Zucchini Chips

I’ve been looking for a while for a good snack recipe that was both healthy and simple to make. There are a few veggies that I really like and zucchinis are top of that list so it isn’t surprising that my first healthy salt recipe in this blog is a zucchini one!

The salt is added to the zucchini slices to remove the moisture so that they dry out and become nice and crisp in the oven. I found that if I added salt after I put the zucchini slices in the oven, the salt was too overpowering – but if you feel like you can handle more salt after you take them out, go for it!

This snack was – somewhat unfortunately – loved by others at my place and gobbled up very quickly, so when I came to eat them the next day, I found that they had all been finished! So I would suggest making a few batches once you have figured out just how much salt is the ‘sweet’ spot for your taste buds, so that you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Hope you enjoy this healthy snack!

Ingredients

• 1 large zucchini
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• oil (spray is preferable)
• paper towel
• 2 baking trays

Method

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 100°C.

Step 2: Line the baking tray with paper towels and slice zucchini into thin slices. The thinner the slices, the crisper the zucchini chips will be. You can cut the zucchini chips in any way you like but I prefer to slice them into circles.

Step 3: Place the cut zucchini pieces on the paper towels and sprinkle with sea salt and set aside for approximately 10 minutes. In this time the sea salt will leach moisture from the zucchini pieces. I used about 1 ½ teaspoons of salt across the zucchini pieces. It is better to err on the side of caution as you can always add more salt later.

Step 4: After 10 minutes, use a new paper towel to dab the excess moisture from the zucchini pieces.

Step 5: Take the zucchini pieces off of the paper towels and transfer them onto baking paper on the baking tray. Make sure there is no paper towel left before you put the zucchini slices onto the baking tray.

Step 6: Spray the zucchini pieces lightly with oil. Remember to spread the zucchini pieces out evenly so that none of the pieces overlap.

Step 7: Put the tray in the oven for between 60 minutes and 85 minutes or until they have reached your preferred crunchiness. The zucchini pieces will shrink in the oven. If the zucchini chips get stuck to the baking paper just use a spatula and they will come right off!

Step 8: Let the zucchini chips cool before eating. You can eat the chips on their own or with dip.

 

As I have said, the amount of sea salt that you use will depend on your personal taste. I recommend only using a small amount the first time you cook, the reason being that if you add too much salt too early, the batch can be ruined as it tastes too salty – remember you can always sprinkle salt on after the chips are out of the oven!

The great thing about this snack is that it is really healthy, salty and that it can be made in stages. It is a very light snack and can be eaten with anything. I personally prefer to eat it by itself, but it is also quite nice with tzatziki dip or yoghurt.

I think this may even turn into a good movie snack to absent-mindedly munch on. You would still get that satisfying crunch, your body would still enjoy that nice salty hit and you can get that feeling that you are doing something great for your body. It is like having a bowl of potato chips … but healthy. In fact I may go put on a movie now and do just that.

I hope you enjoy these!

x

P.S Make sure you keep these in an airtight container to maintain the crunchiness!