Recipe: Healthy Homemade Vege Chips

Apr 15

It’s almost an oxymoron to say healthy chips, but wait until you see what these chips are made from and how they are cooked. Appropriate for SCD/GAPS, Paleo,/Primal, we don’t use potatoes which are a nightshade vegetable and dangerous for people sensitive to solanine. Oh no. We don’t use corn meal which is genetically modified unless it is organic. Oh no. Can you guess what we used for these gorgeous chips?

There are plenty of root vegetables that are acceptable for SCD, GAPS, Paleo and Primal diets. For these incredible chips we used golden beets, daikon radish and celeriac. I bet you couldn’t guess!

Traditionally chips were deep fried in tallow or lard. Due to conventional misinformation about saturated fats, commercial chips are loaded with toxic additives. I fried these chips in tallow, which is a stable saturated fat that can handle high heat cooking. Tallow is actually very healthy in spite of what you have been told by health officials. I get my tallow from grassfed animals and it if full of beneficial CLA. This fat supports the heart and brain.

Conventional chips are fried in highly processed, chemical laden, rancid and deodorized vegetable oils like corn, soy, cottonseed or canola. Ninety percent of the corn, soy, cottonseed and canola crops are genetically modified in this country so it is practically impossible to get a commercial chip that is not GM (even though it is not labeled as such). In addition, in many of the flavored varieties that you can get these days, there are additives such as MSG, refined salt and other chemical flavors.

Some of the health food store versions may appear better, but using sunflower or safflower oil is still not good because these oils are not made for high heating and will get rancid.

These vege chips are labor intensive — but a labor of love for someone who has not had chips due to dietary restrictions. The idea for these chips came from the wonderful parents of a little patient of mine who is doing very well on the GAPS diet. They didn’t want him to feel deprived when others were eating chips.

This is an advanced food and may be offered when someone is ready and can tolerate it well. Of course, they are a special treat and should be made only on special occasions.

Healthy Homemade Vege Chips

Ingredients

2 golden beets, peeled (organic)
2 celeriac roots, peeled (organic)
1 daikon radish, peeled (organic)
tallow or lard (from grassfed animals) (where to buy tallow or lard from grassfed animals)
sea salt (where to buy sea salt)

Equipment

Mandolin (where to buy a mandolin)

Instructions

A note about peeling — the beet and daikon can be easily peeled with a regular peeler. I found the celeriac hard to peel that way due to all the roots coming out of it so I used a knife to slice off the skin
Set the mandolin at the thinnest — 1/16 inch. If you do not have a mandolin you can use a sharp knife. Just be sure to cut them evenly — they can be thicker.
Proceed to slice all the vegetables
You will get a lot
Heat a large fry pan on the stove and melt the tallow — medium heat or 375 degrees if you are using an electric skillet
It has to be hot enough to fry them crisply — but not too hot to burn them
Be sure to put a lot of fat in the pan so that the pieces are covered
Line the pan with the thin slices and let cook
They will shrivel up and brown (usually about 2 minutes)
When they look browned remove them with a slotted spoon and place on a platter lined with paper towel
Be generous with the salt while they are still hot
Put more slices in the pan
If you can use two skillets it will go that much faster
They are so delicious they will not last past the cooking so no need to worry about storage