Black Bean Tortilla Chips

Name: Black Bean Tortilla Chips
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 220 g of Dried Black Beans; 1 tsp of Salt; 30 g of Chia Seeds; 0.5 tsp of Cumin Powder; 0.5 tsp of Garlic Powder; 2 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 200 mL of Water; Sesame Seeds to taste; Ground Flaxseeds to taste; Pumpkin Seeds to taste

Allergen and Diet Summary

Vegan

Gluten-Free

Nuts-Free

Soy-Free

Recipe Categories

To make these crunchy black bean chips, you'll need just a few wholesome ingredients. Packed with healthy fibres and proteins, they have fewer carbs than the classic tortilla chips. They're perfect for dipping in guacamole and hummus or simply for munching on-the-go.

Nutrients

Nutrient	Grams	RDA
Carbs	16.8g	5.6%
of which Sugars	0.6g	0.6%
Fats	3.7g	5.8%
of which Saturates	0.6g	2.8%
Proteins	6.6g	14.3%
Fibers	5.3g	21%

Info

Cost

Health

Time 45m

Table of Contents

Today we will show you how to make tortilla chips using black beans instead of corn. These cool-looking crackers have fewer carbs but much more proteins and fibres than the traditional Mexican totopos. They make a wholesome snack for vegans, gluten-free folks, gym-goers that need to refuel, or people on a diet.

This recipe is dead simple and only uses natural, plant-based ingredients. We will turn dry black beans into flour, add a few extra ingredients and pull a tray filled with crispy crackers out of the oven.

To make these black bean chips even healthier, we included highly nourishing ingredients in our recipe. We used chia seeds to help keep things together, and selected a mix of seeds - optional but recommended - to use as toppings.

Chia is an excellent binder when soaked in water, to the point that vegans use it as an egg-replacement in their bakes. Eat 100 grams of these seeds, and you'll get 18 grams of heart-boosting omega-3 fats, 39 grams of gut-friendly fibres, and 100% RDI of essential manganese, phosphorus, and magnesium minerals. Not bad for such a tiny seed!

For extra crunch and wholesomeness, we topped the crackers with a mix of sesame and flax seeds - fabulous sources of healthy fats and vitamins.

Delicious both on their own or dipped into guacamole, these black tortilla chips will bring excitement and flavour to your next Mexican night. Let's bake this out!

Ingredients

Allergens are marked in bold

Optional

Sesame Seeds
to taste
Ground Flaxseeds
to taste
Pumpkin Seeds
to taste

Others

Dried Black Beans
220 g
Salt
1 tsp
Chia Seeds
30 g
Cumin Powder
0.5 tsp
Garlic Powder
0.5 tsp
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp
Water
200 mL

step 1

Let's start by preparing the flour for the crackers.

Although it would take a bit longer, we strongly recommend you rinse the beans thoroughly and then toast them for 20 minutes at 150°C (300°F) before grinding them into flour. By doing so, the chips will taste much sweeter as you'll wash away the saponins, bitter compounds naturally found in legumes.

However, if you're in a hurry, simply use the dried beans as they are.

In a powerful food processor, blitz the legumes into a fine powder, pulsing the blender for a few minutes.

If you're having trouble blitzing the beans into flour, check the tips at the bottom of the page.

step 2

Transfer the prepared flour to a mixing bowl and add salt, chia seeds, cumin powder, and garlic powder.

Then, pour in the oil and water.

Stir well until the black bean dough has a dense paste-like consistency. Leave the tortilla dough to set for 10 minutes. This way, the chia seeds will absorb water and form a gel-like mixture that will help the chips batter hold together.

step 3

Roll out the bean batter in between two sheets of baking paper. The thinner the dough, the crunchier the chips will be.

Next, remove the top baking paper and sprinkle the mixture with sesame seeds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds if using them. Press them down by gently patting with the rolling pin or the back of a spoon.

With a sharp knife cut the dough to form the typical tortilla chips triangles (1).

Bake the chips for 20 minutes at 150°F (300°F) for conventional ovens or at 130°C (265°F) for fan ovens. Then, flip them and toast them for a further 10 minutes (2).

Allow the cut and baked bean chips to cool down on a wire rack before cracking them into crisps.

Enjoy them with a guacamole dip or try our artichoke dip and beetroot hummus.

Black bean tortilla chips baked and cut.

Tips

Here are some troubleshooting tips you may find useful if you're having problems making the bean flour:

If in Step 1 you rinsed the beans, make sure you toast them, as dry beans are a bit easier to grind than wet beans.
You will get fewer problems if you don't rinse and roast the beans before blitzing, but then the tortilla chips will taste a tad more bitter, due to the saponins. We tried both ways and preferred the chips we got using the rinsed beans.
Don't pulse continuously, but do short pulses. This will prevent your blender from overheating and will allow the flour to settle down and the hard bits to surface up closer to the blades.
If after blitzing you still have some pellets, then transfer everything into a sieve and get out as much flour as possible into a bowl. Then, put the pellets back in the blender and pulse again. Repeat once or twice until you get rid of the hard bits.
If you still have some pellets left, grind them into flour using a pestle and mortar. Alternatively, use the flour you got to make the chips, and turn the pellets (which are perfectly edible beans) into a black bean "guacamole". Do this by cooking the pellets, blitzing them, and drizzling in some lemon. Adjust the recipe to match the quantity of flour that you were able to make, by using the +/- buttons in the ingredients list until the amount of dry black beans matches the quantity of flour that you have.
If you have a seed grinder or coffee grinder, use that instead of a food processor for perfect results.

