Monday, April 02, 2012

Root vegetable chips (Trader Joe's)


Today, I reveal one of my secret weaknesses: root vegetable chips. Think plain potato chips going crunchchity-crunch in your mouth, with that filling blend of starch and saltiness. You know what? Root veggie chips offer so much more in taste.

You get taro, sweet potato, beet, parsnips, batata in a bag. Crisp, crunchy, and salted. But you also get a variety of flavours within that bag, from the variety of thinly sliced root veggies. The taro is a little on the starchier side, and less sweet. In comparison, the sweet potato is the sweetest of them all with a little less crunch and little more chew. You get that sweet-salty combination in your mouth that makes chocolatiers create bacon chocolate. The beets fall on the sweet side as well but are still crispy, and do not worry - these will not turn your pee red. In between sweet and plain-starchy lie the parsnips and batata, both with their own unique flavours.

Root vegetable chips are so good that after tasting them, you may not want to go back to old potato chips!


Terra and Trader Joe's both produce root veggie chips that look and taste alike. In the US, Trader Joe's sells for cheaper though, and its bags contain more taro and beet chips.

In Singapore, you can buy Terra's Exotic Vegetable Chips for about S$8.80 a bag at NTUC Fairprice Finest and the bigger Cold Storages.

8 comments:

  1. Hi, can you get these Trader Joe's chips in Singapore?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello! Unfortunately no :( you can only get them in the US from Trader Joe's. The closest available in Singapore supermarkets is Terra's Exotic Veggie Chips, or you can get it from Amazon.com here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EQYSLC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wilchi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000EQYSLC.

    A cheaper and entirely different option is to go for tapioca and cassava chips. NTUC has its housebrand tapioca chips. There is a UCA Cassava Chips in the supermarkets. Do check the nutritional information though, because most of the time these chips are deep fried in vegetable oil.

    Hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmm yes I like Terra's but they're a bit too salty and pricey for me! Have you tried making your own? I found some recipes online to try out this weekend :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah, Terra's as sold in Singapore is quite expensive :/ Whenever I really want some root chips I turn to tapioca or cassava.

    I have tried making deep fried and baked sweet potato chips, but found both methods too tedious and time-consuming. Deep frying was slightly easier in that I just needed to dump the slices in a pot of oil. But the end result was a bit too oily for me. Baking was more tedious because of the need to lay the slices on a large tray, brush them with oil, stick the tray in and turn the slices after awhile, and watch them carefully in case they get burnt.

    Haven't tried baking/frying veggie chips with the AirFryer because am a bit lazy to clean the tray and grill after :p Might try microwaving the sweet potato one day though.

    Have you seen this http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/808038/vegetable-chip-recipes

    Do let me know how your veggie chips turn out!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh gosh my comment wasn't posted from ages ago!! Anyway, the chips turned out nice but overall I don't think I'd do it again because it's very time consuming to slice the chips thinly and bake them in batches.. I'd rather just buy a packet even though its pricey D: I just tried "food for friends' veggie chips today (which made me come back here) and unfortunately it wasn't that good! So anyway, have you tried air frying?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Haha!

    Yes it's very time consuming! The first time I tried doing yam chips, I decided that I'd never do them again because of that and it was just too troublesome.

    Have tried air frying but the results weren't good. If you don't add any oil, the air fryer tends to dry the slice out instead of "frying" it. If you add oil, you get better results but it's a bit messy to clean afterwards because of the oil, and also you chips will be flying around inside the air fryer because of the strong air currents.

    Food for Friends - was it the tortilla chips that you tried?

    ReplyDelete
  7. is there really no way to get terra blue chips in singapore?
    found them last time at NTUC. buit like can no longer find them. has been trying to search for them.
    terra com dont deliver to singapore.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Wii_Boii, yeah I too remember that NTUC used to stock Terra Blues, Terra Red Bliss and the root veggie chips, but haven't seen them on the shelves for awhile. I don't think I remember seeing them at Marketplace in Paragon and Raffles City either.

    Just tried Amazon.com and their buy in bulk price seems reasonable but they don't ship the chips to Singapore
    (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EQX62Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000EQX62Y&linkCode=as2&tag=wilchi-20)

    Vitacost can ship to Singapore and they stock some varieties, but not the blues
    (see http://www.vitacost.com/productResults.aspx?previousText=terra&ss=1&x=0&y=0&ntk=products&Ntt=terra%20chips)

    If you do decide to buy from Vitacost, this link will get you US$10 off your first order: http://www.vitacost.com/Referee?wlsrc=rsReferral&ReferralCode=90475256

    iHerb.com doesn't sell Terra chips unfortunately.

    If I find any other online store that stocks and ships to Singapore, will post it here.

    ReplyDelete