Zesty Nacho Cabbage Chips: A keto-friendly approach to this favourite game day snack

With Raptors season now in full swing and different Canadian hockey teams hitting the rink almost every night of the week, it’s finally time to focus on our favourite part of sporting season: game day grub. We love a lightened up take on classic spectator fare, so naturally this keto-friendly approach to nacho chips from Leanne Vogel’s cookbook The Keto Diet caught our attention. Made from cabbage and coated in a zesty sauce for added flavour, they’re the perfect way to enjoy your fave guac and salsa, while getting in some extra veggies, too.

Zesty Nacho Cabbage Chips

By Leanne Vogel

I really enjoy these chips. Kevin, my husband, says that they’re less like “chips” and more like “spicy leaves.” But if I had called this recipe “Nacho Spicy Leaves,” every man, woman and child would avoid making it, and all the time I spent making this recipe would have been wasted. I say, if they’re great with guacamole, awesome with salsa, and pretty darn delicious with a bowl of ranch dressing, then they’re chips in my book. And hey, this is my book! When preparing the cabbage leaves for this recipe, you should have about 64 chips when all is said and done.

Ingredients

• 2 medium heads green cabbage

Sauce:

• ¼ cup refined avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ cup raw hulled sunflower seeds, soaked for 8 hours, then drained and rinsed
• ½ white onion, roughly chopped
• 2 small carrots (about 2 oz), roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 small cloves garlic
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp chipotle powder
• 3 drops liquid stevia

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 170°F and line 3 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Place one of the cabbages on a cutting board and cut it in half crosswise. Lay one half flat side down and cut it into quarters. Begin peeling off the leaves, being careful not to rip them. When it gets too difficult to access flatter, easy-to-remove leaves, continue with the next quarter. Place the usable leaves in a large bowl and the excess that you can’t work with in a sealable container for use in another recipe. Repeat this process with the other half, then with the second head of cabbage. When done, you should have 1 ⅓ pounds (600 g) of leaves.

Prepare the sauce: Place the ingredients for the sauce in a high-powered blender or food processor and blend or pulse on high for 1 minute, or until smooth.

Pour the sauce over the cabbage leaves and massage it into the leaves with your hands, coating each leaf in sauce.

Transfer the coated leaves to the prepared baking sheets, laying them in a single layer, close together.

Place the baking sheets in the oven, layering them on top of one another if needed, crisscrossing them so the bottom of one sheet isn’t touching the tops of the cabbage chips in the tray below it, but the edge of the bottom tray is holding up the second tray over the top of it.

Bake for 2 hours before checking on the chips. If any are crisp, transfer them to a cooling rack, then continue to cook for an additional 2 hours, checking for completed chips every 30 minutes.

Allow the chips to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before enjoying. Keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days.

Recipes excerpted from The Keto Diet by Leanne Vogel. Published by Victory Belt Publishing. Photos: Leanne Vogel.