible temperatures for delicate and very watery vegetables, such as zucchini.
Firm variances such as carrots or sweet potatoes can withstand a little more heat without burning. If the baking time is longer, it is advisable to turn the vegetable chips over.
If you are making different types of vegetables at the same time, it may happen that some vegetables are already crispy, while others need a little more time. In this case, go taking out the vegetable chips that have already dried and fill the empty spaces with more.
In order for moisture to escape during the drying process, it is important to open the oven door from time to time or prevent the oven from closing completely by interposing a wooden spoon.
VEGETABLES SUITABLE FOR MAKING VEGETABLE CHIPS
The following types of vegetables are especially suitable for making chips:
- Carrot
- Parsnip
- Parsley root
- Beetroot
- Sweet potato
But eggplant, pumpkin, radish and zucchini are also worth trying.
Leafy vegetables (cabbage, kale, and kale) can also be made into a delicious snack.
Those who prefer sweet can simply process part of the apple crop into crispy apple chips.
Vegetable chips are best consumed immediately or stored in an airtight container. If they have softened during storage, they can be crispy again by placing them for a few minutes in the dehydrator or oven.