FAQ

Black bean chips vs tortilla chips: which snack is healthier?

To decide which of the two chips is the healthier snack, we'll be comparing the nutritional profiles of black beans and corn.

One hundred grams of corn contains (1):

Calories: 131
Carbs: 25.9 grams - of which: 2.6 g Fibres; 18.2 g Starch; 3.4 g Sugars
Protein: 3.6 grams
Fat: 1.4 grams

Whereas the same amount of black beans contains (2):

Calories: 132
Carbs: 23.7 grams - of which: 8.7 g Fibres; 0 g Starch; 0 g Sugars;
Protein: 8.9 grams
Fats: 0.5 grams

The first thing you notice is that given the same calories, black beans have more proteins, more fibres, and fewer fats. In simple terms, black beans are more nutritious than corn.

Eating black beans will give you more than twice as many proteins. The legumes are a better choice for building up muscles.

Another interesting fact is that black beans have fewer carbs, and don't have any sugars nor starches, compared to corn that instead packs quite a few. Sugars and starch are the enemies of people with diabetes, as they cause spikes in blood sugar levels. No wonder black beans have a lower Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load score, making them the better choice for people with diabetes.

Fats are lower in black beans, and if you dig deeper into the data, you will notice that the legumes win over corn in terms of overall vitamins and minerals as well.

We are sorry corn, but you were sorely defeated. All hail black beans! Next time you crave tortillas, remember about this recipe and make some healthy black bean chips yourself!

Are black bean chips suitable for all diets?

Can all of you enjoy our black beans tortillas without worries? We'll answer this by taking a look at the following diets and medical conditions:

Vegan diet.
Gluten-free diet.
Ketogenic diet.
Diabetic diet.
Loss-weight diet.

Our black beans are vegan, as we used 100% organic and plant-based ingredients. Moreover, beans are a great way to get back the proteins lost from meat. Pair this snack with some quinoa - abundant with complete proteins - and you'll be good to go.

Just like the original tortillas made with corn, our legumes-based recipe is gluten-free. We haven't used any flours, apart from the black bean flour, or any other ingredient with traces of gluten. People sensitive to gluten can put their mind at ease while the crunch one down.

Our black bean chips have 30% fewer carbs than traditional corn tortillas and are therefore a better snack for people on a weight-loss diet. Also, most of these carbohydrates consist of dietary fibres which, unlike starch and sugars, are not digested, and therefore they don't add calories ^[3]. High-fibres foods help us to lose weight by getting our guts to work well, by slowing down the metabolisation of nutrients and curbing our hunger.

But those that instead follow a strict low-carb diet, like the ketogenic diet, may have to skip this one out. Keto purists don't include beans in the list of foods they can eat. If you are part of that group, check out our list of keto recipes.

Good news for people with diabetes or those on a low-sugar diet: these black beans crackers are perfect for you! The high amount of fibres in beans help keep your blood sugar levels in check. With a low GI score of 30, these chips are a practical way to add much-needed nutrients, minerals and vitamins to a diabetic diet. One serving of these crunchy chips has only 16g of carbs and 0.6g of sugars.

No matter your diet, there's one undeniable advantage of making tortilla chips at home: there are no nasty surprises in the ingredients. No added chemicals, highly-processed additives, and stabilisers. Just wholesome organic ingredients. And if you are putting in the work, why not choose black beans instead of corn? You will get a healthier snack for the same amount of work.

How to store and keep these crackers crunchy?

Just like the tortillas you buy in a store, these black beans chips have to be stored appropriately, or they will turn stale and lose their crunch.

If you plan on eating them in one go, you won't have to worry much as they will stay crisp for up to half a day once baked. But if you made a big batch or want to extend the black tortillas "shelf life", then here are some tips on how to store them properly.

Don't freeze or refrigerate the crackers, as the moisture will make them soggy. Instead, store at room temperature in a dry and dark place, like a cupboard.
Wait for the black bean tortilla chips to be cold before placing them in a container, to prevent steam from building up and moistening them.
Suitable containers are zip-locked bags or food-grade boxes with rubber seals. Using clips or rubber bands on plain plastic bags is risky, as air will likely find a way inside.
Store the chips in single-portions. The less you open and close the container, the longer the crackers will last. Ideally, you'd want to open the box once and eat all the crisps therein, hence why single-portions work best.

Once properly stored, you can expect crisps tortillas for up to a week, or longer if you followed our single-portion bags advice