In South Africa and America we call them chips, but elsewhere they seem to be known as crisps. Whatever you call them, these delicious chips are fun to make but don’t restrict them to beets, chips can be made with any root vegetable you may have handy. Yellow and red beets, carrots, turnips or parsnips work well and each with their own unique flavour.
As its Valentines Day today, I thought a quick batch of beet chips was the perfect snack for lunch, as I am saving myself for my 5 course Champagne Dinner with good friends. Let the good times roll.
The trick to these chips is cutting the veges as thin as possible. A mandoline is the perfect tool, but I have this handy knife that does a multitude of things including thin slicing. They can be baked in the oven or fried. I chose the not so healthy route because it was quicker but remember if you are frying the oil must not be too hot. You need the chips to be crisped right through. They should take 3-4 minutes to crisp up depending on how thick you cut them. Obviously the thinner the better. Drain them on paper towel to get any excess oil off.
If any of the chips are still soft pop them back in the oil until crisp.Because the vegetables can be quite bitter, once cooled and dried, sprinkle them generously with your favorite flavoured salt. If you haven’t made flavoured salts before have a look at my post How to Make Flavoured Salts . They are so much healthier than store bought ones. I added Rosemary to mine and I think the flavour was great.
If you bake them in the oven, toss in olive oil and bake on baking trays and parchment paper at 175ºC for about 20 mins.
- 4 large or 6 baby beets
- sunflower oil
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 30 ml coarse salt
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Wash your beets and slice very thin with a mandoline or sharp knife. The thinner you cut them the better. the oil in a deep pan and test one chip first to see if the temperature is correct. The chips should fry slowly, so make sure the oil is not too hot.
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Fry in batches turning after a minute or two. Test for crispness by removing it from the pan and testing the middle. If it is still soft continue to fry until crispy.
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If the oil is too hot they will burn, so rather take a little extra time with lower temperature oil. They should take 3-4 minutes to cook crisp.
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Drain on absorbent paper and sprinkle with rosemary salt, or salt of your choice.
3 Comments
Will these stay crisp overnight
They are best eaten within a few hours
Hi Ev, I just added you on Google+, came here to check your website. I really enjoy connecting with other bloggers from around the world. What a beautiful blog you have, these are the kind of recipes I like and your photographies are simply wonderful. Thanks for the tips above, they are very useful to me specially the slow frying process and flavouring with salt – I will keep those in mind. I bookmarked your page and will come back often to check your updates!