Guilt-Free Potato Chips and Onion Dip

Last weekend was the fabulous City Harvest sponsored 1st annual Brooklyn Local.  It was a complete success — over 2,400 people attended and over $100,000 was raised to help fight hunger in NYC!

Here’s some snap shots of what I did that day:

I read my book, Soup Day.

Did collage crafts throughout the day with children and little “creatures”.

Played a drawing game with the kids.

Met some nice clowns, Tudie and Sammie.

We found out the next day that Jamie's 2nd grade teacher is married to the lead singer!

Listened to the beats of the Deedle Deedle Dees.

Wandered among aisles and aisles of artisinal local foods, and tasted quite a bit too with new foodie buddy, Esther, but didn’t get photos!   😦  We had many pieces of chocolate, nitrite free beef jerky, cheeses, granola, marshmallow treats, crackers, hotdogs with kimchee.  Everything was amazing!

With Billy Strynkowski, executive chef of Cooking Light

Got to see some familiar faces. 🙂

In my last post which featured potatoes, I didn’t get a chance to share two recipes I’ve been loving for a long time now:

Guilt-Free Potato Chips and Onion Dip

They are both “guilt-free” because the chips are baked, not fried, and are basically fat free. The dip is virtually fat free and packed with protein because it is made with my dairy go to —whipped cottage cheese.

Did I mention they are full of crunch and flavor??

The one key kitchen tool you need is some kind of vegetable slicer that you can use to slice the potatoes into paper thin slices.  I use my trusty “Benriner“, which is a plastic, cheap, Japanese version of the more expensive stainless steel French one.

By all means use the guard!   It is so easy to slice the tips of your fingers off if you don’t…  I’ve unfortunately witnessed this!

raw potato slices -- paper thin!

Spray with non-stick spray, bake at 400 degrees, checking every 3-5 minutes or so.

This is one potato!

Seasoned with a bit of salt, they are delicious and crunchy as is.  But of course, they are even better with the onion dip! 

Guilt-Free Potato Chips and Onion Dip

3 large onions, sliced vertically into thin slices

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

salt to taste

1/2 cup whipped cottage cheese

However many potatoes you’d like to bake — one large russet potato yields two big bowlfuls of potato chips

non-stick spray (I use Trader Joe’s olive oil)

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Whip container of cottage cheese in food processor for 3 minutes.

Unwhipped new container of cottage cheese.

After processing -- silky smooth!

3.  Slice onions while heating a large cast iron skillet or other large pan on stove (do not use non-stick or it won’t caramalize!)

4.  Melt butter with oil in pan.  Toss in sliced onions.  Turn heat down to low.  Stir to coat with butter and oil.  Season with salt.  Stir every few minutes or so.  Then cover and let cook for about 30 minutes, largely unattended while preparing the chips.  I stir every 5-7 minutes or so.

5.  Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Spray lightly.

6.  Slice some potato with a slicer.  Lay pieces on parchment.  Spray again and season with salt.  Repeat with other baking sheet.  Bake in oven for about 10 minutes, checking every 3-5 minutes and flipping chips halfway.  They don’t cook at the same time, so remove them when they look brown and continue cooking the rest.  Add new slices to pan as you removed cooked ones.

These are half baked -- watch closely -- when they are mostly brown, taken them out. They crisp up as they cool.

7.  After about 30 minutes of sauteing onions, remove cover and turn up heat.  Stir every minute or so, watching closely so onions don’t burn.  They should just brown evenly.

This is how much they reduce!

8.  Remove onions and let cool.  Stir in 1/2 cup of whipped cottage cheese.

Enjoy!