Don’t tell anyone, but we had some potato chips around here for Thanksgiving. I wanted to make that French Onion chip dip again that is in Better Than a Box, and I’m telling you: they were good.
It really is far too easy to overeat things that are crunchy, salty, and a little greasy. Even if you know they’re bad for you!
As we head into a month of great food temptation, allow me to share a recipe to combat the munchy crunchies, one that will also help you preserve some of the last root veggie produce that may still be local in your area.
Not only are Veggie Chips munchy, crunchy, salty, and good for you, they’re also gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, nut-free, and egg-free – which can be hard to come by in a snack food!
I say something similar about the crispy roasted chickpeas in Healthy Snacks to Go – the many spice varieties are super fun to experiment with. When I made some recently, my husband wandered in to the kitchen to see what goodness he was smelling and said, “Oooh, you haven’t made these in a while. Those are good!” Love that! This is Cool Ranch shown below:
But I digress.
On to the veggie chips!
Kitchen Experiments on Veggie Chips
As you might imagine, I’m pretty immune to just about all of the checkout lane temptations in a grocery store, but I totally splurged on a box of bulk “dried vegetable chips” at a local market last winter. They were packed in bulk and had the following ingredients: carrots, squash, sweet potato, taro, green beans, canola oil, dextrin, salt.
Other than canola oil being a newfangled thing (see my baseline fats chart for what I do with fats and oils) and dextrin a random additive, those are pretty pure ingredients! I quite enjoyed the munchy crunchies and immediately started wondering if I could replicate them.
RELATED: Air Fryer Vegetable Fries
Since then I’ve tried a great many ways to make vegetables crunchy – and also edible, preferably tasty.
Veggies I’ve dried:
- sweet potatoes
- green beans
- beets
- turnips
- carrots
How I prepared:
- sliced
- shredded
- cut in sticks
Techniques I’ve tried:
- dehydrating raw
- dehydrating after:
- oven roasting
- deep frying (using my lazy French fry trick)
- sautéing
- steaming
As it turns out, I’m fairly certain the snacks I purchased would have been more accurately labeled “fried and dried vegetable chips,” but they wouldn’t have appealed as well to most of the healthy foods crowd.
Would you like to know the results of all my experimenting?
RELATED: Rutabaga Recipes
Trying Sliced “Root Chips”
Beets, turnips, and sweet potatoes all act very similarly when dehydrated, so we’ll lump them all together here.
I dried sliced root vegetables in the following ways at 155F (since the food was mostly cooked already anyway; enzymes die at 150F):
- raw
- deep fried (about 7-8 minutes until just barely tender)
- sliced, then roasted for 20 minutes at 350 or 400F (until crisp tender)
- roasted whole until tender (like a baked potato), then sliced
The crazy thing is that all four preparations have just about the same result after 17ish hours in the dehydrator: They’re pretty tough and inflexible, a snack you have to really want to eat as opposed to being drawn to it and addicted by it.
The photo above is the raw sliced test. I cut them by hand, fairly thinly, and they’re edible, but not great.
Thus far my homemade sliced root chips have been like a hard candy, or maybe a firm taffy, in efficacy – something to suck on, chew a little bit, and keep your mouth busy. I can’t say I truly enjoy eating them…but when I just need something to munch on for whatever reason (please tell me I’m not the only one who eats to stay awake sometimes!), these are perfect since they actually nourish while distracting my mouth rather than break down my systems like good old white sugar.
The two important takeaways from this section for you are:
- It doesn’t seem to matter how you prepared sliced vegetables for dehydrating. Therefore, if you want round “chips,” just toss them raw in a little oil and salt, since that’s by far the easiest method.
- You can make a root chip that is more crispy like what we imagine as a “chip,” but you’d need a very thin-slicing mandolin. My food processor slices were far too thick, and cutting by hand is too variable.
Don’t worry, I’m not writing this post just to give you a mediocre snack. I had greater success with other methods!
How to Dehydrate Vegetable Chips
If you do want to try root chips, which are a great way to preserve extra on-sale produce or garden/CSA bounty, you’ll want to follow these instructions:
- Slice as thinly as possible.
- Toss in a little oil, any kind, and salt.
- Dehydrate at about 135F (preserves some enzymes) for 6-24hours. (The thickness makes a big difference here.)
