Lemon Rosemary Sweet Potato Chips (done 2 ways)

January's Improv Cooking Challenge theme is Lemons & Rosemary. (Sure wish my lemon tree hadn't bitten the dust last year; but glad my rosemary topiary is still going strong!) We use both ingredients quite a bit when we grill. Especially love chicken & salmon with a touch of rosemary!

But I decided to go a different direction, probably influenced by the Christmas gift from the hubs which was a KitchenAid® Spiralizer! We sliced up a huge sweet potato (from my brother's garden -- thank you Mark!) using this handy gadget.

(kinda sorry to lose sweet potato to the core...)

this is how it looks right off the Spiralizer

you have to cut through the coil to make slices

Nothing smells better than sweet potatoes frying in some oil!

aren't they beautiful?

I'd made Lemon Rosemary & Garlic Sea Salt which we sprinkled over the fried sweet potato slices.

You can make the salt and store it for a long time,

simple ingredients

chopped so fine

dried in the oven

break up the chunky parts

We took the other half of the slices and tossed them in a lemon-rosemary sort of marinade.

We then dehydrated them according to our machine's directions.

I loved that I could taste the olive oil with the lemon & rosemary on the chips, but we were all disappointed in the texture.

Perhaps a finer slice would've worked better in our dehydrator. Anyhow. we've plenty of the dried chips leftover in a bowl; while the fried chips barely had time to cool & be salted...

If you're interested seeing the KitchenAid® Spiralizer Attachment in action, here's facebook live video we shot while making "zoodles" a couple weeks ago:

Pretty sure if you follow any of the links below from my friends you'll find plenty more delicious recipes using lemons & rosemary:

An InLinkz Link-up

Smoked Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Garlic Aïoli

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember…

(William Shakespeare. Hamlet. IV.v.)

 

So, the ingredients for August’s #ImprovCookingChallenge are GARLIC & ROSEMARY. Couldn’t get any better than that! We use a lot of garlic around here, and happen to have a large rosemary bush out in the garden.  (It’s one of the few plants to survive this summer…)Because the bush needed a bit of pruning, I decided to use the trimmings as skewers for our recipe.

I decided to try my hand at aïoli as it uses very little salt & the hubs is cutting back on his sodium usage.  (“Try my hand” = strain all my arm muscles!)

I used about two pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breasts and cut them into cubes. I marinated them overnight in the following:

I sliced some potatoes and brushed them with oil. I put them in the smoker as I had a half-hour wait for it to get to 400°. While waiting for the smoker to heat, I “whipped up” this:(I apologize ahead of time for the pictures, but it’s a pain in the impossible to hold the bowl, whisk & drizzle oil while snapping photos!)

With the aïoli finished & resting in the frig, I continued dinner prep. A few zukes were sliced and brushed with oil. When the smoker was ready, I put in the rosemary chicken skewers. After about15 minutes I snuck in the zucchini wedges & a pan with spinach & onions drizzled with olive oil. Everything smoked for another 15-20 minutes.

Dinner was served with smoked spinach & onions, smoked potatoes, and smoked zucchini with a bit of Basmati rice. (The doctor will be glad to hear that absolutely no salt was used in this meal…) The dollop of aïoli (with that tiny pinch of Pink Himalayan Salt) added just the right amount of seasoning to each item on the plate.

Would you like to see the dishes my friends cooked up with their garlic & rosemary?

An InLinkz Link-up