Marmite Sweet Potato Chips (Baked or High Raw)

Marmite.  Love it or hate it?

I love it.

I slather Marmite on toast.  I mix Marmite and peanut butter together and eat it on celery. I’ve spread it on a corn tortilla and baked it until crisp in the oven. Love it!

Marmite is thick, has a very salty flavor and, for some, is definitely an acquired taste.  This dense, almost meaty flavored condiment made the list in Ginny Messina’s excellent post on Umami:

It’s been dubbed the “fifth taste” (the other four being sweet, sour, bitter, and salty). Discovered over 100 years ago, umami has more recently become a respectable area of research. The taste/experience of umami is imparted by high levels of the amino acid glutamate. While certain vegetables have umami, it’s especially abundant in protein-rich animal foods.

Read the entire post – it’s another tool in your arsenal to remain Vegan for Life!

What’s in the wholly natural Marmite?  Yeast Extract, Salt, Carrot & Onion Extract, Spice Extracts, enriched with B Vitamins – Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), and Cyanocobalamin (B12).

B-12, baby!

While some say Australian Vegemite and Marmite are the same thing, I think not Vegemite ingredients: Yeast Extract, Salt, Caramel, Malt Extract, Natural Flavor.

A few weeks ago I saw a mention of Marmite potato chips on their Facebook page.

SOURCE

I immediately started searching to find a local store that carried the crisps or an online source to place an order. I couldn’t find them anywhere in the U.S. I wrote about my obsession on my own Facebook page and was told that Walker’s Marmite Crisps weren’t vegan.  Gasp!

Clearly, I needed to make them for myself.

I decided to try a baked and a high raw version of my very own Marmite Sweet Potato chips. Why “high” raw and not raw? Because I read this about how it’s made

While the process is secret, the general method for making yeast extract on a commercial scale is to add salt to a suspension of yeast, making the solution hypertonic, which leads to the cells shrivelling up; this triggers “autolysis“, in which the yeast self-destructs. The dying yeast cells are then heated to complete their breakdown… SOURCE

Raw readers – your thoughts?

I began by slicing sweet potatoes with my scary but awesome mandoline.

Marmite is really, really thick. And really, really salty. I decided to dilute the Marmite by adding hot water to the Vitamix and slowly drizzling it into the blender.

I added apple cider vinegar to the blender and then poured the foamy liquid over the sweet potatoes.

I tossed the slices and marinade with my hands (it loses the foamy-ness and becomes a dark liquid).  After tossing to make sure that each slice was covered with the marinade I set the bowl aside for 15 minutes.

Then I loaded up a cookie sheet (for baked chips) and the dehydrator trays (for raw chips).

The baked chips took about 35 minutes (1/8 inch slices) at 400F.

The raw, at 125F, 18 hours.

I love these chips!  My omnivore husband – not a huge Marmite fan – loved these chips!  The raw both won the taste-test, though.

Okay, finally, the recipe!

Marmite Sweet Potato Chips (Baked or High Raw)

by JL Fields @ JL goes Vegan

Keywords: bake dehydrator raw snack vegan

Ingredients (Makes about 4 cups)

  • 4 medium sweet potatoes
  • 1/2 cup hot water
  • 2 tablespoon Marmite
  • 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  1. Wash sweet potatoes and slice into 1/8 inch slices; set aside in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Pour water into the blender and turn it on (low). Drizzle the Marmite in slowly.
  3. Add vinegar, turn on high super-quick and then you’re done. This will seem like 2 cups because it will be foamy.
  4. Pour over the potato slices in the mixing bowl. Toss, using your hands, to make sure all slices are covered.
  5. Set the bowl aside for about 15 minutes.

For baked chips

  • Heat oven to 400F
  • Place potato slices on a cookie sheet, single layer, and pour about 1/4 cups of marinade over each sheet.
  • Bake for 35 minutes (or until crisp), turning at half-way point.

For high raw chips

  • Place potato slices on a ParaFlexx sheet on the dehydrator tray, single layer, and pour about 1/4 cups of marinade over each tray.
  • Dehydrate on 125F for 18 hours (flip chips over, off the ParaFlexx sheet and onto the mesh screen, at 3 or 4 hours).
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If you want a thicker marinade, I would suggest playing with it.  Cut the water to 1/4 cup or increase the Marmite another tablespoon.  Baking time will vary depending upon the thickness of your potato slices; if you opt for thinner than 1/8 inch, it will require less baking time.

So, Marmite fans, play with this recipe and let me know what you think!

31 thoughts on “Marmite Sweet Potato Chips (Baked or High Raw)”

  1. Never tried Marmite before, can you believe it? But I love sweet potatoes, & chips, put ’em together, & even better!

    (I like how you’re wearing gloves while using your mandolin>)

  2. this is brilliant JL! I have never tried marmite, but love the look of these chips, how they take on that shape after baking (I’m assuming from the very thin slice with the mandolin). Super fun, super treat! Sharing. 🙂

    1. Dreena, I sliced them at 1/8 inch. Worked great for both baking and dehydrating, though I think a thinner slice could cut down on the baking time.

  3. That looks so good! Have you posted about your dehydrator? I’ve been thinking about getting one, and I’d like to get some recommendations!

    1. I started with a L’Equip dehydrator when I first went vegan. Then one day a blogger had a 50% off sale on the Excalibur on her Open Sky store. Add to cart! I have the five-try, does not have auto-off. Love it.

  4. OH YESSS! I LOVE Marmite like none other. We make roasted potatoes with a Marmite glaze/baste and it is SOOO good. Marmite anything really!
    I’ll have to try these!!
    I love the “scary mandoline” comment – are those the Kevlar gloves that you’re using? I have those for working with my mandoline too, (Amazon actually sells them together!) though I always forget to wear them ’cause I grew up using a mandoline and it never occurred to me, when I was twelve, that it might not be all that safe!!

  5. I just ADORE marmite! This recipe is fantastic! I must try it sometime! I bought a mandoline slicer once but took it back – it was way too scary for me to use…I can use my food processor!

    1. Vicky, I cut myself once on mine, which is why I use those heavy duty chef gloves now. Work great!

  6. I LOVE Marmite! i can’t find it around here though. You should turn this into a business – I’d order bag after bag!

  7. My go-to quick snack is to mix crumbled cold plain tofu with vegemite, chilli, and nutritional yeast. I’ve also been known to eat teeny spoonfuls of vegemite straight. I will certainly be making this! (But not with Marmite, because that is anathema to my Australian soul. 😉 )

  8. I’ve never tried marmite, although this post definitely made me curious! I’ve certainly heard enough about it…why do you think the dehydrator version came out better?

  9. Oh wow – you know I love marmite (although I like vegemite better), so I’ll have to try this one! I didn’t realize vegemite didn’t have the B12 addition that marmite did, I learned something new today. 🙂

    1. Truthfully? I thought the only distinction was national pride – until I did the research for this post!

  10. I tried this recipe, but had to throw all of it in the trash. I think I should have used bigger sweet potatoes, because my slices were much smaller and they all either burned or didn’t get crispy enough 🙁

    1. Oh no! Yep, baking time for chips is really specific to the size of the chip (how thick and thin it is). It’s the other reason I use the scary mandoline – the chip sixe is consistent which make for even baking times.

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