Food for living - 24th June 2010 - Cork Independent News

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Food for living - 24th June 2010

Written by Staff Reporter

Thursday, 24 June 2010

Make your own crisps

One snack that most people love and almost always buy premade are crisps. However, as part of my 'Eat Real food this Summer' campaign, I'm giving people homemade alternatives to their favourite shop made treats. Crisps are just as easy to make at home and are a much healthier alternative.

Buying shop made crisps usually means three things: high amounts of salt, added flavourings such as MSG (E620-E625) and poor quality rancid vegetable oil that is heated to very high temperatures. Eating too much shop bought crisps can result in increase in blood pressure due to the salt or increase in weight due to the poor quality oils used.

The following recipe can easily be made into chips as much as crisps. Simply cut the vegetable of your choice into thicker pieces and cook for an addition 10-15 mins.

Root vegetable chips

You can make chips with any of these vegetables – turnip (very yummy), carrots, parsnip, and sweet potato. I find that if you try to cook too much at once, the crisps don't work so well. For this reason, I've simply put one vegetable in at a time. You can also add whichever spice you want – paprika, chilli, ground cumin, turmeric etc

1 carrot (or root vegetable of your choice)
1 teaspoon of oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
A dash of paprika (optional)
Preheat over to 160 oc

Peel the carrots with a peeler and once all of the skin has been removed, keep on peeling. The result will be a mixing bowl filled with strips of carrot. The only one this doesn't work for is turnip; here I simply thinly slice the turnip (you can do this with any of the vegetables)

Sprinkle with vegetable with the oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. If you want to add the paprika, do so now.

Give the mixture a good mix with your hands.
Place some baking paper on the baking tray (this saves washing up) and spread the carrots evenly over this.

Place in oven for about 20 mins – keep checking and stirring around carrots so they won't stick. The carrots will start to crisp up nicely and are great idea to eat while watching the world cup!

If you are interested in having a menu designed suiting your dietary needs, contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or look at www.foodforliving.ie

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