Are you looking for a fun way to get more veggies into your diet or a healthy snack to take with you on the go? I've got you covered either way with these Crispy Green Bean Chips. They're a healthy version of those so-called "veggie chips" you find in the store.
I love finding ways to get more veggies into my kids (and let's face it--into me too!) It's of course great to dip veggies into this dairy-free pizza dip, dairy-free ranch dip, or savory hummus, and they also love these kale chips and easy sun-dried tomatoes for snacking on. However, now we have a new favorite in our household, these Crispy Green Bean Crisps.
Veggie Chips are all the rage among "healthy snack seekers" but they are pretty pricey. We love them, but it's pretty easy to sit down and devour an entire bag of them- if I bought bags of these crispy veggie chips, we would devour them in no time flat, meaning that likely I would have to mortgage more than our home to afford having these snacks in our pantry regularly :).
I don't mean those "veggie sticks" that are really just potato starch with small amounts of vegetable powder. I mean those real veggies fried in oil that are crispy and a great alternative to potato chips if you are looking for something healthier.
However, besides them costing a small fortune, the "real veggie chips" have another problem as well--they are typically made with oils that I consider to be "less than optimal," to be generous--for example, canola oil (that's almost for sure GMO), and the like.
So I decided that I would have to figure out a way to make these on the cheap and with oils that I feel good serving to my family.
I loaded up my cart with several of the big 5-pound bags of organic green beans at Costco and went to work.
A Winning Recipe for Green Bean Chips
And ended up with a recipe that is a real winner.
I do think, however, that we need to consider buying stock in the organic green bean company because we've been eating so many of these.
Seriously, I can hardly keep my kids out of them (and to be honest, I have a hard time not eating them too!)
Whenever my kids are going a little "overboard" on these crisps and I tell them it's too much, they are quick to remind me that they are eating a super healthy snack that's all veggies. I guess I should be really thankful - could be worse, right?
We've tried these with both coconut and olive oil. The coconut oil needs to be heated to melting first and it solidifies on the green beans if they are still pretty cold. For that reason, the olive oil is easier, but we prefer the taste of the crisps made with the coconut oil somewhat.
Also, since we are dairy-free for the most part, due to my son's life-threatening food allergies and myself having a recent diet change, I chose to use nutritional yeast on these, but you could always use parmesan instead if you can have dairy.
Nutritional Yeast and Folic Acid
Note that most nutritional yeast on the market is fortified with folic acid. I don't have a firm opinion on this, but some experts say that if you have MTHFR mutation, that you can't process folic acid sufficiently and the remaining free folic acid will cause problems. This is apparently especially true for those with high homocysteine. There are other apparent concerns as well.
I am doing more research into it, and am not sure that it's crucial to avoid all synthetic folic acid, but I do think it's possible many people have too much of it. Finally I found a brand of nutritional yeast without synthetic folic acid and will be looking for more!
How to Season These Green Bean Chips
So many seasonings would taste great on these veggie chips.
The above-mentioned options are wonderful but you could also use:
- All-Purpose Seasoning
- Chat Masala (a superb Indian seasoning)
- Taco Seasoning
- Chili Powder
Really, the possibilities are endless.
These Green Bean Chips Are UGLY
I have received many comments from readers stating that their chips are "ugly" or not crispy.
I would like to address both of those concerns:
- These veggie chips are NOT pretty. I promise you that I barely altered the photo of my green bean chips. I made them a tad lighter and that's it. I don't own photoshop and am not great at photo editing in the first place, but I also want you to see what you are going to get.I think that the parchment paper and the little glass jar and the background of our antique table make them look nicer than they do in a plastic tub.
- Sometimes my chips aren't that crisp either. Typically that is because I haven't dried them enough.
- Here's my BEST crispy chip tip. SQUEEEEEEEZE out your frozen green beans before coating them. We do this almost every time, but once my husband did it (he's got a better grip than I d0) and the chips dried MUCH faster and the resulting crispy chips were super crispy. 🙂
In response to comments from readers about "ugly chips", in addition to accusations that I doctored my photo a ton, here is the original untouched photo.
And here is the slightly brightened photo.
As you can see, there isn't a whole lot of difference. I think having the chips in a cute jar with parchment and doing a close up shot makes all the difference.
