Hands up how many people like eating crunchy snacks? What about potato chips? Mhmm that’s what I thought! You love potato chips, but wonder how you can eat them as part of a healthy diet. I love crunchy things and sometimes you want the crunch of a chip, but without all the excess fat and calories. Sure you can buy some baked or popped chips at the store, but they’re quite pricey and fairly bland. Not to mention not exactly “fresh”.
As a society we tend to overeat on packaged snack foods because they are so easily available everywhere and in such large quantities. Why not try making some of your own favorite snacks and keep them totally healthy?
In fact after making your own healthy snacks you might appreciate the amount of labor and love goes into making them. So hopefully you won’t just devour them in a few minutes, but savour your hard earned tasty snack! (At least I hope so…)
For this fat free potato chip recipe you will need a mandolin or a V-slicer. Something that you can slice a potato on very thinly. Also please be careful and use the vegetable holder/guard that comes with your slicer, or use some safety gloves so you don’t slice your finger. Personally I have never had a problem using these devices. Just go slowly and be aware of your fingers and you will be fine.
You’ll also require a microwave oven and a roll of parchment paper. Or you can get something like “Top Chips” on Amazon that includes a slicer, spices and a microwaving tray.
Microwaved Fat Free Potato Chips
Makes 70-80 chips Total time: 45-60 minutes
1 large russet potato
Salt and/or pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Fill a medium bowl with water and peel the potato.
2. Using a mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting, slice the potatoes.
3. Place the sliced potatoes in the bowl of water to prevent browning and remove excess starch.
4. Dry potato chips thoroughly with paper towel or a tea towel.
4. Line two large plates with a sheet of parchment paper (essential so the potatoes don’t stick) and place enough potato slices on it to cover (about 9). Make sure none overlap.
5. Mix salt, pepper and any other seasonings together in a bowl and sprinkle seasonings very lightly over the chips with your fingers. Go easy at first and taste test your first batch to know if you need more or less seasoning on the next.
6. Microwave one plate of chips at a time on high for 3-6 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave). Watch them after 3-4 minutes and stop the microwave when they turn a golden brown in the centre. (My low powered microwave took about 5 minutes)
7. Use oven mitts to remove the plate from the microwave (it’s very hot!) and let cool a few minutes (before removing the chips from the parchment).
8. Remove the chips and set aside in a bowl or dish and repeat this process until all of your potato slices have been cooked (using the correct cooking time for your microwave).
9. Chips will harden after they cool down and become crispier. Eat when cool and crunchy!
Safety Note:
Please make sure to use oven mitts as the plates will be very hot. Also don’t microwave chips back to back for the entire amount, let the microwave have a little break after every 3 plates of chips. I overheated my microwave on the fourth plate and it turned off as a safety precaution.
Additional Tips:
Extra chips can be stored in an air tight container. Eat soon as they can go stale as there are no preservatives.
Use a large potato. The chips shrink significantly after cooking and if you start with a medium potato you’ll end up with small chips.
To Make Fat Free Oven Baked Potato Chips:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Use a baking pan lined with a non stick silicon mat or a sheet of parchment paper. Place cleaned and dried potato slices on the mat/sheet and season. Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden and crispy. Cool before eating.
Additional Seasoning Ideas:
Chipotle chili powder and salt
Salt & Vinegar
Curry powder and salt
Garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
Grind your favorite herbs or mixes like Herbs De Provence or Italian Seasoning to a fine powder and mix with salt for herbed potato chips
Nutritional Information: Entire recipe (without seasonings) Calories 254.7 Total Fat 0.2 g Saturated Fat 0.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g Cholesterol 0.0 mg Sodium 58.7 mg Potassium 1,502.2 mg Total Carbohydrate 58.0 g Dietary Fiber 8.8 g Sugars 4.2 g Protein 6.2 g
And no the microwave does not cause cancer, nor does microwaved water kill plants.
What seasonings do you like on your potato chips?
I didn’t have parchment paper so I greased a plate with vegan becel and it worked great! if you want salt and vinegar then soak the potatoes in vinegar for 15-30 mins in vinegar and salt and then sprinkle with salt! spatula works well to help get stubborn one s off the plate
I used the turntable from the microwave to draw a circle on my parchment paper and cut to fit. No hot plate issues and seems safer. sc
Nice recipe. but why do so much of hardwork when you can buy yummy readymade crisps? Try “Frisp”. These are fat-free,gluten-free crisps available in various flavors. check their website http://www.frisp.com.au to see the available flavors.