- To test if they’re done, allow a few to cool for 30-60 minutes. The chips always firm up once cooled. (Once I let them go 48 hours just to see if they ever got crispy like a chip. No. They became hard like a hard candy but without the dissolving factor. When warm, they were still flexible at 48 hours, but once cool they were horribly hard.)
- Fully dehydrated vegetables will store for many months at room temperature. Break one in half and squeeze it to see if you got all the moisture out, or store a few warm ones in a plastic bag, and if there’s condensation on the inside of the bag, they need more time to dry.
One last note: I don’t recommend bothering with carrots, which turn into shriveled up little balls of toughness.
Trying Dehydrated Sweet Potato Fries
Although frying and then dehydrating sliced sweet potatoes had some tooth-breakingly disappointing results, the same vegetable in the traditional French fry shape, deep fried for about 7-8 minutes and dehydrated, are amazing.
I know you can’t tell in the photo if they’re crispy or just like oven fries, but take my word for it: dehydrated veggie sticks crunch just like a commercially produced potato chip. They are De. Lish. Us.
I know you can buy sweet potato chips nowadays, but they’re always fried in questionable fats, not grassfed beef tallow and organic coconut oil like I was able to use, and the Real Salt makes them dangerously addictive.
But there is definitely a catch.
The time investment is massive.
Washing, cutting and deep frying sweet potatoes (I use my lazy French fry method), draining on a paper towel and salting, arranging on dehydrator trays, then dehydrating quite simply takes a long time.
It’s even quite important to hover a bit while frying, because the sweet potato sticks can go from not quite ready to browned in a minute – and any brown at all tastes quite abrasive on a sweet potato.
See the browned ones at the back? They were pretty yucky.
It’s worth it, but it’s not something I could do regularly for snacks like I do the grain-free muffins and kid-friendly beef jerky from Healthy Snacks to Go.
Trying Crunchy Veggie Shreds
When I realized that the slicing blade on my trusty food processor wouldn’t make root chips thin enough, I was inspired to see what happened if I shredded something and dehydrated it.
I sent a raw, peeled beet through the shredding attachment, which is closer to a julienne, really, than a find shred.
After 8 hours (maybe even less), the shreds were all crisped up, crunched like a chip, and would make a fantastic crunchy salad or casserole topping! I could totally see myself munching them plain, too. Why I didn’t take a photo, I don’t know…
How Do They Taste?
Before I share the best option I found, I wanted to make sure you don’t think this process is a magic bullet that will make beets or sweet potatoes palatable for people who do not like them.
My husband, who despises beets, tried a beet chip.
It was torture.
His initial reaction was, “Terrible. It took a while for the dirt to kick in, but then at the end it’s like, yep, that’s dirt.”
Then, five minutes later, he was sticking his tongue out and shaking his head back and forth like a dog after swimming, saying in disgust, “Blalalalalalala!”
“There are pieces in my teeth or something, and when they come out it tastes like dirt! Blech!”
It just reinforces the fact that you can’t hide beets.
The One You’ve Been Waiting For
I’ve shared an easy snack that’s only sort of fun to eat.
I’ve shared a tasty snack that’s a lot of work.
What about a snack that doesn’t take a lot of investment time but tastes great?
The golden napkin award goes to the green bean.
I tried dehydrating green beans raw, from frozen (blanched), sauted and deep fried.
The very best, crunchy like a chip snack is actually Costco’s organic frozen whole green beans, tossed in oil and salt right out of the bag (thawed) and dehydrated for 6-8 hours at 135F. I pulled the bag out of the freezer to thaw, and then dried with paper towels before tossing in oil. I use about 1 Tablespoon of oil – you want just enough to lightly coat them.
You could likely recreate that by lightly steaming fresh green beans for about 3 minutes, then plunging into cold water to stop the cooking, then laying out to dry a bit before tossing in oil. You should dry them with a tea towel or paper towel before tossing in oil.
You can also deep fry them about 10-12 minutes and dehydrate for 8 hours with excellent results, but more work. Pull the beans from the oil before they are crispy, as soon as a bit of brown tinge starts to show up.
Snack Success!
My husband even said these dehydrated green beans snacks were better than the ones I had succumbed to in the checkout line that started the whole story! My 4-year-old referred to them as “French fries” when asking for more the first time I offered without telling her what she was eating.
(Pats self on back.) I love being better than the store. 
