Saturday, August 04, 2012
Sweet & Sour Watermelon Chip Jerky is a tasty healthy homemade snack food
Dried watermelon chip jerky made in my food dehydrator tastes great. Concentrating the sugar content of a watermelon or cantaloupe into a dried chip makes a convenient healthy snack food with the nutrients from the melon. These chips are as sweet as candy, but that sweetness may sometimes be overwhelming.
Sour, acidic marinades provide some tangy flavor complexity when watermelon slices are dried to make jerky chips
Soaking the watermelon slices in sour marinade recipes (i.e. acidic, tangy) balances out the overwhelming sweetness of plain watermelon chips and adds some flavor complexity. Sweet and sour watermelon flavors are commonly used in candy and mixed drinks. For pretreatment of watermelon slices before drying I have tried a variety of sour marinades including apple cider vinegar, lime/lemon juice, red wine, and beer. All of these marinades add a bit of tangy sourness to the watermelon chips. A little sugar and watermelon flavor comes out of the watermelon slices into the marinade. Thus, it is important to keep the marinade volume low relative to the volume of the watermelon slices. I do my marinading in re-sealable plastic bags. This allows a minimum marinade volume to remain in good contact with the watermelon slices. The bag can be shaken and inverted to redistribute the marinade solution.
Watermelon slices marinading in red wine.
Watermelon slices prepared for drying.
Watermelon chip jerky after drying is completed.
Watermelon-lime and watermelon-wine flavors make excellent sweet and sour jerky chips
Radiant Health Inner Wealth blog promotes lime juice-marinaded watermelon jerky chips. And I agree! Red wine-marinaded watermelon chips are also quite excellent! These sweet & sour watermelon chips are great as low fat snacks, hors d'oeuvres, and appetizers.
Lime-marinaded chips are red and wine-marinaded chips are purple.
More about:
• Food Dehydrator used to make healthy homemade snack foods - BRT Insights.
• Food & Drink for Outdoor Activities - BRT Insights.
Tags: watermelon, watermelon chips, snack food recipe, healthy snack foods, food dehydrator, homemade snacks.
Tags: watermelon jerky, cantaloupe chips, appetizers, low fat snacks, hors d'oeuvres.
Labels: food-drink
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I've been wanting to get a food dehydrator but they can be pretty pricey. I need to start hitting craigslist or garage sales. I grew up having dried fruit and fruit leather all the time :)
Cantaloupe marinaded in a little lime juice is really excellent after drying. Cantaloupe marinaded in red wine dries down to a very unappetizing brown color.
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