sweet potato and beet chips

Sweet potato and beet chips, sweet potato and beet chips – I can’t get enough!  Until a few years ago I had never tried beets.  We never had them at home and I saw them on salad bars but never branched out to try them.  The first encounter I had with the brightly colored vegetable was at the Whole Foods salad bar, where shredded beets are a staple item.

My dad always built his salads with lots of toppings, “gravel” as he calls it, including beets. When I looked over and saw him spooning them onto his greens, I figured it was a better time than any to try them, since I could sit them to the side without offending anyone if I didn’t like them. Revelation! Beets are so good! They are soft and sweet and their color permeates everything. Even better than raw beets? Beet chips blanketed in salt and rosemary. To make our snack even more colorful we throw some sweet potatoes in the mix.  Is it weird to have a favorite root vegetable?  Mine is definitely the sweet potato, all the way (a fact backed up by Thanksgiving dinner).  They say eat colorfully ;)

These chips get super crisp and crunchy when the vegetables are cut as thin as possible.  And use sea salt.  You won’t regret it.  When I tested these I made the full recipe of beet chips and half of the sweet potato recipe and Will and I went through all of them within one hour of them coming out of the oven.  I love the crunchy, wavy edges, the concentric circles in the beet chips, and the way the colorful chips contrast in the bowl.  It is the perfect snack for a dreary, colorless winter day.

I just want to reach into the screen now and grab a handful. These are delicious paired with warm goat cheese and herbs, or a Mediterranean flavored dip.  Got some hummus on hand?  Dig in!  We ate them so quickly we didn’t even get a chance to pull out any dips and they were still so flavorful.  And, with just veggies, spices and olive oil, they are healthy chips!  Chips you can feel good about when you eat all of them in an hour.  Hypothetically.  Just look at those edges. Healthy edges.

Thank you Whole Foods, for my love of beets, and thank you North Carolina for your number one status in sweet potato consumption.  Let’s make some more!

Sweet Potato and Beet Chips

Beet Chips
3 beets, peeled
2-2 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon rosemary
Sea salt, to taste

Sweet Potato Chips
2 large sweet potatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons rosemary
Sea salt, to taste
½ teaspoon paprika, optional
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a few baking sheets with aluminum foil, place a wire rack on each baking sheet, and spray the wire rack with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Using a mandolin or a sharp knife cut the beets and sweet potatoes into very thin slices. The slices should be smaller than 1/8-inch to create a crunchy chip. Put the slices into a large plastic bag or a large bowl and toss with the olive oil. You want all of the slices to be covered but not drenched; otherwise your chips are more likely to end up soft and not crisp. Mix in the rosemary and spices, if using, except salt. Toss the vegetables to coat evenly.

Place the beet and sweet potato slices on the prepared wire racks in one layer. Try not to overlap the slices – they won’t get crispy. You will probably have more vegetable slices than you have room for on the racks. Set them aside to rotate in after one pan is done. Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the sheets, and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the edges are crisp and getting darker. Remove the baking sheets and sprinkle the chips with sea salt. Let them sit to cool completely. They will get crisp as they cool. Serve chips on their own or with dip.