It all started with the kale chip.
I fell in love the texture of the thick, green leaf made thin and so delicately crisp by baking that it felt almost flaky, with just enough thickness to impart a satisfying little crunch before nearly dissolving into salty-grassy goodness on the tongue.
And I wasn’t alone: healthy-conscious eaters crowned the kale chip its unofficial sweetheart and suddenly they were available not just in health-food stores, but in mini-marts, airports and gas stations.
Which led me to ask: What else might we chip-up in a dehydrator or oven? And what other flavors might we add? My daughter’s all-time favorite potato chip is BBQ flavored, so that became my mission — a baked veggie chip that mimicked the BBQ potato chip flavor, with all natural ingredients.
In mixing up various spice rubs, we were surprised by how much brown sugar we needed to emulate that characteristic flavor. And then we struck gold: what if we used a naturally sweet vegetable, which would allow us to reduce the added sugar down to nearly nothing?