What’s better than a bowl of home made crisps (aka potato chips) straight from the oven? Nothing! These cheesy herby morsels of goodness are super satisfying if you get a craving for the variety you can buy in bags at the supermarket. Making them yourself means you know they’ve got nothing nasty going on.

With just a little olive oil and a generour sprinkling of cheese these crisps become a crunchy tasty treat. I love adding loads of balck pepper because cracked black pepper happens to be my favourite crisp lavour. Is that weird? I’m not a fan of plain, or salt and vinegar. Chicken and BBQ are passable and sweet chilli and sour cream are pretty great. But I’ll go with cracked black pepper every time. Until now. Now all I want is home made parmesan and cracked black pepper crisps. Always. What have I done?

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know that I love Michael Pollan and the documentary series he hosts ‘Cooked’. In one episode Henry Balzer says, “Eat anything you want. Enjoy all of your food, anything you want. You  want apple pie? Have a whole apple pie tonight. You want cookies with that apple pie? And ice cream with that apple pie? I’ll allow you to eat all the cookies, all the ice cream, all the pie – you can have it tonight. But I’m just going to ask you to do one thing. Make all of it. Make the apple pie, make the ice cream, make the cookies. And you know what I know is going to happen? You’re not having apple pie, ice cream or cookies tonight.”  Well look you’re probably not going to have all 3 anyway. Because home made food takes time to make. If you aren’t just grabbing a bag of crisps from the supermarket shelf when you have a craving, if you’re going to the effort of making them from scratch , slicing the potatoes, grating the parmesan – then you’re probably not going to have them every day. And when you do have them. They’re going to be the best possible version for you. Made with good quality ingredients, less salt, more real food. And there’s nothing wrong with snacking on food like that.

With this concept in mind, I’m trying not to reach for the ‘easy’ option when I have a craving for something that isn’t usually a regular part of my diet. I make so much of the food I eat myself and part of my income (unfortunately not all of it) comes from cooking so I get that doing this is way easier for me. But, the more you cook the more understand what goes in your food and, hopefully, the better the quality of the food you put in your body.

But back to how damn delicious these are! Thye’re crispy, salty and cheesy  with that savoury spice that black pepper brings. And the oregano is just an extra hit of yummo savoury flavour. Make yourself a bowl of chips and enjoy them in the sunshine!

Serves 2 as a snack, feel free to double or triple the recipe to serve more

Ingredients

3 x chat potatoes

2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp  dried oregano

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbs Parmesan

pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line a tray with baking paper.

Slice potatoes to a 2mm thickness. Toss with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place in a single layer on the baking tray and sprinkle with 1/2 the oregano, salt and a few cracks of black pepper.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn, sprinkle with the remaining oregano and a few cracks of black pepper and bake for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake for a further 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Eat! Maybe let them cool at least a little first 😉

HH. x