Sweet Potato Chips

The other night I was trying to figure out what to do with a couple of sweet potatoes I’d gotten in my CSA organic produce bin, and immediately “sweet potato fries” came to mind. Could I do that, and could they be healthy?

Since I don’t have a good potato slicer or a deep fryer, I had to move on to Plan B. What about sweet potato chips? This seemed easy enough. I had just done sunchoke chips — surely this couldn’t be THAT much different.

As always Google to the rescue — it quickly told me exactly what I would need and how to go about it. A skillet filled with vegetable oil heated to 375, a vegetable slicer, a HUGE stack of paper towels to absorb the grease, and some seasoning. I was all set.

But, of course, being a health coach, I had to know:

Do potato chips have a place on my table? Can they be healthy?

I had remembered an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown talks about how deep-fried foods aren’t necessarily fatty — it all comes down to preparation. So, the hunt was on for that information!!!

I managed to track down a transcript from the show, and the net of it is that if you don’t add the food to the oil until the oil has reached the proper temperature AND you drain away the grease, then the end product ultimately absorbs very little fat. Viola! As far as I was concerned, these sweet potato chips WERE healthy and could be a reasonable snack.

NOTE: Breaded products absorb considerably more fat than unbreaded, but in the case of my chips, not much fat at all was absorbed.

I’m still not going to do this every day, but it’s a fun and different way to eat potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sunchokes. And, it’s great to know exactly where my food is coming from!