Veggies as Snacks?
Snacking can be a great way to help maintain healthy lifestyle goals, especially when it includes veggies. Before Dirt Kitchen Snacks, snacking on real veggies was kind of…well…boring. We have nothing against carrot and celery sticks, they just get a little mundane over time. We knew we could do better.
Veggies are delicious. They are crunchy. They are earthy. They are spicy. They are used in every kind of cooking. Do you know how many different flavors of veggies there are? We have so much to work with! All we had to do is apply a little snacking know-how and culinary creativity to make them into delicious, portable snacks.
We love playing with seasonings and flavor, so we created Air Dried Veggie + Nut mixes inspired by our favorite veggie side dishes, like Spicy Thai Noodle Salad and Green Bean Almondine. True to our passion, our Air Dried Veggie Crisps are all about the veggies: zucchini, grape tomatoes, and blushed bell peppers, air dried and simply seasoned with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt (and sometimes pepper). They taste great…but the best part is, we use rescued veggies, which helps reduce food waste!
Rescued Veggies
There are lots of perfectly edible veggies that are labeled "unsellable". Sometimes they have funny shapes or blemishes, or are a little off-color. Other times there are simply too many that ripen at the same time, which creates a surplus. Veggies going to waste makes us sad, and it's not good for the planet. We work with Full Harvest®*, that finds veggies in need of rescue, and then we turn them into superstars in our Air Dried Veggie Crisps.
Here's what we've found so far:
- Our grape tomatoes were too ripe to sell into retail, but they are perfect for us because they are so full of flavor.
- Our zucchini is surplus, meaning it would likely have sat in a storage facility to rot.
- Blushed bell peppers are multi-colored, which is considered a cosmetic imperfection, so most retailers won't take them.
We love supporting veggie farmers and helping to reduce food waste with our snacks. Who ever said perfect looking veggies taste better anyway?
*Full Harvest® is a marketplace that works with farmers to find buyers for "ugly," imperfect, or surplus produce. The result is less food loss, more money for hard working farmers, and great produce for brands like us. Check them out at fullharvest.com for more on rescued veggies, how they are helping to address food loss, and its impact on our planet.
For more info on our culinary inspirations and why air drying is such a great way to make veggies snackable, click here.