Or not. A shock that is. I was busy peeling potatoes for the church lunch club yesterday. As well as the keen band of ladies who run the club, the Vicar’s Apprentice Happy was also wielding a peeler.
Once we’d finished peeling the 12kg or so of spuds, I offered to take the peelings home to put on the compost heap. And I was recalling the cook in Nanny McPhee (a favourite movie in the Vicarage – I can’t think why) who rustles up a gruel that includes various vegetable peelings. ‘Maybe I should be making Vicarage gruel’ I pondered.
Then Happy (who has a background in the hospitality industry) mentioned that he’d made parsnip crisps from parsnip peelings whilst working in a posh hotel once. ‘Why not try potato peeling crisps?’ was the suggestion.
So home we went with our bagful of peelings. I pulled out the longer and thinner ones and popped them on a baking sheet (actually four baking sheets), drizzled them with some olive oil, heated my fan oven to 200C and popped them in on a five minute timer.
That wasn’t long enough, but after about fifteen minutes they came out great. Some of them were still a little uncrispy and I switched the oven off and left them in to dry out.
Once out, I sprinkled on a little fancy French sea salt and the Vicar, Happy, Polly and I demolished them extremely quickly. Next time I’m trying this technique with parsnip and carrot peelings too. And I might use an olive oil sprayer to make sure the oil is rather better distributed.
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- Healthy AND frugal – what’s not to like?
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- This bowl went all too quickly
Happy’s Peeling Chips
Long veggie peelings (potato/parsnip/beetroot/carrot)
Olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat oven to 200-220C (Gas 6). Lay peelings in single layer on non-stick baking sheet. Drizzle or spray with olive oil. Cook for 10-20mins until brown and crispy. If any peelings are still a little uncooked at the end, switch the oven off and leave to dry out. Remove to bowl and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.
The Vicar's Wife 
What a great idea! I wish I’d read it before I threw away the peelings from the sweet potatoes I just peeled for mash though!
I’m just about to make a stew so I’ve read this at just the right time! Potato, swede and carrot crisps coming up!
Welcome to the Vicarage Sarah and Gill – sweet potatoes are another good idea. Hope yours turn out well Gill. Let me know if I need to tweak the recipe!
Just tried it with potato peelings, sprinkled olive oil, 200C fan oven and about 20 mins. Bit greasy, over-salted (my fault) but much better than expensive cardboard commercial crisps. However, factoring in the energy costs for a small quantity, not sure about value for effort. However, no VAT so not a penny goes towards MPs expenses or Brussels!
Wow, you reminded me that mum used to do some chips in that way..still using potatoe peel is even better!
Hope you are all well. Blessings
Nicky
I’m guessing you use washed spuds 😉