Sweet Potato Chips with Chipotle Aioli

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I realized something about the sweater I was putting on.

I have owned (and worn) this particular sweater since. college.

I graduated college in 2004.

At first I was horrified, but really, it’s a striped v-neck sweater and they don’t really ever go out of style. I mean, it doesn’t have ribbons or bows or a design painted on it in that puff paint that was huge when I was a kid.

So it’s still OK to wear, right? It still fits…although considering I weighed quite a bit more in college than I do now, that may not be a good thing. But it still looks OK, and I even got a compliment…so I’m gonna go with it. Striped v-neck sweaters will never go out of style.

You know what else won’t ever go out of style?

Making chips out of vegetables!

Ok, so really I just made that up for the sake of the blog. But since I made my oven roasted beet chips (was that really only last week?), I’ve sort of been on a chip kick. I ate the beet chips in one sitting, and that’s pretty much the same thing that happened with these sweet potato chips. Except instead of eating them plain…I dipped them in chipotle aioli.

I know, right??

Like the beet chips, these little guys were super simple to make, and unlike with the beet chips, I used a minimal amount of olive oil and found that the chips came out a lot better. Or maybe it was just because of the consistency of sweet potato vice beet.

I dunno.

Either way, I stood at my kitchen counter and ate an entire sweet potato’s worth of chips dipped in chipotle aioli on Sunday night and called it dinner. True story.

BAKED SWEET POTATO CHIPS

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: (serves two)

2 large sweet potatoes

olive oil

sea salt and pepper

WHAT TO DO:

Using a mandoline, slice the sweet potato into thin rounds. Coat slices with olive oil and layer evenly on a baking pan. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until brown and slightly crip, flipping slices halfway. Remove slices from oven and lay on a drying rack to cool – slices with crisp as they cool.

Enjoy! (preferably with a dipping sauce such as chipotle aioli!)

CHIPOTLE AIOLI

WHAT YOU NEED

1 egg at room temperature

2 tbsp lemon juice at room temperature

1/4 cup plus 1 cup light olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp chipolte chili powder

WHAT TO DO:

In a blender, add egg, lemon juice, salt, mustard, chipolte powder and 1/4 cup olive oil, pulse to combine, about 30 seconds. Next, add the cup of olive to the blender very SLOWLY, as in almost in drops. This will suck and your arm will start to hurt, but DO NOT GIVE IN and dump in the olive oil – your aioli will not emulsify and you’ll get a soupy nasty mess. Go as slow as you can, and then go slower. You will hear your blender start to change as the mixture begins to form a mayonnaise. Continue adding all of the olive oil (have I mentioned to go SLOOOOOWLY?) and once you’re done – you should have a nice, creamy chipolte aioli! Enjoy.

You could always eat these while wearing clothes from 10 years ago, listening to the Spice Girls station on Pandora or watching The Braekfast Club. Or not. I didn’t do that or anything.