Making your own oven baked root vegetable crisps requires 4 ingredients – the vegetable you wish to crisp, olive oil, salt and pepper – of which there are no set quantities. Which makes this not so much of a recipe as it is a set of instructions. It will however yield the most delicious vegetable crisps, of an amount of ½ of your choosing (they shrink).
You can choose any root vegetable, I used beets, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Before making them there are a few things to note:
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You don’t have to peel the vegetables, if you’re leaving the peels on just scrub them very well or be a little extra and use this veggie spray.
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A mandolin slicer is highly recommended but not necessary. It just makes it a lot easier and quicker to get super thin and even slices. If you’re using a mandolin slicer, I used the second lowest setting which yielded a crisp thin enough to be deliciously paper thin and crisp, but thick enough so that it wouldn’t burn. If you’re using a knife, try get them as thin and even as possible, your knife skills should be amazing at the end.
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The aim is to get them crispy, not oily. To do this I used a ratio of 1 teaspoon olive oil to 1 vegetable. This was for medium sized veggies, so if yours are smaller, go with less, if you don’t think it’s coated enough – go extra.
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The same applies for salt and pepper, sprinkle it on the way you’d season a salad – enough to taste it, but not too much that it’s unpalatable – less is more.
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Different vegetables have different baking times. I find sweet potatoes take the quickest (10-15 minutes each side), while beets and potatoes take longer (10-20 minutes each side). For this reason, I like to cook different vegetables on different pans so it’s easier to monitor times. Because of this, it’s a stay in the kitchen and check the oven regularly recipe and not a put in the oven, set a timer and walk out recipe.
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Baking paper (or a silpat mat) is crucial. If you don’t use one, your crisps will stick to the pans and you’ll have crisp crumble (a non-stick spray will not work).
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Prepare yourself for shrinkage, they come out smaller than they go in. They’re also best eaten within the hour they’re made, they do lose crispness over time.
Oven Baked Root Vegetable Crisps
Ingredients
- Root Vegetables beets, potatoes, sweet potato, butternut, parsnips
- olive oil
- Freshly Cracked Salt
- Freshly Cracked Pepper
Instructions
- Wash your vegetables well / peel them.
- Slice them in thin even slices. If you’re using a mandolin slicer, go for the second lowest setting.
- Pat vegetables dry (this applies mainly to potatoes which tend to be more wet).
- Place vegetable slices in a bowl and add in olive oil (approximately 1 teaspoon per vegetable) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Coat well.
- Place slices on a prepared baking sheet. Being careful not to overlap them. They will shrink so they can be touching but not overlapping.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven, turn them over and bake for another 10-15 minutes until crisp.
- Some slices may be ready sooner than others, so check the oven once you’ve flipped them every 5 minutes to see what needs to come out. When the crisps are browned at the edges and no longer shiny, they’re ready.
- Let them cool and eat.
