Crispy Green Bean Chips That Satisfy the Crave for Crunch

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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.

green bean chips in a glass jar on a wooden jar

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.

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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’ve received many comments from readers stating that their chips are “ugly” or not crispy.

I would like to address both of those concerns:

  1.  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.
  2. Sometimes my chips aren’t that crisp either.  Typically that’s because I haven’t dried them enough.
  3.  My BEST crispy green bean 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.

green bean chips in a glass jar on a wooden table

And here is the slightly brightened photo.

Looking for a healthy snack? This Addictive Green Bean Chips recipe is super easy and they are so much healthier than the store bought veggie chips. Skip the GMO canola oil from the packaged veggie chips and make these instead.

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’s the Best Dehydrator?

We love our Excalibur Dehydrator. Works great and dries 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.

This Cosori Dehydrator is highly recommended by many and has stainless trays, which is a better option instead of the plastic that’s in most dehydrators. I’m going to be trying this out as it’s new to me.

I Recommend
COSORI Food Dehydrator

COSORI Food Dehydrator

The Cosori dehydrator has 6 stainless steel trays (instead of plastic), a timer, and a glass door so you can see how the dehydrating process is progressing without opening the machine. 

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 teaspoon 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.
green bean chips in a glass

Crispy Green Bean Chips

These Crispy Green Bean Chips are easy to make and a great way to get veggies into your and your family’s diet. They’re gluten free and dairy free too.
Print Pin Rate
Course: Snack
Cuisine: AIP, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo, THM:S, Vegan, whole30
Keyword: green bean chips
Servings: 10
Calories: 140kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Dehydrator (optional if not using oven method)
  • cookie sheets or jelly roll pan (if using oven method)

Ingredients

  • 5 pounds green beans (organic preferred)
  • 1/3 cup oil (melted coconut oil preferred)
  • 4 teaspoons 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 (about 10 – 12 hours at 125°F, or 8 hours at 135°F.) You can also bake in a low temperature oven. Spread the beans on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake at 200 for 1 hour 15 minutes, then toss and bake for another hour, checking and tossing until done.
  • 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 teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder — See Easy Homemade Garlic Powder if you’d like to make your own
 

Nutrition

Calories: 140kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 944mg | Potassium: 501mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 1565IU | Vitamin C: 28mg | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 2mg | Net Carbs: 10g

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

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?

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341 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Thank you for this recipe. I made it from frozen beans in the oven, with onion and garlic mixture instead of nutritional yeast, kept it in the oven quite a bit longer than specified, and they turned out wonderfully crunchy. Great idea!

  2. I made these with fresh green beans from my garden. I blanched them for 2 minutes and then put in an ice bath, let them air dry for about an hour and then squeezed out any excess water. They took about 24 hours to fully dehydrate to crispy, but came out great with patience! Thanks for the recipe.

    1. Hi Mary – so glad to hear! I need to try them with fresh beans for sure! You are so welcome! Oh – were they ugly when finished, LOL?