Beet Chips

Welcome to Emmy Cooks!  You can see some of my favorite recent recipes by clicking the “My Favorite Recipes” category on the sidebar (here are April, May, and June).  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email and to follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook or Twitter.

During my first pregnancy, I had an occasional craving for citrus.  Grapefruit, oranges, pomelos, lemons, limes, anything.  During my second pregnancy, nothing.  And during my third pregnancy, I had no cravings, but one aversion: beets.

Other vegetables were okay: I would happily have eaten butternut squash tacos with chipotle and feta or a pound-of-greens frittata.  Those risotto-stuffed chard leaves were popular in my kitchen that year, and a simple arugula salad was just my speed (the arugula comes up in the garden by itself on years when I’m neglectful; what could be easier?).

But beets!  Woe!  I used to love beets!  Roasted with walnuts and blue cheese.  Grated beet salads with honey-ginger or lemony dressings.  Beets steamed with their greens and swathed in oil and vinegar.  Goodbye, beets.  Even after my baby was born they seemed a little too…sweet, too meaty.  Too beet-y.  So last year I dutifully piled the beets into my crisper as they arrived from my CSA.  I cooked the greens and packed the roots tighter and tighter into the left-hand drawer.  Finally, in the dead of winter, I cleaned out the drawer and composted them all.  Sorry, beets.

This year I am taking a more reasonable approach.  I’m planning to make all my beets into beet chips.  They’re crispy and salty and, while they’re still sweet, they’re a world away from the roasted beets that I once loved.  They’re a nice change of pace, and they’ll help free up some space in my fridge this summer.Beet chips: Slice peeled beets thinly and uniformly (about 1/16″), using a mandoline if you have one.   Toss with olive oil and a few good pinches of salt and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.  (Use two baking sheets if you need to, and rotate them top-to-bottom in the oven every 10 minutes as the chips are baking.  When Martha makes these, she puts a second baking sheet on top of the beets to keep them completely flat for the first 20 minutes, but I found this unnecessary.  A few chips did ruffle up, but most stayed flat.)

Bake at 350 for 20-40 minutes, removing chips as the edges darken.  You don’t want them to brown or they’ll taste burnt.  Smaller chips will cook more quickly than larger ones, and if you time it right (you’ll learn quickly) they’ll be nice and crisp when they cool.

Advertisement

137 thoughts on “Beet Chips

    1. emmycooks Post author

      Hi Conor! Here we have purple/red, yellow, and one called chiogga which looks like a hot pink and white bullseye when you cut it in half. And probably more that I don’t know about. I imagine that any beets you have will make great chips.

      Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Beets are such outstanding colors. The red and yellow ones are great both before and after, but I’m always sad when I cook chiogga beets and those pink bullseyes fade. :)

      Reply
  1. baconbiscuit212

    I am glad to hear that beets are back! It would have killed me to have to compost them again, but I understand that sometimes when you get turned off by a food, it’s hard to force yourself to eat it again.

    These beet chips look really good! And good tip about removing them before they brown.

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Well, I started off thinking that I’d come around and that I was saving them all for some grand beet-stravaganza. But in the end…not so much. :)

      Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Hi Pinky! Thanks for checking out my beet chips on emmycooks.com! If you’d like to see more, here are some of my favorite recent recipes from May, June, and July. If you like what you see on emmycooks.com, you can sign up there to receive a daily recipe by email, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

      Reply
  2. Barb Drummond

    We used to have no beets at all, but with people arriving from Poland etc, the local farmers markets are catering for them so our diet is becoming far more varied – often get sugar beets and candy beets. They are so pretty. They also stock mooli which is another root veg that is seldom used outside of chinese restaurants.

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      I just did! And I saw that they gave it the title “In Defense of Beets.” I guess that “defender of beets” is as good a description as any for this blog. :)

      Reply
  3. bellesogni

    I made sweet potato chips once and they were okay, but not terrific. I’ll have to try these. Thanks for posting it.

    Reply
  4. musingmar

    Wow, congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! That’s one of my blogging dreams! You certainly deserve it, your blog is one of my go-to sources for recipes. Keep up the good work! I saw this post this morning, bought some golden beets at the market and made beet chips this afternoon. They were quite tasty! Only problem was, it was way too hot here to have the oven on! Maybe I’ll try them again in the fall.

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Thanks, Mar! (I’m quick on the responses, huh?) Thanks so much for the kind words about Emmy Cooks. And I’m glad you liked the beet chips!

