Healthy Bean Chips--Over 30% Fiber!
I don't know if it is appropriate to making a posting about bean chips here or not but I figure it's worth a shot and definitely worth sharing.
I am diabetic and when I eat grain snacks I like them to be as healthy as possible. You can't get more fiber than you can with beans.
I was at Whole Foods Market today and about to buy another package of "Beanitos" brand chips at $3.49 for 6 ounces. (I always liked Beanitos because they were over 30% fiber--compared to around 5% fiber of a typical chip.) I thought it was ridiculous how much they were charging--over 50 cents an ounce--for chips made with bean flour, since one can buy beans so cheaply. Looking on the back at the ingredients it seemed pretty simple: beans, rice flour, salt, water, flavoring, guar bean gum & oil. I figured I could make that!
So instead of buying that small bag of chips for $3.49 I decided to make my own today when I got home. And that is exactly what I did. I had never done this before, and never seen a recipe for it, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did because they turned out as good or better than the storebought bean chips.
Here is what I did. I took 100 grams of miscellaneous dried beans and threw them in my spice/coffee grinder. I ground them up until they were the consistency of masa flour. I put the bean flour in a bowl with 12 grams of rice flour. I threw in some salt & for personal flavoring: chipotle powder & cayenne--you could use any spices you like. Then I worked in about a teaspoon or so of olive oil. After that I added just a little water to bring the stuff together into a very firm paste (that I could easily roll out)--50% hydration. (I left out the guar bean gum, since I didn't have any on hand and ultimately it proved uneccessary.) I rolled it out thin, dusting it with 100% freshly ground organic whole wheat flour (that I keep on hand).
I cut these up into chip size pieces and threw them in a pot of 375F degree oil. They cooked up in like 30 seconds. Took them out and put them on a cooling rack. Sprinkled a little salt on them.
They're yummy and I'll never buy storebought bean chips again: