Courgette and Beetroot Crisps
These are such a great alternative to the shop-bought vegetable crisps that are cooked in sunflower oil. They take a while to prepare but are so worth the effort and you could try other vegetables too such as carrots or sweet potatoes. They are also a good way to use some of those courgettes from the vegetable garden that are growing like mad at this time of the year.
We stuck to salt and black pepper for the seasoning but you could play around with different spices such as chilli or paprika.
One word of warning – season gently as they can turn out really salty! And make a big batch too – they shrink quite a lot!
Begin be slicing your vegetables finely. We used the attachment on the blender which was very fast and easy but you could use a mandolin if you have a very sharp one.
You could vary the thickness according to the vegetable. I think that with courgettes you could go a bit thicker if you wanted or cut them diagonally into longer strips – especially if you are serving these crisps with a dip.
The amount you see here gave us a whole lot more than two tray’s worth, so we just refrigerated the cut vegetables and cooked them a couple of days later.
Pat the vegetables dry with a kitchen towel to get rid of the excess moisture. We weren’t too fussy though and they still came out amazingly good!
Brush some baking trays with a little light and mild olive oil and lay a sheet of greaseproof paper on top (the oil keeps the paper in place). Then brush the paper with extra virgin olive oil and arrange the vegetables on top. pack them as tight as you can without overlapping. Run the oiled brush over the top of the vegetables, season and pop them in the oven on a fairly low temperature (we cooked them at about 120-140) for around 1.5 – 2 hours. We kept checking until they were dried out completely. As oven temperatures vary so much, this might take a bit of experimentation.
These crisps are fantastic and we will definitely make them again. Keep them in an airtight container (if you have any left!).
