YouTube gardening superstar Eli Appleby-Donald, shares the most fabulous recipe for beetroot crisps – just perfect for using up a glut of beetroot harvest!
Not only is this such a simple recipe, to be honest I feel guilty calling it a recipe, but it is also a great way to use up those forgotten beetroot that are just too big for the nice salads and tarts. In fact, the bigger beetroot are by far the best for making crisps as the slices shrink to about half the size in the oven so bigger to start with is best.
For two portions, you will need:
- 2 large beetroots
- splash of oil
- salt
There are only a few steps to making your very own delicious movie night nibble, and let’s be honest, this is beetroot, beetroot is a vegetable, therefore this is positively a salad, and has no calories whatsoever, so no guilt either. In truth though, these are actually not bad as far as healthy food goes.
Steps to Follow
1. The very first thing to do is to prep your beetroot, so give it a wash and peel, and as usual cut the ends off, leaving you with the main body to prepare.
2. The next step is to slice these as thin as you can, in order to make the crisps. You can do this with a sharp knife if your knife skills and gardening exhausted hands are up to the task, but I’ve found that those kitchen mandolins make short work of slicing, and you get thin, even slices. So drag that dusty kitchen utensil out of the back of the cupboard and put it to use.
3. Don’t skip this next step, it’s a bit time consuming but it makes a heap of difference to your finished crisps – it makes them crisp rather than slightly chewy, and it really shortens the cooking time. You will get rid of all the excess water from the beetroot and flavour them at the same time.
Add your beetroot slices to a big bowl, add a splash of oil and a good sprinkle of salt and get your hands in there and mix it all around. Aim to make sure that each slice of beetroot has been coated in oil and salt. It’s a messy job, I won’t lie.
Put the sliced beetroot into a colander and then put that colander back into your bowl to catch the excess liquid as it drains. I find about half an hour is a good length of time to leave this sitting – just enough time for all that salty goodness to do its thing.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 140C. Once the beetroot slices have drained a bit, you can begin the magic. We want all the slices to be nice and evenly crisp, so lay them out on an oiled baking sheet in a single layer, ready to bake.
I’ve found that the timing very much depends on the thickness of your slices, but between 15 and 20 mins per side does the job. When you’ve baked the first side, take them out of the oven and turn them over – you can get an idea of how close to perfection they are and adjust your next baking period accordingly.
5. The last thing you need to do once that oven beeper goes, is be patient. Leave your freshly baked crisps aside for a few minutes to cool to allow the slices to continue to crisp up. If after say five minutes, you think your slices are still a little soft, then simple return them to the oven and give them a few more minutes – you are master of your homegrown produce!
Once cool, enjoy, and be smug at your wonderous creation in the knowledge that now you have mastered beetroot crisps – carrots, parsnip, and sweet potato crisps are next – the world is your root veg of choice!
Top Tip
If like me you tend to harvest way more than you need, then simply pop the excess slices of beetroot into a tub or sandwich bag and store them in the fridge until you are ready to make your next bowl of deliciousness.
Eli Appleby-Donald, of @inthegardenwitheliandkate, tends a productive garden in Musselburgh, East Lothian, on the principle that gardening should be fun. She has an urban garden, and she regularly blogs and vlogs about gardening on her own website and YouTube channel, as well as appearing as a guest on others worldwide.
You can find out more about Eli and all the fun of creating your own suburban garden paradise on either her YouTube channel, or her website.