Fortunately, with GAPS, especially the intro, we started doing more juicing, which left us with an abundance of a food product that we didn't quite know what to do with, but also didn't want going to waste. I just couldn't justify disposing all that pulp, so I started perusing the interwebs for ideas on how to use it. There were some interesting recipes, many of which I still need to try, but one in particular stood out as it seemed to be rather GAPS friendly: the Detoxinista's Italian Meat(less) balls. With a couple modifications for GAPS, these veggie balls worked quite well. The hubby and I used them on our 50(+) mile bike-ride as a take-along snack. Without a good sauce though, for us at least, the veggie balls seemed to be a little dry and flat tasting. We both really liked the concept though, which got me thinking: what if we just flattened these out and make them into chips?
I'd seen enough recipes online for juice pulp chips, and since we already had a pretty tasty recipe that just seemed to be missing that little extra something, we went for it! I adjusted some of the quantities to make it work better on the flat baking sheet, and after some trial and error with bake-time, ended up with a dang tasty chip recipe! This has become another one of our go-tos. Since we're juicing on a daily basis, we rarely have a shortage of pulp, so the chips are on a pretty heavy rotation throughout the week. Besides the fact that they are a great snack, the pulp seems less likely to go bad when it's all crisped up. One day I will give this a try in a food dehydrator for a more "raw" version and do more of a side-by-side comparison. Now I just need to get the dehydrator!
As for serving, they are of course great on their own, but they go particularly well with guacamole (especially our go-to, extra garlicky, extra oniony guac), cheese, dip, nut butter, just about anything! And the pulp does not need to be strictly vegetable base, as ours consistently has some type of fruit in it, and still works well with the more savory seasoning. With that, I'm hoping to try making a more pumpkin spice-like recipe soon, so stay tuned for those results!
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| Pro tip: start with the egg. I use an immersion blender with a whisk attachment. |
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| Once the eggs are scrambled, everything else gets added, in no particular order. |
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| Flatten everything out on the pan. I find parchment paper is almost critical for non-stick results. |
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| After a good night in the oven, break apart and enjoy! |
The Recipe (makes two baking sheets):
- 5 Cups Juice Pulp (very rough measurement)
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp Onion powder
- 2 tsp Garlic powder
- 2 tsp Oregano (dried)
- 2 tsp Basil (dried)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbs Parmesan Cheese
- 1 oz Olive Oil
The Process:
- In a large bowl, mix eggs until well blended.
- Add pulp, seasoning (onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, salt), cheese and olive oil.
- Mix ingredients by hand start dividing between the two prepared baking sheet (I use parchment paper and it works fabulously!).
- Flatten the mixture out so that it fills the full baking sheet.
- Place in the over on a low temperature setting (for my oven, 200 degrees is ideal) and let sit for at least 8 hours (overnight or during the day while at work).
As the pulp mixture dries it will detach from the parchment paper making it easy to break into bite-size pieces.