Lesson Learned
It turns out I should have just waited until January when the new GNOWFGLINS eCourse starts – it’s all about dehydrating!. I just watched the promo video, and I’m totally amazing, like knock-your-socks-off shocked, at how many things Wardeh and her family dehydrate! I bet she knows exactly how to make even beet chips tastier. I even learned some things just skimming the lessons included – check it out!
Ready to start dehydrating?
Download my guide to dehydrating all sorts of fruits and veggies!
No Dehydrator?
I haven’t tried it yet, but since my mom has success making dried apple chips in her oven at the lowest possible temp, I’m thinking you could do the same with veggie chips. Watch them more closely for burning, however, since most ovens 
don’t go below 170F nowadays. You can bake with the door slightly ajar if you don’t have young children running around.
Or, you can buy one. Excalibur even offers stainless steel trays now for those of you who are squeamish about using plastic in the heat.
Want to try an air fryer? Check out Mary’s guide to choosing an air fryer here.
More Snack Ideas
How to dehydrate fruits (much easier to make tasty!)
You can make fruit rolls in the dehydrator or oven, too – one of our favorite to-go snacks! We always have strawberry and apple cinnamon in the van.
85% of the recipes in Healthy Snacks to Go are gluten-free and 2/3 are grain-free. You’re sure to find a favorite!
Instant Pot Smashed Potatoes make a great side dish but would also be delicious for snacktime – crispy, creamy, yum!
Pingback: Stay Out of the Potato Chip Aisle to Avoid These Nerve Damaging Additives | Modern Neuropathy
So with the green beans — like many folks in the comment section, my result was leathery and chewy, not crisp.
As I now read through the comments I see much info that was not in the original recipe: if using frozen “right out of the bag,” you let them thaw before oiling and salting — yes? You do this by just letting them sit out a room temp, I assume?
And here’s a question not addressed: once the green beans are thawed, do you dry them off with paper towels before mixing with oil & salt? Many recipes for the dehydrator say it’s best to dry the food with paper towels as much as possible, so that there is little moisture in them when they go into the dehydrator.
And finally I had questions about how much oil and salt to use, but these were addressed in the comments section.
I think it’s great that you did the research but some more explanations in the recipes would be helpful — that’s my constructive comment. I was really surprised to see you say in the comments that you let the beans thaw before drying them, when in the recipe you had said you used them “right out of the bag.” Those two statements appear to contradict each other.
More explanation is always better than less.
Thanks.
Thanks for this gentle call to correction! I’m usually take great care to update recipes when I have an addition like this, so I’m surprised and disappointed in myself that I let this one slide. We’ll get the original recipe notes fixed up since my own philosophy of recipes is the same as yours: More is best. 🙂
I did leave the whole bag sitting at room temp to thaw, so they were “right out of the bag” but it’s definitely a miss that I didn’t include “thaw” in the recipe. Drying with paper towels is a great idea.
Hope they go better next time! I’ve had mixed results myself…
Katie
I tried drying green beans for the first time but I way oversalted them! Yuck! Can I just rinse them off and dry some more? They didn’t get crunchy either in 8 hrs. What did I do wrong? Put too much coconut oil and salt on them? Thanks for the help! Karen
I’ve been making kale chips in a dehydrator with a little bit apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and course gray sea salt… yum! However, what do you suspect the shelf life of these items are if they are fully preserved with olive oil? I have put mine after cooled in a storage jar and they are still crunchy some time later although I see others putting them in storage bags and not lasting a day…
In my experience, I would say as little as possible. For 500 gr beans maybe just a teaspoonn or so.
How much oil do you use with the green beans? I really want to make some of these (like, today!). They look great! 🙂
Mary Jo,
Just enough to cover them – I drizzle a Tbs. or so on a mixing bowl of beans. It just adds a bit of flavor. 🙂 Katie
Pingback: 80+ Dehydrator Recipes To Preserve the Harvest
My beans turned really oily (i think i put too much on) and really hard, but still good. (I used fresh beans steamed for a couple of minutes) The ones I couldnt eat I ground to a powder and used as a salad sprinkle!
Hello! I was so excited to try this recipe for green beans since a small tub of them at whole foods is $8 and I love them so much. However, I tried both frozen (trader joes) and steamed and they both turned out rather mushy and tasted like dirt. I followed your directions precicely so I’m not sure what I did wrong…I am hesitant to fry the beans because I prefer healthier treats and was really hoping to find that in these. I’d love any advice on how to make a better bean! Thanks!
