Baked Veggie Chips

Super Bowl Sunday is a serious event. Not being a sports buff myself; growing up in Oregon, I could opt out of the raucous with ease. Sports fans in Florida are far more intense. There is no escape, so this year- I’m embracing! My roommates, Beth and Luc, are hosting a Super Bowl party at our house for 2012. It’s going to be epic carnage of yelling, cursing, sports jargon, and grub consumption. In order to entertain and satisfy the ladies attending with the brood, I prepared Baked Veggie Chips to be enjoyed while crafting in another room!

Ingredients
makes one large bowl

• 6 Large Carrots
• One Bag of Kale
• 6 Large Yellow Squash
• 2 bags of Radishes
• Olive Oil Spray
• Onion Powder
• Salt

First, prepare a baking sheet with a layer of paper towels (still attached if possible, for an easy lift later). If you own a mandoline, these work quite well for slicing the vegetables fast. Slice the carrots and squash about ¼ of an inch thick, and the radishes slightly less (made easy with a mandoline, if you don’t have one, don’t sweat the difference). Place each coin on the layer of paper towels. I layered the paper towel on top of each other as I went- you’ll find you need quite a bit of space. I found the largest carrots I’ve ever seen at my local Asian food market; if you have one near you, I’d take a look! The coins of the carrots were the size of jar lids; fabulous for this purpose. Radishes are tricky because they typically come quite small, however, I insist on them because the flavor is my favorite (give them a try!). Allow the vegetable coins to sit out for a few hours and even better if done so overnight. This part of the process dries the veggies out, and makes for a crispier munch rather than a squishy one.

Once dried, preheat your oven to 325F (the baking process took about two hours for me, working with two cookie sheets at a time, I suggest doing the same). Lift the paper towel layers off of the cookie sheet, line with parchment paper, and spray a light layer of olive oil onto it. You can get really creative with adding spices to the pre-oiled cookie sheet. I have seen people use garlic powder, garlic salt, cumin, curry, and turmeric, just to name a few. I stuck with onion powder and salt, because the flavor is generally agreeable.

Begin arranging your veggie coins (for uncomplicated baking, keep like with like, and they can be touching, but are best if not overlapping). Spray another light layer of olive oil, season them again, and pop into the oven! You will be looking for the edges of the veggies to brown and crisp slightly, for my oven this happened within the first 10 minutes (radishes first, squash second, and carrots last). It seems like a cookie sheet juggling act initially, but I found it worked fine to just take the single chips that were done, out first. After the veggies have crispy edges, turn the oven down to 225F, return the chips to the cookie sheets, and continue cooking for at least a half hour. The veggies will become hardened and crispy when done.

I haven’t forgotten about the kale! Kale is extremely delicate, so I save it for last. When your other veggies are finished, throw bunches of kale on the cookies sheets, spray with oil (lightly, always), season, and pop ‘em in. Kale takes 20 minutes or so at this temperature to crisp. Be sure to allow the chips to cool completely before dressing with your packaging. Present your pretty parcels the day of, and if you plan to store them, do so in an airtight manner for a few days. Every recipe I found differed in direction, based on the ovens and veggie size; I advise you to watch closely. Also, the extra crispy chips are my favorite anyway!

More Super Bowl snack ideas…

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Zoe (64 Posts)

Zoe is born and bred in Portland, Oregon and recently moved to Orlando, Florida. She studied sociology and philosophy at University of Oregon, and is currently employed at a law firm. Presently, she devotes her time to being lost in the tropical vegetation of her backyard, sun-scorched bike rides, repurposing everything she can think of, quirky cooking, and promoting the creative lifestyle that she loves.