Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Recipe

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Recipe

These healthy baked lentil chips are high protein and free of gluten, nuts, seeds and grains. No frying or oil is needed as these healthy chips are oven baked. Suitable for vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free and oil-free diets. Try these homemade healthy chips today!

Otherwise known as protein chips as they are high in plant protein. A great alternative way to cooking lentils that doesn’t involve boiling.

Healthy Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips

The lentil chips have a sweet tangy tomato base with a hint of aromatic basil. They are very inexpensive to make and are crispy, filling, high in fibre and vitamins.

Naturally gluten free chips that are free of grains and wheat. What isn’t there to love about these lentil crisps?

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Video

Play on YouTube.

Normal crisps are 1/3 oil and usually extracted with extracted, heavily refined, high temperature heated and very unhealthy oil. Even baked chips are often about 1/5 oil but with added sugar and flavours to make up for the reduced fat.

These lentil chips have no added oil. They may be a bit dry on their own so have with a dip if you like such as my hummus trio.

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Gluten Free

These oil free chips are bursting with tangy and spicy flavour from tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic smoked paprika and cayenne pepper. I can’t decide if they are lentil chips or lentil crisps but opted for chips in the end due to the triangular shape.

A pinch of turmeric is added to boost the nutrient content and colour. Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric and has powerful properties such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidants. It’s hard to get a decent amount of turmeric in your diet so a pinch in everything savoury really does add up. I use turmeric in many recipes like my ginger turmeric cookies.

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Crisps

Often the chips don’t dry all the way through so it’s best to eat straight after making. They should be eaten within a couple of days and stored in the fridge. If you want a chip baked all the way through then reduce the oven temperature to 120C on the second bake.

These oil free chips are baked at a low temperature to reduce acrylamides. This chemical can be found in burnt food and has been linked to some illnesses such as cancer.

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips - High Protein

It’s important to use red split lentils in this recipe as they cook quicker than normal lentils even after being blended. They are also very inexpensive – a batch of these crisps costs less than 45p for over 150g.

Please don’t boil your lentils to make lentil chips – the soaking and oven baking is what cooks them.

Tomato and Basil Healthy Lentil Chips

These lentil chips are about 1/4 protein so very high in plant-based protein. If you want to add more protein and nutrients then add 1-2 tbsp of chia seeds or flax seeds to the mixture.

In my trials, the protein chips turned out the same with flax or chia added but I decided to omit it from the recipe as it’s already got quite a few ingredients. Try adding chia or flax if you like for extra plant based protein and omegas.

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Wheat Free

Red lentils often lose all of their colour when cooked (several people commented that red lentil pasta just looks like normal pasta after cooking). But in this recipe tomato puree, turmeric and smoked paprika help make a bright orange protein chip.

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Oil-free

Use this healthy lentil chips as a base recipe and you can replace the tomato and basil with other flavours. I think coconut and lemon spiced would also work well to give a Thai inspired healthy chip.

Yield: 6 servings

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips

Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips Recipe

These healthy baked chips are high protein and free of oil, nuts, seeds and grains. No frying or oil is needed as the chips are oven baked. Suitable for vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free and oil-free diets. Try these homemade healthy chips today!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Additional Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup / 140g Red split lentils
  • 4 tbsp Tomato puree
  • 1 slice Onion
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 1 tsp Smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp Turmeric
  • ½ tsp Cayenne pepper
  • 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Maple syrup
  • pinch of Salt and Pepper
  • ¾ cup / 180ml Water
  • 1 tbsp dried Basil

Instructions

  1. Soak the lentils in salted water for at least an hour, overnight is best.
  2. Drain and rinse the lentils then add to a blender with everything else apart from the basil.
  3. Blend until smooth then stir in the basil.
  4. Pour onto a grease-proof paper lined baking dish and spread to the sides.
  5. If you have a dish that fills a normal oven then this will make one batch, for a half size mini oven as I use in the video it makes two batches.
  6. Bake at 190C / 375F for 30 mins.
  7. Remove the lentil chips from the oven and let stand for 10 mins.
  8. Peel off the greaseproof paper and cut chips into long strips, then into triangles. One batch makes about 50 protein chips.
  9. Place lentil chips directly on an oven wire rack then bake for another 5-15 mins at 170C / 340F until dry and remove from oven before the sides catch.
  10. Remove the chips from the oven when the edges are golden.
  11. Enjoy as soon as lentil chips are out of the oven, or keep chilled in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

  • On the second bake, you do need to watch the lentil chips carefully as the edges can catch easily.
  • Take lentil chips out of the oven just as you see the edges go golden.