Uh oh! Dirt is no good…Did you use at least some oil? That’s important…or if you fry them in a healthy fat (tallow, coconut oil) then they’re still good for you – our bodies need fat to assimilate some vitamins in veggies anyway.
By mushy do you mean chewy? I think maybe you didn’t dehydrate long enough if that’s the case…I hope it works better next time! 🙂 Katie
I used olive oil and a little sea salt just like the recipe said. I did two different batches because I thought the first time I maybe used too much oil. They dried out, but they were all shriveled and hard – not crunchy, but I’m pretty sure they dehydrated all the way…
I just don’t know! Maybe I will try frying….honestly, I’m afraid of the process of frying more than I am of the “unhealthy” factor of something fried.
Thanks for your advice! I’ll try again. I was just hoping for an easy solution to $8 tubs from Whole Foods! 😛
Huh…bummer. 🙁 I recommend just frying in hot oil in a pan – don’t worry about temperature, super deep oil, or anything. Just try it! 🙂 Katie
Just oiled salted and peppered my blanced french breans. In the dehydrator it goes… Mmmmm cant wait!
Pingback: Real Food Recipes to Replace Your Favorite Junk Foods
Katie,
Thanks for doing this research! I tried the recipe myself this week, using Costco frozen green beans, and they ended up bout 80% chewy and leathery, with a few good crunchy ones in there (usually the smaller pieces). However, I tried one other thing, which made them all super crunchy: I toasted them *after* they were dehydrated. You have to be careful and use low heat, because if they blacken, they’re terrible. But if you can get them to brown just a little, they’re great.
Michael,
Awesome! That’s great to know! I have a bunch that went back to chewy, so they need a “retoast” – maybe I’ll do oven instead of dehydrator and see how I like them. 🙂 Thanks! Katie
I tried the dehydrated green beans. I think I did it as you wrote it. The only thing is some had thawed by the time I got to them to the dehydrator (maybe that’s it?). I’d say only 1/3 were crispy and the rest were hard to chew. Also, a few of the beans inside turned rock hard which was a shock to bite into. They ones that were crisp were AMAZING and we all loved them, especially the 3 year old. I want to recreate those. Do you have any tips to get that snappy, crisp green bean consistantly?
Devin,
That’s a really good question! I do let all mine thaw before dehydrating so they’re even. I know making sure the oil is evenly distributed is also important. Other than that, I’d do spot checks regularly and see if you can pull the ones that are done earlier. When mine get chewy, I can “revive” them by crisping up in the dehydrator for an hour or two again, so the ones of yours that are tough to chew may be underdone rather than overdone. Do some experiments and take notes about timing and location in your dehydrator, which may make a difference too. Good luck! 🙂 Katie
Thank you for this recipe. I’m making my third batch right now.
The first time I tried these most of them were chewy not crunchy. To get to crunchy, I had to leave them in the dehydrator over 12 hours (may have been 18!) I also found that using the french green beans I got at Trader Joes worked better than the regular green beans from Costco as they were much thinner. Also I found it helps to be generous with the olive oil and salt.
Not quite there but I’ll keep experimenting until they are perfect! Thanks again.
Pingback: 45 School Lunch Ideas
Pingback: Paleo Recipe Reviews: progress on Paleo reportFrom Cube to Farm
I have attempted these twice and they were chewy both times. My six year old will eat them, but I was really looking forward to crunchy! Any suggestions?
Janet,
Depends on the veg you’re using – with green beans, for me, they’re always crunchy. For the root vegs, you really do need to get them THIN for them to work. Sometimes it takes 24-36 hours to actually get to crunchy. Hope that helps! 🙂 Katie
Supprised i didnt see zuchinni chips those are super easy and yum. Just dehydrate raw slices that have been tossed with a little salt, oil is u want. They get super crispy like a chip my kids devour them and they go fast in the dehydrator maybe 6 hrs or so. This year i am trying them with spices too, as i crave chips the worst way during pms time.
Pingback: 20 Things To Do With Your Dehydrator | Health, Home, & Happiness (tm)
Pingback: Preparing to Go Primal – a month of Reality | From Cube to Farm
Katie
I love this recipe. I made them last night. I wondered though some of them are not crispy but chewy. Do I dehydrate them a little more or do some just not crisp up? Do I need more oil? My coconut oil/butter mix congealed on the cold beans and didn’t spread well. THoughts?