Hi William, I am in Canada and most of my readers are in the USA. This looks like an Australian product, and packaged chips are much more expensive than making your own. So I am trying to offer a cheaper alternative.
I absolutely love these! Made them last night with sweet potatoes and they were heavenly 🙂
Many health sources contend that microwaving is detrimental to health. Can you give oven directions for this healthy recipe??
Please read the comments of this post. Many many people have posted about it. Check out Dr. Michael Gregor’s video about the best cooking method and if microwaves are safe: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/best-cooking-method/
Also my opinion is how can one argue cooking potatoes at high temperature (400 F and up) in an oven for long periods of time (45 min to 1 hour) is healthier than microwaving a potato slice for 3 minutes? High heat cooking that is oil free in general isn’t causing massive illness, the real problem is baking at high heat with oil and deep frying. It will absolutely take you forever to attempt to bake enough chips on multiple pans in an oven so I don’t do it. One potato makes a lot of slices but they dehydrate and shrink so you will be using a lot of pans and a lot of space to spread out raw slices.
Yum Veronica
Just trying your microwaved chips…………and thought I’d comment on the microwave. When my mother had myeloid leukaemia I read the research suggesting that microwaving raised white blood cells more than cooking through other methods. There was also Russian research and they were banned there for a while as well as some suppressed research that someone went through the European Court to publish ( even read the court report at the time to check). However even though we avoided microwaves we fed my mother dairy and eggs. ouch now. Still I usually avoid the microwave even if the research isn’t as clear as on dairy and eggs. I am now going to ignore Dr Gregers video on the healthiest way to cook sweet potatoes (kumara in my part of the world) and try this yummy cooking method instead
Hi Veronica- I had a craving for potato chips a few months ago and searched for microwave techniques. Your recipe is terrific, but there was one idea I picked up elsewhere and it seems to work great: ditch the plate (in your second “step 4” 🙂
Putting the corners-tucked-in parchment paper directly on the microwave turntable works just fine and you can even have another set of potato slices easily ready to swap out when the first set finishes.
I think the advantage of ditching the plate comes from the thick glass (turntable) holding more heat for longer, so it makes cooking time more consistent and reduces hot spots.
I will quibble with one item you wrote: “Extra chips can be stored in an air tight container.”
Hahaha! Extra chips. What are extra chips? 🙂
Honestly, I usually make one plate for me, one plate for my wife, and repeat that process until the entire potato is gone. Her only “complaint” is that it would be nice to be able to make many more than 9-12 at a time. (I kind of think that while the oven would permit me to make many more at a time, they would take a lot longer to bake, so it’s about a wash.)
Thanks, as always, for floating these great ideas out there, since I know I’m occasionally drawn to the crunchy/salty/snacky foods from time to time and it’s nice to know that we have healthy (or at least far healthier) alternatives.
I had to use oven mits to take them out of the microwave, sure you can just use parchment its just hot to touch and cant carry the chips so you have to decide how to take them off.
I never had extra chips either. But if one was determined to make them for their family and not eat them all you might have some left lol
I’m with you — that turntable gets super hot.
When they’re light brown and crispy, I just kind of peel up the parchment paper off the turntable, draw up the corners into a little “purse” so they don’t fall out, and then dump the chips into a bowl (or someone’s mouth LOL).
Can I do this with yams too?
Yes. Try 3 1/2 to 4 minutes to start
I have to say from start to putting that chip in my mouth was less than 5 minutes! It only took my mic 2 minutes to cook these babies to perfection. I used the 1/16″ slice on my mandolin which worked perfect. My 5 year old will be wanting to hug you after he gets ahold of these!He’s has food allergies and can’t have certain packaged foods, etc…but now I can give him a healthy treat and he doesn’t feel left out!! Thank You Thank You Thank you!
I really love these.
Great recipe, I have tried it and the result is amazing, even better than store bought chips.
In regards to raw vs. cooked potato chips, they will never have the same taste. The browning reaction (Maillard reaction) that takes place during cooking between the reducing sugars and the amino acids in the chips is what cause the formation of the aromatic compounds hence the taste. This is the very same reaction that causes the dangerous compounds including acrylamide, which is carcinogenic IN LARGE AMOUNTS. This happens during ALL cooking, not just microwaving. If you don’t want it, don’t ever eat browned food. However, as with most things, there’s a critical limit to when something becomes dangerous. Potato chips a few times a month will not give you cancer; a combination between bad genetics and an overall unhealthy lifestyle as well as environmental toxins will. Be balanced.
