Homemade Veggie Chips with Ranch Dressing

I love homemade veggie chips. This is a super great way to introduce yourself to a few new veggies if you find (like me) that you don't branch out as often as you probably should. Just go to your local grocery store or farmers market and pick out a few root vegetables (anything that grows underground tends to work well). You can also quickly fry leafy greens, like kale or brussels sprout leaves (baking works well for leafy greens, too—see here).

Have you ever dipped potato chips in ranch dressing? If so, you're gonna love this! I'll show you how I like to make homemade ranch dressing. Spoiler: it's super easy, and really yummy paired with veggie chips. We're gonna make a decent amount, so get ready to get your salad on this week, too. ;)

My favorite vegetables turned into chips: sweet potatoes and beets. Both of these are extremely colorful and flavorful. Yum!

Homemade Ranch Dressing, makes about three cups.

1 cup mayo (reduced fat is good here; you won't taste the difference)
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup buttermilk
2-3 tablespoons chopped chives
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt pepper to taste

Once you have the chives and garlic prepped, in a bowl stir together all the ingredients. Taste, and add salt and pepper to your liking. You're done! Store in an airtight container and use within a week. The flavor gets better over the first few days as the ingredients blend together.

Now let's fry some vegetables. I tried out a bunch of different kinds, and I'd love to share with you what I thought of each.

Once I peeled the vegetables, I used a mandoline to slice the veggies super thin. This helps them to get crispy when you fry them. Heat oil (vegetable or canola work well) to around 350°F. I use kitchen tongs to gently place veggies in the hot oil. You don't want to splash the oil onto your hands or arms as you work. Cook the veggies for about 1 minute before removing to a bed of paper towels, to soak up extra oil. Dust with sea salt and fresh herbs (I used thyme) before serving.

Here are all the veggies I fried and what I thought of each:

Sweet Potatoes—These are probably my most favorite. Love the flavor and the texture is perfect, like a store-bought potato chip.

Russet Potatoes—The texture is very similar to sweet potatoes but with a more mild flavor. Super yummy.

Beets—I wear gloves when I work with beets as they can really stain your hands or work surface. But I thought these made truly awesome veggie chips! Such an interesting and great flavor.

Carrots—Loved the flavor of these, but the texture wasn't quite as crispy. Still worth trying but not my personal favorite.

Daikons—These are those big, white, carrot-looking veggies in the photos above. I felt similar about these as I did the carrots. Still tasty, but they didn't get very crispy when fried.

Jicamas—These are those brown, circular veggies in the photo above. These got almost burnt on the edges while the centers still remained very chewy. I liked eating these raw, dipped in ranch, more than fried.

Next time you have friends over for a game night, you should totally make some veggie chips with homemade ranch dressing. Enjoy! xo. Emma

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with Color Pop and Lux of the Signature Collection.