However, since this image was shot, I changed how I am making these Green Bean Chips. Now we SQUEEEEEZE them really well before drying them.
So be forewarned - they are smaller, thinner and really not attractive ugly, BUT they taste better and are more crispy.
I might try to update with a new photo, but I assure you, you want to ignore how these things look and SQUEEZE them out when you make them.
YUM
If you'd like to make your chips look cute too.....
Here is the parchment paper
and here are the jars :).
Ugly or not, we love these chips!
What Kind of Dehydrator Should You Buy?
We love our Excalibur Dehydrator. Works great and makes a ton of food. We bought the 9 tray so that we could easily do lots of dehydrating at one time. It's been one of the best purchases we've made for our whole food kitchen.
If you think that's too much drying green beans power for you, then something like this 5-tray Excalibur might be enough.
Recipe Notes
- Leave Chips in Dehydrator: The chips need to be really really really really really dry in order to be crispy. If you remove them from the dehydrator too soon, they will be really hard to chew. If you don't squeeze them first, this can take a long time. Don't give up!
- Frozen or Thawed Beans: I've used both frozen and thawed beans. The oils solidifies quickly on them, but it does work.
- Appearance: The beans are NOT pretty when done. I have gotten quite a few comments from readers who were surprised that their beans didn't look like mine. My dehydrated beans do not look nice.
The photo is a true one and I only lightened it a tiny bit. The original looks almost identical to it. I think that somehow the lighting or the color of the table or the presentation made them look nicer than they do but please don't expect your bean chips to look pretty. - Fresh Beans: Please note, if you'd would like to try this with fresh beans, that I have never tried this. One reader commented that she tried both fresh and frozen beans and that the fresh did not work. I have heard from others that fresh works, but the result isn't as good. One alternative is to flash blanch the fresh beans and then dehydrate them, but again, I have not attempted this.
- Nutritional Yeast: If you don't like or don't use nutritional yeast, use 1 tsp each garlic powder (buy it or make homemade garlic powder) and onion powder.
Special Diet Notes
- AIP: This recipe is an AIP reintro food since it is made from string beans.
Can't Stop Eating 'Em Crispy Green Bean Chips
Ingredients
- 5 pounds green beans (organic preferred)
- 1/3 cup oil (melted coconut oil preferred)
- 4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (see Recipe Notes for substitutions)
Instructions
- Place green beans in a large bowl. If using frozen green beans, simply allow them to thaw in a bowl (optional - see notes below). If using fresh beans, you will need to blanch them first.
- Pour oil on top of beans. If using coconut oil, melt the oil first and work fast as the oils solidifies quickly if your room or beans are cold.
- Sprinkle seasonings on top of coated beans and stir well.
- Dry in dehydrator until crisp dry. This takes approximately 10 - 12 hours at 125 degrees, or 8 hours at 135 degrees, but occasionally longer. You could also bake in a low temperature oven.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Leave Chips in Dehydrator: The chips need to be really really dry in order to be crispy. If you remove them from the dehydrator too soon, they will be really hard to chew.
- Use Either Frozen or Thawed Beans: I have used both frozen and thawed beans. The oils solidifies quickly on them, but it does work.
- Appearance: The beans are NOT pretty when done. I have gotten quite a few comments from readers who were surprised that their beans didn't look like mine. My dehydrated beans do not look nice. The photo in the post is a true one and I only lightened it a tiny bit. The original looks almost identical to it. I think that somehow the lighting or the color of the table or the presentation made them look nicer than they do but please don't expect your bean chips to look pretty. This is NOT a cute snack :).
- Fresh Beans: One reader commented that she tried both fresh and frozen beans and that the fresh did not work. I have heard from others that fresh works, but the result isn't as good. One alternative is to flash blanch the fresh beans and then dehydrate them.
- Nutritional Yeast: If you don't like or don't use nutritional yeast, use 1 tsp each garlic powder and onion powder -- See Easy Homemade Garlic Powder if you'd like to make your own
Nutrition
Whatever way you choose to make these green bean chips, I guarantee you'll find it hard to keep them around very long :).
What's your favorite healthy snack?
Do you love veggie chips as much as we do?
Dumb question - and I haven't made it thru all comments - but don't the beans all separate into halves along the seams when thoroughly squeezed?