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Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 67Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 19mgCarbohydrates 9gFiber 3gSugar 3gProtein 6g

Did you know lentils are one of the most sustainable foods you can eat? Growing lentils requires no fertilisers and they have a very low carbon footprint. Also lentils actually improve the soil health adding and distributed nutrients as they grow.

lentil chips that are high protein, gluten free and healthy without oil

Tag me on facebook or Instagram @nestandglow if you adapt this recipe – I love seeing your photos.

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60 thoughts on “Tomato and Basil Lentil Chips”

    1. I don’t have one myself but think that would work great to crisp these up with the hot air in an airfryer. Please let me know how you get on

    1. Eek sorry about that! But thanks for spotting my mistake (it’s sometimes hard as I proof my own work). You stir it after blending, I’ve updated it now. Thanks Lori

  1. These look AMAZING! Trying to find something to replace my partners obsession with highly salted nutrionsless tortilla chips hahaa!
    Would this work with anything other than lentils too? 🙂

    1. Great hope he likes them, you may want to add some oil to start with to ween him off the normal ones. These being oil free the texture might be a bit off if you are used to a normal one. I’ve tried with quinoa and buckwheat with no luck – they just weren’t crunchy enough. I’ll keep on trying

    1. You might try brown rice syrup…it has a bit of a nutty flavor. It doesn’t taste as sweet as sugar, but the calorie count is the same.

    1. Hi there, the water is for the final amount used in the chips. The soaking water I don’t measure and just use enough to easily cover the lentils

      1. Thank you, I’ve got them in the oven now,I had trouble getting the grease proof off, so they don’t look as nice as yours. I need to practice.

        1. Sorry to hear you had some issues there, if they are difficult to pull away I would leave them to cool for a bit longer as they should firm up.

  2. Great recipe! Lessons learned on my part:
    1. Spread the batter thin for crispy chips – mine turned ou doughy in some spots where it was too thick (i.e. didn’t crisp up)
    2. Baking the second time, I think the 20 – 30 mins may be too long – mine started to burn after just 3 – 4 mins. Maybe second round of baking should be at a lower temperature?
    3. Last point is just personal preference … I think I’d add a bit more salt next time … up to 1/2 tsp.

    Even with all of the above noted, they’re really yummy! (And filling!) ????

    1. Thanks so much for sharing that! I’ll plan to make this recipe again and update timings. So thankful for you sharing that information.

    1. I haven’t but I don’t think it would work as the lentils need to be cooked and would probably just be very tough even if they are sprouted then dried.

  3. dear dear bastian: thank you for NESTANDGLOW…one wants to jump into the screen and devour all your dishes…i can tell you your quinoa flatbread is THE best i have EVER come across in my fifty-three years following a macrobiotic/vegan/plant-based diet/lifestyle! i do not give compliments out willy nilly, either. i decided to try something interesting: after smoothing out the quinoa flatbread “batter”, i sprinkled poppy seeds, tan and black sesame seeds, dehydrated onion bits over the top…let me tell you this was soooo delicious they are gone…i tried not to eat all the flatbread, but failed! so here am i a four-thirty in the wee morning about to put up one or two pans of your quinoa flatbread. also, am soaking red lentils for the lentil chips…mmmmm….to be continued…and, thank you for your self and your site…

    1. Oh wow that sounds like a great idea! I will have to try it also. So sorry for the delay in getting back to you, takes so long creating content and keeping on top of comments. Thanks so much for your kind words, that’s so nice to hear!

  4. Hello! Could you please tell me how to get these made w/o the T-B seasoning, so I could have plain lentil crisps? (I make a lot of tomato-basil spaghetti, so I am a bit overloaded on that & want a plain chip to eat/serve with it.) Also, how do I make those that are light yellow instead of red? What kind of lentil would I use? Thank you.

    1. Hi there, the lentils turn yellow when cooking. I’m using normal red split lentils and they lose colour as they cook. To make them not tomato and basil just remove these and replace with something that you like. I’ve made with coconut, lime, ginger, chilli for a great Thai style lentil chip!

