There are times when nothing but a salty snack will do. Sure, you could buy a bag of Doritos, but wouldn’t it be better (healthier, more fun, less expensive) to make your own snack chips out of a foraged tuber? Of course it would. And you’ll be surprised by how easy they are to make.
Sunchoke chips are made from the tubers of Jerusalem artichokes. The sunchoke is one of the most versatile foraged tubers there is. It has a slight natural sweetness to is and a dense texture that makes it useful in cakes, soups, soufflées, salads, and chips!
What You’ll Need to Make Baked Sunchoke Chips
- 5 Jerusalem artichokes
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
What You’ll Do to Make Baked Sunchoke Chips
Preheat your oven to 400F.
Scrub your sunchokes well. You’ll be using the whole sunchoke, skins and all…no peeling necessary.
A mandoline is the perfect tool for slicing the tubers into uniform, thin slices. If you don’t have one, you can use a knife, but a mandoline makes the work go a lot faster and easily creates thinner chips. Are you a thin chip person or a thick chip person? I usually slice my sunchokes 1/16 inch thick, but anything up to 1/8 inch works well.
Once you’ve sliced your sunchokes, toss them in just enough olive oil to coat them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss again. If you’re feeling experimental, go ahead and play around with the spices. (I’m especially fond of sumac powder on my sunchoke chips.)
Lay the chips out on a cookie sheet in a single layer, for even baking. To make cleanup easier, put down a sheet of aluminum foil first. Four or five medium sized sunchokes will fill a standard cookie sheet. If you’re making a larger batch, you can use the same sheet of aluminum foil multiple times.
How thick you sliced your sunchokes will determine how long you’ll need to bake them. Thin chips will be done in about 10 minutes. You’ll want them golden and crunchy, so keep an eye on them…they brown up quickly near the end. If the color is right but the chips don’t feel totally crisp when they come out of the oven, don’t worry. They’ll finish crisping on the cookie sheet as they cool. Thicker chips can be baked for 15 minutes. Again, take them out of the oven when the color is golden.
It’s not only the oven-baking and the small amount of oil that makes these chips so healthy. The Jerusalem artichokes themselves are a tuber that sits low on the glycemic index, making it a healthy carbohydrate, as carbohydrates go.
Eat sunchoke chips plain or serve them with guacamole, salsa, bean dip, queso, hummus, tzadziki… They’re strong enough to stand up to a substantial dip, in both flavor and texture.
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