      Reply
  5. dianewrites

    From afar, they I thought they were yummy potato chips :) But I guess beets are a healthier alternative. For one thing you baked it :)

    Congratulations for making it in the freshly pressed.

    Reply
  6. Michelle

    Congrats on Freshly Pressed, Emmy! Even if for beets. Mostly, I just don’t like them. As Steve says, they taste like iron filings. But I’m willing to try the chips as a final resort, and I have from from our CSA stuck in the crisper as we speak. (We visited Chioggia last year, but saw no beets.)

    Reply
  7. Jimi

    Beet it, Just Beet it! lol one good thing is that the beet chips will not turn all else on your plate RED I bet. Kudos on getting Pressed like the tops of Freshly harvested BEETS!

    Reply
  8. Cindy N

    Wow, I’ve never seen yellow beets before! Where I live, we only get hot pink or purplish-red beets. I have never tried beets before but maybe I’ll try them now :P They look really good (:

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Thanks, Heidi! It sounds like your garden is amazing–my little city patch feels a little envious. :) Hope you enjoyed these if you tried them! (The other thing we do is pickled them & then give them away since we never eat them as fast as we can them.) :)

      Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      I have had great parsnip chips but never thought to try carrots–great idea! I do like a pinch of salt myself, but I’m sure these would still be good without it.

      Thanks for visiting emmycooks.com! If you’d like to see more, here are some of my favorite recent recipes from May, June, and July. If you like what you see on emmycooks.com, you can sign up there to receive a daily recipe by email, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

      Reply
  9. Carrie @ Season It Already!

    I was introduced to beets for the first time by my CSA box last year. We didn’t eat them growing up, but my husband did so he was quite excited. Still learning to love them… but I am looking forward to giving this method a try. Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Lagolden2

    I do not care how fancy you make beets i can not eat them. I never have and i never will. Beets could be the elixir to life then I would be dead the next day. No beets

    Reply
  11. koritt

    Looks great! Too bad I didn’t read about this back when I had two whole bunches of beets to cook up. Will definitely have to try the next time I get some beets from the farmer’s market. :)

    Reply
  12. jan greco

    I love, love, love beets! So much so that I named my blog after them; beetsandbluecheese.com
    These beet chips are next on my list of recipes to try. Thanks for the great idea!

    Reply
  13. dinnerversions

    Hey, you got Freshly Pressed! Congratulations! I’m a beet lover too but don’t have a huge repetoire. You’ve just given me the excuse I needed to buy a mandolin. Thank you!

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      A belated thanks! :) I really like my mandolin, I have the cheapie kind and rarely use it, but it’s handy for making uniform thin slices or a quick julienne. Just watch your fingers! Hope you’re having a nice summer. :)

      Reply
  14. ratchet7764

    Yes, I love beets! They are quite the under-appreciated vegetable. The chips look interesting. I usually have beets in a salad with chevre, but maybe I’ll have to give these guys a try as well! Looking forward to the next post!

    Reply
  15. Somer

    I’ve got some lovely beets from Amanda’s garden in an array of colors! it’s time for beet chips!!!

    Reply
  16. martinwiegand47

    I love beets! I never realized they that easy to turn into chips…. I guess I had the hot oil fryer stuck image in my head… I’m going to have to give these a try… Thanks for the great post!

    Reply
  17. Robin

    What a great idea! So funny about cravings. I had the oddest craving in my last pregnancy- grape leaves! I had some every day. My local middle eastern deli used to think I was ridiculous. Definitely going to try this though- maybe my kids will check these out! Thanks! Oh, and from the comments I see that you are fresh pressed! Congrats! Enjoy the ride! I was up there a few weeks ago, and my golly was it crazy! Have fun! You deserve it!!

    Reply
    1. emmycooks Post author

      Funny! But grape leaves ARE pretty delicious. Your body must have needed them–or maybe it was a hint that you should have been vacationing in Greece? I think I’m having that craving now (except that I’m NOT pregnant). :)

      Reply
  18. cathynd95

    I like curly chips. :-). And I have a beet in my fridge that I need to do something with as well…

    Reply
  19. Pingback: Too Strong Papa Z’s Raw Green Lions Te Salad & Lemon Ginger Dressing. | Deliciously Wild

  20. BarbaraC

    Do you peel the beets first? My beets varieties have a pretty thick skin (they are winter keepers)–would that just get dry and nasty?

    Reply
  21. Pingback: Orzo Salad with Beets & Blue Cheese | A HEALTHY LIFE FOR ME

  22. Pingback: Beet Hummus | spontaneous tomato

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s