Regarding the 9-year old girl doing an experiment. Come on folks, ONE experiment made by a 9-year old girl with no replication does not prove that microwaves are unsafe. There is no radiation left in the food once it has been cooked. The only problem with microwaves is that the food often gets uneven distribution of heat which leads to overcooking and some nutrient loss. It is not more dangerous than conventional cooking. Really.
I agree!
Based on the studies, the acrylamide issue was highest in french fries and potato chips that are deep fried in oil, which often contains meat as well. Much less of an issue for fat free potatoes.
Just made these. They are amazing!! Thanks for sharing, they really helped with my crispy, salty craving. I will never reach for a bag of chips again. Even hubby said they were good and couldn’t believe they weren’t fried in oil.
That’s amazing Tiffany!
Hello Veronica,
Thank you so much for another great technique to make a healthy, fat free snack. If I understand microwave technology correctly, the energy produced by the microwave causes the water molecules in food to vibrate, which causes heat, which causes the food to cook. I would not be afraid of my microwave any more than I would be afraid of my refrigerator or my stove. You are right, a potato cooked at home is going to be much more wholesome than processed food made in a factory. I am the the healthy eater in our house, my husband not so much. The chips get his seal of approval!
Brigitta
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂 And you are correct that is how a microwave works.
Hi, When I read the comments about microwave ovens it reminded me of an interesting comment I had read in the book, Live Better Longer by Joseph Dispenza regarding the life of Dr.Hazel Parcells who lived until she was 105 year of age and yes, she did use a microwave in her kitchen laboratory. Many people consider it nutritionally incorrect to use a microwave but Dr. Parcells found that bread cooked in a conventional oven retained far less of its original nutritional value than microwaved bread. Bread baked in the microwave oven actually increased the nutrient energy. Microwave ovens cook food from the inside out and conventional ovens cook from the outside in. That is the difference and it matters in nutrition.
Wow! These are awesome! It takes the whole 6 minutes in my microwave and I just put them on a piece of parchment paper in the microwave skipping the plate all together as the plate on my first batch was frighteningly hot! I seasoned them with nutritional yeast flakes and they were GREAT – tasted cheesy good with no cheese!!
I have recently gotten rid of my microwave. There is information on how destructive microwaved food can be for you. My daughter had studied this and asked me if I should still be using it.
Many of the problems you believe to be caused by aging could be caused my microwaved food. Such as memory issue etc.
I already addressed these “concerns”. Dr. Michael Greger a plant based researcher has compared all cooking methods and found microwaving food to not be harmful to the food or nutrients. Think about it you microwave it for a very short period of time, baking potatoes can take up to an hour or longer and is at much higher temperatures. There’s no rationale that microwaving at a short period of time is worse than baking at high temperatures for long periods of time, and CERTAINLY not worse than deep frying in oil at high temperatures.
Please put this in perspective. The average health seeker is not living on microwaved food aging rapidly… And packaged processed food that is deep fried in factories is bad for you. I am showing people how to cook chips without oil in a safe method. There’s no comparison between the health of a fat free microwaved chip and a deep fried packaged chip from Lays.
Sometimes people focus all their energy on the wrong things like microwaved food or reheating in a microwave is evil, but having high fat plant oils and too many calories every day isn’t even on their radar.
When pregnant with both Andrew and Rainbow I craved BBQ sauce. I ate a lot of BBQ potato chips! I wish I opted to make them homemade in the oven with no oil!
Great recipe idea!
Thanks Karmyn 🙂
If your really want a few…that would be the question LOL
A lot of work for a quick snack, but hey why not. Better then any fried ones that is for sure.
Dehydrator ones are not that good and microwaves are OK. People need to check out some of these rumors. Here is a great link I use to check out any questions I may have, pretty much about anything. I find this a great resource.
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/best-cooking-method/
Love your recipes and blog shares!
I love Dr. Greger’s website, yes it is a great tool for current research and he found the microwave to be better in some cases for cooking.
The point is we often open up a bag and eat the whole thing and don’t realize we ate 300-600 calories in a few minutes as fried potato chips are 50% fat when cooked. If unhealthy snacks had to be handmade we wouldn’t eat them so ravenously and actually savor them. This recipe makes about 80 chips which is definitely enough for a snack, they all didn’t fit in the bowl. This is just some of them pictured above.