The beans are definitely squooshed. I haven't done the squeezing method with fresh beans--just frozen. Were you planning on fresh or frozen?
I was looking for an alternative for my green/yellow/purple beans because I already have so many jars canned.
I picked the beans out of my garden, blanched them for 5 minutes and then squeezed them with a towel. I only had avocado spray oil, so I lightly sprayed them and added some garlic salt. I did leave them on the dehydrator for close to 20 hours because I'm all about the crispy. They turned out wonderful. Thank you for this idea, even though I didn't follow it exactly. I'm planning on doing it again and may try adding the brewer's yeast.
Wow first of all, thank you soooo much for the kind review. This has been a persnickety recipe but it always works for us. I'm going to update it some today w/ info to help people.
Second, you are so blessed. I planted heirloom beans and a lot of other stuff but for various reasons we aren't getting many (soil, sun and terrible piggy animals!!) so I'm jealous but going to go at it again next year.
I am SOOOO glad you liked them. They are our faves!
Here's a peek at my victory beans - not so much of a victory now but again, not giving up :).
I made these today to take backpacking later this week. I used fresh beans (Dragon Tongue snap beans) from my garden. I blanched them first (4 minutes) and plunged them into ice water. Then I laid them on a towel, covered with another towel, and use the rolling pin to roll the heck out of them. It squeezed out a lot of water and made them more floppy. I also had salmon jerky in the oven, so the beans dehydrated at 165F along with the salmon. I just pulled them out of the oven a little while ago, but they seem like they will work well for a crunchy snack on the trail. And yes, they look ugly.
So glad they seem to have worked well for you! I have beans growing myself which is super fun b/c we haven't done a garden in a LONG time. I LOVE the rolling pin idea!!!! How do they taste? Yeah they are ugly this way but they turn out a lot crunchier than when we didn't squeeze them, though they looked better :).
Now that I'm back from backpacking, I can tell you that they are super crunchy and great! I love them and plan on making these again with the load of beans from the garden that is overwhelming. I'm going to try other spice blends next time.
I'm so glad to hear it. We really can't get enough of these! We love the nutritional yeast on them. Thanks for stopping back to update us!
I followed this recipie. I used fresh blanched green garden bean, did all it said to do and beans shrivled up to a hard inedible piece of trash. This blog post is malarky. I do NOT believe for one second the beans in the picture were made using the recipie. Nope.
And I don't really care if you don't publish this comment. Just as long as you know I think your full of malarky.
Hi Laura. I'm really sorry that you didn't have good success with the recipe. We make them all the time and just did it again using frozen green beans. I noted in the recipe that I have not attempted this with fresh beans and that others had had mixed results.
You can believe what you like, but the photo is authentic. When squeezed and then dried, the beans don't look as nice as the ones in the photo, but I am going to try to get them reshot with new photos soon.
Again, believe what you like. What one believes doesn't affect what is true. I took the photo myself using unsqueezed frozen green beans that were then dried. The unedited image is in the post. Take care.
Laura, see my comment above about what I did with our fresh garden green beans. They came out really great with the changes that I made.
By putting oil on the beans it prevents them from drying properly. I just put thawed beans on racks to dry and they come out crisp and delicious. I will add oil and seasonings when I serve them, or mix with nuts, seeds, and yeast.
Hi Anne! Have you tried putting oil on them? I do it all the time and they turn out great!
Any chance you can use canned green beans for this? Or the flat Italian kind? That's all I have access to at the moment, and my kids have enjoyed fried green beans before, so I think this might be something they'd like.
Fresh flat or frozen? You could try canned but they are so moisture logged I'm not sure how long it would take, but it might work!
Can you do these withiut the yeast?
Yes, there is an option for not using yeast in the post. I just added the information to the recipe card so hopefully that will help you find it - hope you like them!
can you omit the oil and if so, wonder how they will turn out without the oil...
Hi there. I haven't tried that! I would think they would work but will possibly be more dry--hopefully the texture will be OK! Let me know!
Hi. Your update link to the nutritional yeast brings up a number of them. Can you add the name of them in the post thx
Hi there! I'm just seeing one brand come up with the links. Can you explain to me which link you are clicking on that is giving you the result? Thanks!!
