Oven Baked Vegetable Crisps

It's the Summer school holidays here in the UK which means 6 or 7 weeks of entertaining and feeding children who seem to be so much more hungry over the holidays.  To help stick to our budget and not break the bank in the holidays we try to drink plenty of water and stick to 3 main meals and 2 snacks, perhaps a snack or two more if they we've had a really active day.  

Fresh fruit and yoghurt are a fairly standard snack in our house and for another snack option I like to have a homemade sweet or savoury treat.  Popcorn is very cheap to make, as are crispy chickpeas, rice pudding or soda bread/scones.  A family favourite at the moment are Vegetable Crisps, easy and cheap to make, as well as being deliciously moreish.  You can use your favourite root vegetables, and I've used courgettes in the past too.  The key to crispy crisps is to make sure the vegetable slices are as dry as you can get them before they hit the oven.

Vegetable Crisps

1 beetroot
1 sweet potato
1 parsnip
1 carrot

Preheat oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas Mark 6. Line a large baking tray with oil and lightly spray with cooking spray.  Cut thin strips from the vegetables using a mandolin or vegetable peeler.  Put the vegetable strips onto kitchen towel and pat dry.  Lay the vegetable strips in a single layer on the prepared oven tray and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes then remove those that are crisp, turn over the slices that need more time to crisp up and return them to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.  Watch them carefully, there's only a short time between crisp and charcoal.