Hi Amy,
Sorry I missed your comment for so long – it came in just before I launched my book and I was swamped!
On the beans, I only used olive oil, and it definitely makes a difference in how they dehydrate. Your beans were frozen/blanched? Also important. Usually when dehydrating, if something is chewy, it could use more time if you’re shooting for crunchy. I would recommend trying them every 2 hours so you can learn how the different stages feel/taste, and yes, go longer to get crispy. I hope that works for next time! 🙂 Katie
I love sweet potato chips, but I’ve never made them because they seem so labor-intensive. (Also, sweet potatoes are really hard to cut!) But then I saw this recipe. I haven’t tried it, since I don’t have a dehydrator, but it sounds really easy. I’d love to hear how it goes if you try them:
http://www.joyfulabode.com/2012/06/24/homemade-baked-lays-potato-chipsbut-better/
Sheila,
I checked out that recipe – how cool! I have to try it…after the Christmas dust settles. Thanks! 🙂 Katie
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I am a long time reader, and very infrequent commenter because I seem to have such difficulty just keeping up with working full time, raising two awesome little men, and seeking a “real food” kitchen. I just wanted to say thank you though for this “recipe” for green bean chips. I have been searching for this technique for years, and could never find it! And I have now heard words never uttered at our kitchen table before, “More green beans please”, coming from our 2 year old. Like I said, amazing!
Your blog has made such a difference for our family, and I am so grateful! Blessings on your Christmas season!
Kristin,
Thank you so much! Comments like yours totally make my month. 🙂 Katie
Wow .. I never would have thought to have dried green beans and right now my two lil ones are in love with them and demanding more. they love dried kale, zucchini, banana, apples. I’ve done oven carrots with some success. not so well in the dehydrator though. have to try sweet potatoes next. I did try snap peas and they cam out very very chewy but I like them
I’ve been a fan of these dried green beans for years! My local organic food store buys them in bullk and packages them for sale, in too small packages in my opinion and for a long time, they didn’t list the ingredients in a way I could try to replicate them. Thanks for this post, I’m definitely going to try making them for the holidays!
PS- I’ve converted several coworkers to making their own yogurt by sending them to your website!
Awesome, Judy, keep ’em coming! 😉 Katie
Kale chips are the best, and are so simple! I just tear into bite size pieces, single layer on a cookie sheet, drizzle melted coconut oil, shake some sea salt on them, and cook at 150 in the oven for about 30 minutes. Watch them–they are yucky browned, yet best crisp.
can’t wait to try the green beans – thanks!!!
If you want REALLY thin chips, use a Japanese ginger slicer! You can almost read through a sweet potato chip.
I would SO eat more veggies if I had these around! Love the tips!
I’ve had good luck making homemade kettle chips with both white and sweet potatoes. They are sooo good! But very labor intensive…it takes me an hour to fry up enough for dinner. Maybe if I wasn’t so cheap and bought enough palm oil to fill a larger pot, it’d be less time-intensive. In any case, I do it without a mandolin, and just eat the ones I cut too thick as I go.
Yum! I love veggie chips, these would be a great snack to keep on hand. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe.
– Katie @ modernnourishment.wordpress.com
I found Okra Chips at the store and oh my word are they good. They are kind of pricey and contain dextrin, so I am anxious to figure out how to recreate them. The internet has been no help so far. Maybe the green bean technique would work?
Mal,
It’s definitely worth a try! Okra seems light and hollow enough…
🙂 Katie
dextrin is just another name for sugar. there are over 60 names for sugar in order to confuse the consumer.
We also love sweet potatoes sliced thinly and baked until crisp. They make delicious chips. Another chip alternative is kale chips. Surprisingly, my kids devour these!
Chris,
I wish my family liked kale chips! For whatever reason, they never went over..
Katie
I use a mandolin to slice sweet potatoes and then layer on my dehydrator trays. I usually let them go about 4-6 hour and I have a nice crunchy snack that not only I like (no salt) but also my 2 dogs/puppies like as a treat for tricks/training.
When we make mashed potatoes we peel the skins a little thicker on purpose and lay the skins on a baking sheet, season, and bake until dry and crispy. Not raw but makes a great chip substitute very frugal.
Chris,
Yes, I totally do that too! In fact, it’s even a recipe in my snacks book, although barely a recipe because it’s so simple. 🙂 Katie