Plantain are a giant banana-looking fruit popular in Latin, African and Caribbean cuisines, but are higher in starch, making them very chippable. When buying plantain, look for green ones - if they're yellow it means they're overripe.
Plaintain chips with guacamole. Source: Sharyn Cairns
Put some umami in your basket, baby. You'll need nori sheets and wonton wrappers for these chips, sealed together with a beaten egg before being fried in oil.
Nori chips. Source: China Squirrel
Beetroot has that colour that just says "healthy"; and because these magenta beauties are baked for 25-30 minutes rather than deep-fried, they are! In this recipe, they're part of chef Luke Nguyen's Asian-inspired take on English fish'n'chips, served up with some spice-coated salmon - but they're also perfect just as-is.
Asian salmon with beetroot chips. Source: Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom
Sweet potato becomes seductively caramelly when baked or fried. These chips are sprinkled with paprika to balance the richness, and to provide an all-around flavour bang. They'd make a great sandwich addition or vegetarian burger filling, and pair dreamily with avocado and creamy sauces.
Spicy sweet potato chip and avocado sammie. Source: Lindsey S. Love
Give kale a break from being smoothie-ified and instead turn it into a cheese-coated snack. Maybe not as healthy as a green smoothie, but healthier than a regular deep-fried potato chip. Plus, they mean you can up your daily greens intake while eating chips.
Ina’s parmesan kale chips. Source: Food Network
If you want something that is close to a potato chip, but not potato, reach for cassava (also known as yuca), a tuberous starchy root popular in the subtropics. Their waxy, fibrous nature means they turn deliciously golden brown and crisp when fried. In this recipe, they're served as a crunchy side to Kokoda, a Fijian ceviche-style dish.
Kokoda with sweet potato and cassava chips.
Parnsip chips are rich and sweet, making for a hearty chip. These ones are sprinkled with chia seeds for a little extra crunch.
Coriander pesto with veggie chip dippers. Source: Armelle Habib
If you're a fan of the salt-and-vinegar-chip pucker, try this kale version. As well as a snack, they work well as a creative topping for soups. To make them, the kale is baked with coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and sea salt, making them a gloatingly healthy chip.
Butternut and apple soup with salt and vinegar kale chips. Source: Jo Anderson
Pumpkin roasts up to make a great chip just as-is, letting its natural sweetness shine through and getting that nice chewy skin; but, for extra crunch and flavour, these ones are topped with aromatic breadcrumbs that are a cinch to make. Serve alone or alongside a roast, or add to a salad for some extra substance.
Pumpkin chips with tangy breadcrumbs.
You may be more familiar with using cavolo nero in soups and sauteeing it for a side dish, but when baked it becomes bittersweet and paper-thin, with that "I'm eating something but really it's nothing so I can eat bowls and bowls of it" appeal.
Cavolo nero and chilli chips. Source: Alan Benson
These chips use the skin of Jerusalem artichokes - neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke, but actually a cousin of the daisy flower. But we're not going to hold misleading naming conventions against the vegetable, particularly when its chips taste this good: earthy and slighty sweet, which is offset nicely with a little cider vinegar.
Hervey Bay scallops with horseradish rice crackers, artichoke chips, Perigord truffle and chicken jus.
Unripe bananas, salt, pepper and vegetable oil are all that's required to create these sweet golden chippies.
Spicy banana chips.
Taro chips are a bit like a snazzy purple tie-dyed version of a regular potato chip, but also a little nuttier in flavour.
Fried taro, sweet potato, cassava and plantain chips (mariquitas).
These would make the perfect game-watching-on-TV snack, particularly if you have people coming over and need substantial finger food. Grits are finely ground cornmeal (similar to polenta, but a different type of corn), and they make for soft-centred, crisp-outered chips.
Grits chips with yuzu chilli sauce.