Maybe rolling them with a rolling pin over a towel would be more efficient than hand squeezing?
That's an interesting idea! My husband put the giant bags of beans in the tub and steps on them! Beans stay clean and it goes faster!
Does the carb count change after being dehydrated?
A cup of these being eaten could easily be done..just saying haha
No, the carb count won't change since only water is being removed.
I thought about using my microwave's convection oven. I have no idea how I'd go about doing so.
You could try it at the lowest temp. I haven't done that but it might work!
I read that you said to store these beans in an airtight container. Does this mean they don't have to be refrigerated? Also, how long will they stay good outside the fridge?
If you addressed this in your post and I missed it, I apologize. Thank you for this recipe and your help.
Hi there - they do not have to be stored in the fridge just like most other dehydrated foods don't have to. I don't have an idea about the shelf life but it would depend on you dehydrating them sufficiently and on the shelf life of the oil. I'm reading 6 mos for dried vegetables but again I would factor in the oil and your drying method / length of time and smell to make sure they don't smell off. Hope you like them!
Mine shrivel up to nothing, why? Going to post pic but can’t figure out how
Hi there - - Thanks for reading! I discussed this in the post--if you squeeze them out they make a better tasting crispy chip but they shrivel up more than the photos in the post. Did you happen to squeeze them? Thanks!
Not this time, I did last time and they shriveled up bad., used frozen beans. This time I laid them out on cooling racks and let them sit a couple of days, using fresh beans this time. I still have another batch to go I will squeeze this last batch . I thought I may be drying them to long, cut the time back 2hrs then going to do 30 mins at a time. Thank you so much, my husband loves them
Well, basically they are just plain not pretty things, but they taste good. I am working on another way to do this but it will be much more pricey but quicker. Stay tuned! So glad he likes them!
I'm actually responding to this because I also have a mutation of MTHFR. I was looking into recipes for green beans as I've started eating healthier, and I was surprised seeing that referenced here. I saw you mentioned folic acid? I haven't heard of this being an issue, though I do not know much about the mutation overall.
Hi there! Some people say this is a non issue, while other say that it is. Those who say it is make the argument that if you have this issue, you can't process a great amount of folic acid and the free folic causes problems in your body. I haven't done enough research to have a firm opinion on the matter.
How long do you bake in a low temperature oven?
Hi there. I haven't tried it yet! It would depend on the temp of your oven--do you know what yours is?
I’m at a loss lol how on earth do you squeeze them??
Hi Jessica! You can use your hands and squeeze hard, or you could put bags of green beans on a towel, etc on the floor and squeeze them out that way. Hope you like them!
Thank you!!! I was thinking along those lines but wasn’t sure. Can’t wait to try them! There is a farmers market around here that has them but I inhaled them before we even left the market! It’d be nice to make them at home!
You are so welcome. Please do keep in mind that they aren't pretty :). And they shrivel up a lot. I haven't made them w/ fresh beans--some in the comments say to blanch. Hope you like them!
So...these are amazing! I used a frozen bag, let the beans thaw in a bowl for a few hours and squeezed as much of the water out as I could! Then I let the beans dry overnight on a elavated sheet pan (a cooling rack you would use for baking over a cookie sheet essentially) . Melted coconut oil and seasoned salt, onion and garlic powder as the recipe says and dehydrated on 140 degrees for about 6 hours.. PERFECTION. I used a 1 lb bag and my husband had to remind me to maybe save some of the snacks for tomorrow ? not sorry!
Great tips and so glad you liked them! I have to kick my kids out of them all the time. Hope to try your method!
This is just the recipe I was looking for. Love your post. Will be doing these today. Regarding your remark about coconut oil, I'll be trying fractionated coconut oil (MCT oil) which stays liquid. I'll let you know how these work for me, but I'm sure they'll be great, ugly or not. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much--I was just eating some of our uglies today :). Hope they turn out well!
Can the nutritional yeast be omitted? They sound wonderful, looking forward to giving them a try.
Yes, you can substitute onion and garlic for the nutritional yeast. The substitution is listed in the Recipe Notes. Sorry we didn't note the substitution in the recipe card. We have since noted it there. Thank you so much for the compliment on the recipe!
Thanks for Sharing