Labneh with vegetable chips

There is a lot of frustration about vegetable chips. Recipes in cookbooks often promise crispy chips made from beet, parsnips and sweet potato. In the photo, it all looks wonderful. In reality, you often end up with a pile of bland, greasy vegetable chips on your plate.

We have been focusing on the phenomenon for a long time in the Zuivelarij and the result is this definitive guide to crispy vegetable chips.

Cutting

Preferably cut the vegetables with a mandolin, meat slicer or vegetable slicer. You can cut them paper-thin or slightly thicker. The most important thing is that they are all the same thickness. For the final mouthfeel, the thickness does matter. Vegetables that you cut paper-thin feel light and crisp in the mouth. Unlike thickly-cut vegetables, which are more likely to be crisp, firm and robust. We both like it equally, so it depends on what you like best.

Finely sliced carrot and sweet potato on stainless steel rack for vegetable chips.
We simply cut the carrots with a peeler. Soon they will become fine, crispy chips

Drying

To make sure your vegetable chips are really crispy, be sure not to skip this step. In a manner of speaking, the chips should be crispy before they even go into the fryer. When you throw the vegetables into the oil while they’re still wet, the moisture evaporates during frying and they absorb too much of the frying oil. That combination only yields bland, greasy chips. So, drying the chips first is very important. Place them side by side on a perforated baking sheet. It’s okay for them to overlap a little (because they shrink anyway when they dry). Stick the plate in an oven at 90°C for 1 hour. If your chips are thicker or the vegetables still wet, keep them in the oven longer. Feel free to do this the day before and leave the vegetables in the oven with the door open.

Sweet potato, finely sliced, vegetable chips
We cut these sweet potato chips a little thicker. Therefore, they are less light and crisp, but rather robust and crispy

Frying

You only deep fry the chips for 10 to 15 seconds,at about 150 – 170°C. This (almost) always gives good results. Thick chips may be left a little longer at a lower temperature, and for thin ones the temperature may be raised a little. Then shake them for a moment so they can drain, and put them in a large enough bowl. While shaking, add enough salt.

Crunchy carrot chips in red bowl.
These thinly peeled carrots are crisp, brittle and crunchy, so you just fry them for a few seconds in frying oil

Storing vegetable chips

Put the chips on a large baking sheet while they are still warm. This way they dry out well. It may seem at first that the chips are still limp, but all will be well. When they have cooled sufficiently, store them in a sealed box or without a lid in a warm dry place, such as above the heater.

Fried vegetable chips with Labneh from the Zuivelarij.

Serving

Must try: Vegetable chips with Labneh from our Zuivelarij. To really be able to dip into the Labneh, make the vegetable chips thick enough. We prefer to use sweet potato for this purpose. Put a little bit of nice olive oil and fresh or dried herbs over the Labneh, and dip!

Labneh with chips of sweet potato and Ras el Hanout

Our Labneh can be found in many food stores, and in Delhaize

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