  5. Please correct my name. part of it dropped off when I pushed submit. Thank you.

    J’Marinde (it is pronounced without the “J” or the ‘d”, as in Marin. The “J” is for Joy as in Joy Marin)
    Thank you for such goodness. I am most excited to begin receiving your newsletter.

  6. Can I use yellow lentils? And if i omit the maple syrup would it affect the taste greatly? (I am doing sugar free) Thanks for this recipe.

    1. I’m not sure about yellow lentils (as there are different kinds) I’ve only made it with red as they are small and cook well in the oven. It’s totally fine without the maple, it’s just there to balance the flavours out.

    1. Sadly it does go really hard if left for much longer. I recommend to make and eat on the same day. If you do want to last longer maybe adding some oil in the mixture would help them last longer and not go hard

  7. Thank you for this great idea! Have tried it, liked it lots and will try again. Do you think this would work with chestnuts instead of lentils as well? Thank you so much!

    1. Hi there, it’s just a slice of onion. So hard to give an exact amount as they can vary so much in flavour and peoples tastes. For a medium onion I would do a thinnish slice, unless you want more onion flavour.

  8. Hello Bastian. Thank you for your recipes. I am a plant-based lover of God, his earth & animals. Please add me to your
    subscribers as I did not notice a place to join.

    1. Thanks so much, I don’t really send out emails anymore but click the notification to be told about recipes that pops up 🙂

    1. Sorry that doesn’t work, the lentils need the oven to cook – even if sprouted will come out of the dehydrator rock hard

  9. Dear Bastian. My husband was saying yesterday „it‘s been sooo long since we had tortilla chips“ and I went look what I have saved and showed him this recipe. Now to my Q. I don‘t have the split red lentils. The ones I have are the small whole ones. I would guess it won‘t make a difference but thought I‘d ask your thought about using them instead.
    Looking forward to serving them with an avocado dip
    Thanks

    1. Hi Pia, I would recommend to use red split lentils just because i’m worried about bigger whole lentils not being cooked with this soaking and sprouting. I tried with other lentils and didn’t find they worked nearly as well – plus was worried about giving people upset stomachs so always use red split lentils for this one. The soak and oven bake is easily enough to cook them

  10. Help! Half the mix stuck to my paper after the first cooking! How do you get it not to stick? I tried to cool it longer and it was worse.????

    1. Bastian Durward

      I use greaseproof paper and it works really well. What type of paper did you use? Waxed paper doesn’t work for this

    1. Bastian Durward

      Hi there, I’m not sure about the grams – but use the uncooked weight as a rough figure. It’s servings as in bags of chips kinda way – how one packet is called one serving and a big one is often 6-8 servings.

  11. I know this isn’t the intended purpose, but we tried it as a pizza crust successfully. I swaped the tomato paste with cauliflower mash because I wanted a more plain flavour, but my husband said he wished I hadnt so next time we will just follow the recipe as is and use it as crust.

    1. Bastian Durward

      Ah that’s interesting, I’ve had mixed results as a pizza base. But let me know how you get on next time!

  12. Carol Gerling

    I may have missed it but I wanted a nutritional value listed.
    Right now I them in for a second bake. Taste test is good. I just prefer a crisp chip.
    I think next time I will divide the recipe in half and then after I spread it use a piece of Saran wrap and use a second pan to press down and level it before baking ?

    1. Bastian Durward

      Hi there, I will add the nutritional information in the future – it’s in the pipeline. If you want them crispier you might want to add some olive oil 2-3tbs before blending – they wouldn’t be as healthy but they would be more chip like.

  13. Hi! I’m excited to make these chips, but have a question about the paper you used, as it seems like an important part of the overall baking process and I have never heard of greaseproof paper before; after a quick Google search, it seems to be different from parchment paper. Where would I be able to find the greaseproof paper, and does it go by any other name? Thank you!

    1. Bastian Durward

      Hi there, if you’re in the states look for bakery paper, it’s basically parchment paper without the silicone layer. But people seem to use parchment paper ok with this recipe and similar

        1. Hi there, I use tomato puree – the stuff you get in a tube that is double concentrate. I’m not sure we have tomato paste in the UK.

    1. Bastian Durward

      Afraid not for this lentil chips recipe, I’ll have another one coming up thats chips without lentils soon

    1. Bastian Durward

      Hi there, afraid not as they’ve got no fat so will go very tough if they are frozen – as it’s fat free best eaten just after being baked

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