Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 506 kcal | 143 kcal |
| Protein | 7.4 g | 2.1 g |
| Fat | 40.7 g | 11.5 g |
| saturated | 5.9 g | 1.7 g |
| Carbohydrate | 31.6 g | 8.9 g |
| sugars | 17.3 g | 4.9 g |
| Fibre | 6 g | 1.7 g |
| Sodium | 22 mg | 6 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.6 kg cucumbers
- 1/4 cup olive oil or vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika(smoked)
Instructions
- Cucumber is about as watery as food gets, so expect four cucumbers to come off the trays as a small handful of chips. Knowing that in advance stops you cutting them thick to get more volume.
- Leave the skin on and slice the cucumbers as thin as the mandolin will go. The skin is what keeps a slice in one piece as it shrinks; peeled rounds curl up and tear.
- Lay the slices on a towel and press another on top for a few minutes. Every drop you take out here is an hour you do not spend waiting.
- Toss them in the olive oil, or in vinegar if you want a sharper chip that stays crisper for longer. Vinegar evaporates where oil does not, which is why a vinegar batch keeps better than an oiled one.
- Arrange the slices on the trays with a gap between each and dust the chilli powder and smoked paprika over them there. Seasoning added in the bowl slides off with the oil and collects at the bottom.
- Dehydrate at about 55 °C for 10 hours. Look at them from about three-quarters of the way through, since the thinnest slices at the edges will be finished first and can be lifted off early.
- A finished chip is a brittle wafer that snaps at the lightest pressure. Any chip that bends, even slightly, is still holding water, and cucumber is unforgiving about this — one soft chip will soften a whole jar overnight.
- Cool them completely and store them in an airtight jar with a desiccant sachet, eating them within a fortnight. These do not keep the way a root vegetable chip does, and the oiled version goes stale faster than the vinegar one.
