Seasonal Foods: Beet Chips

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Beet Chips are a great early spring food to help empty out your root cellar.

Spring is the time to clean out the root cellar. Beets are the last item left in my root cellar. I got these beets last October. The rodents found the beets tasty too. These beets are very sweet and have kept very well over the winter even with the rodent damage. Beet Chips are a good way to use up old beets.

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Beets are the last root vegetable in my root cellar. You can see the rodent damage to the beets.

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Mix the sliced beets with the sea salt and enough olive oil to completely coat the beets.

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Thinly spread the beet slices on two baking trays.

4 large organic beets, thinly sliced
1/4c organic extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat
1tsp sea salt
1 organic bird’s eye pepper, ground (optional)
Cut the beets in half and thinly slice. Try to get the slices the same size. In a large bowl, mix the beet slices with olive oil and sea salt. Use just enough olive oil to cover the beets thoroughly. Cook the beets at 250F for 2 hours for a chewy chip or 300F for 2 hours for a crisper chip. Stir once or twice during the cooking process. At the lower temperature the beets dry out more than cook. At the higher temperature the beets will be crispier but watch the chips carefully to avoid burning. If you start to see the chips discoloring remove from the oven and cool. Sometimes it will take more time to cook the beets if the beets have a high moisture content.

Remove the beet chips from the oven and let cool. The beet chips crisp up during the cooling process. If some beet chips are underdone, remove the chewy or crispy chips from the tray and return the underdone chips to the oven for another 30 minutes. Watch carefully and be patient!

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Have patience with the cooking. It takes time.