I want to teach people to be aware of the food they are eating, and making something with care makes you more aware of the time it takes to create processed food and it’s more gratifying to enjoy something you made yourself rather than buying it from 7 Eleven.
exactly… well stated 🙂
Hi Veronica, greetings from Iceland darling! Love this idea as crisps (chips) are my downfall 🙁 Don’t fancy the microwave, try to steer away from that if poss. I’ll try the oven way. Regarding the salt and vinigar do I just sprinkle vinigar on them before cooking? I always wondered how they could get the flavour without making them wet 🙂 am I daft or what!!!
When you talk about parchment paper, is that the same as grease proof baking paper?
Hope you are doing well! I’m off to California next month woo hoo!
LoVe Pauline
no way microwave … considered very unhealthy as it scrambles the molecules of food and messes with our chemistry … i do these in a toaster oven and they come out great; however it bothers me that they are saying that ANY browning of any food turns it to acrylimides which = cancer threat. So micro/no micro, there doesn’t seem to be any escape from the torment of research that causes disease. I tried dehydrating, and without the browning they were tasteless.
Yes dehydrating raw potato chips makes them taste really bad. I don’t like them at all. I have more heard of high heat in the oven causing more acrylimide. But you have to understand that people are ADDICTED TO DEEP FRIED POTATO CHIPS. There are healthier options. So I want to show people that they can have chips if they make them themselves simply. I would doubt that a microwaved potato could be anywhere NEAR as harmful as deep fried potato chips cooked in oil that is heated and reheated again at high temperatures. Those are carcinogenic. This has no oil.
Also I asked the experts about the microwave and they are not concerned at all and it seems there has been a lot of misinformation spread, and new microwaves are not leaking radiation out into the kitchen nor does microwaved water kill plants.
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp
what would you suggest if you trying to not use salt.
If you’re not doing salt, I don’t think you would like eating them plain. Plain strips of crisp potato don’t taste like much. Sprinkling a tiny amount of salt on top of them doesn’t make them very high in sodium. Even regular potato chips are not that high in sodium as it’s on top and not in the food.
Hi Veronica. I love getting your emails because you inspire me every day in the kitchen to eat healthy. Ditch using your microwave. Isn’t it banned in Europe? A sage told me that microwaved food has been depleted of nutrients because it kills the energy in food. Also, I read that a 9 year old girl did an experiment for school: she used microwaved, cooled water to water one plant and tap water for the other same kind of plant. The microwaved water killed the plant. The other lived. That was enough for me. I never liked the noise or taste or space it uses in the kitchen anyways.
Baked sweet potato fries or kale chips are fine for me!
thanks again for all you do!
Judy
Hi Judy
Yes I have heard all about that. I have also asked experts like Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick RD. There is a lot of misinformation and hype. Do I microwave all my food? No certainly not because I prefer the taste of food cooked on a stove for a lot of things.
Do I use it to reheat things sometimes? yes.
Here is the original argument about the plants and snopes did this experiment themselves with 3 plants and NONE of them died because of microwaved water. This is debunked.
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp
Your chips look pretty damn convincing – just like out of a packet – except less oily! My heart sank when I saw the potatoes were micro-waved (don’t own one) – thanks for including the alternative bake-in-the-oven option:)
In my former life as a chip-fiend, I just used to get the plain salted ones. I like all the toppings you’ve suggested here – especially chipotle chilli, curry/onion/garlic powders. Maybe smoked paprika would be nice too…
Would you get a similar result in a dehydrator, Veronica?
No they won’t be similar. Taking raw potato chips and dehydrating keeps them full of starch which makes them bland and tasteless. A friend of mine made a huge batch of raw dehydrated potato chips and I could only eat one and was not interested in eating anymore. Microwaved potato chips taste pretty good with seasoning for a fat free chip, dehydrated chips just taste like raw hard potatoes.
Don’t toss those dehydrated chips though. Use them like the ones that come in the packages for “scalloped potato” mixes, except you’d have to invent your own sauce instead of the chemical soup that they pack it with! LOL ! I bet one of the “cheese”less sauces like the ones used for vegan macaroni and “cheese” would work if you added enough extra liquid, maybe broth or a nut milk, to rehydrate the ‘taters. Waste not want not!
This is a great idea by the way, thanks! I was wondering if this might also work with other root veggies like yams, sweet potatoes, even carrots or parsnips? Think it would be worth a try?
And I am so with you Veronica, about not fretting about the microwave! Stop listening to the boogeymen and research the FACTS. Worry about the BIG health issues like fats and frying and poor food and life-style choices in general that will getcha! Microwave ovens have been around for some 67 years now…don’t you think if they were lethal we’d know for sure by now? Your TV is probably more dangerous than your microwave, relax, it’s not a major issue! Really!!!