January 20, 2022

Oven-Baked Beet Chips

Make your own healthy veggie chips at home with these easy oven-baked beet chips tossed in flaky sea salt, black pepper and fresh chives.

Every week on my shopping list there is a line that just says “snacks.” We are a family of snackers, so I have to make sure we are stocked with crackers, pretzels and tortilla chips for my son and peanuts and popcorn for my husband.

As the ultimate snacker, I tend to graze on all of it, for better or worse. But when I do have time, I like to make homemade snacks with a much shorter ingredient list than the bagged, boxed and processed snacks I buy in-store.

Beets are probably my favorite kind of veggie chip, so I bake them in my oven since I don’t own an air fryer (yet). Once they finish roasting, I season them with flaky sea salt, black pepper and chopped chives. They beat any store-bought snack, especially ones that are deep-fried. You will appreciate your oven even more as one of the most valuable and versatile tools in your kitchen.

The Best Beets for Chips

You can use any kind of beets for baked chips. Just make sure the beets feel firm in hand and are fresh. They will be much easier to cut thinly with a mandolin or a sharp knife.

Red beets always seem to be stocked at the grocery whether they come with their greens or without.

Golden beets land in second place for the easiest variety to find. They have a beautiful orangey-yellow hue.

Chioggia beets are candy-striped with fuchsia and white rings on the inside. They are a farmer’s market staple and sometimes you can also buy them at the grocery.

Tip: That intense beet color, especially from red beets, will stain hands, wood cutting boards and the other beets. If you are using more than one type of beet, keep them in separate bowls as you prep them. Staining will not change the flavor, so if you don’t care if your beets end up a bit tie-dyed, don’t worry about mixing them together.

Ingredients including beets, olive oil, salt, pepper and chives

The Ingredients

This is what you need for the recipe:

Beets: As mentioned, you can use a variety of beets, but it is perfectly fine to stick with a single kind. This snack recipe is a great way to roast beets if you end up with a lot in your weekly CSA.
Olive oil: With any recipe that doesn’t have that many ingredients, it is important to use high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Kosher salt: Not only is the kosher salt for pre-seasoning the chips before you bake them, but they have another job too. The salt helps to draw out some of the moisture from the sliced raw beets.
Black pepper: I am a big fan of salt and pepper potato chips, so I like seasoning these baked veggie chips with black pepper.
Flaky sea salt: My go-to finishing salt, flaky sea salt such as Maldon is a good match for the crunch of these chips.
Chives: For light oniony flavor, sprinkle on minced fresh chives with the salt and pepper.

How To Make Oven-Baked Beet Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
Prep and cut the beets. Trim off the beet greens. Wash the beets under cold running water over the sink. Rub off any dirt. Then slice the beets 1/16-inch thick. It is easiest to do this with a mandolin. Or use a sharp knife.
Toss the beets in olive oil and kosher salt in a bowl. Let them sit for 15-20 minutes to get some of the moisture out. Keep different color beets in separate bowls to prevent them from staining each other.
Arrange the beets on the sheet pans. Make sure they are not overlapping. If all the beets won’t fit on the pans, then cook them in batches.
Bake the beet chips until they are mostly dried and crisp, about 15-18 minutes. They will continue to crisp up when you take them out of the oven. If some chips are browning faster than others, take them off the pan and continue roasting the others.

Golden beets on a sheet pans raw and baked

Why Aren’t All The Beets Ready At Once?

This is one of those recipes where you should be hanging around by the oven with the light on. There are a couple reasons why it can be tricky to perfectly time every chip on a sheet pan to be ready at the same time:

Different amounts of moisture in the beets: No matter if you are using all red beets or golden beets, the amount of moisture can vary between them. I try to sweat out some of that liquid by letting the raw beets sit seasoned in kosher salt before I bake them.
Not all the chips are cut at the exact same thickness: Even I find it tough to get perfect evenly sliced beets out of my mandolin. It takes some practice with this gadget or cutting them this thinly with a knife.
Inconsistent oven temperature: Depending where you are in the oven, there can be hot and cold spots. And this can affect the timing of the chips. Again, keep an eye on the chips, if some are ready faster than others, use tongs to take them off the pan.

Serving The Chips

No surprise, these chips are best the day they are baked. I really like devouring them warm. If you do end up with extras, you can store them in an airtight container, but they will not be as crispy as when they are just baked.

More Crunchy Snack Recipes

Everything Crackers
Sriracha Lime Chickpeas
Spicy and Sweet Chipotle Snack Mix
Sheet Pan Nachos
Baked Sweet Potato Chips
Baked Potato Chips

More Beet Recipes

Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Pears
Golden Beet Soup
Roasted Beet Wild Rice
Tomato Beet Salad
Beet Grilled Cheese