These eggplant chips are flavored with an array of Mediterranean spices, made crispy in the dehydrator and perfect for snacking when paired with your favorite healthy dip.

At the end of last month I spent a couple of days in NYC visiting the Sabra factory that produces their Greek yogurt dips. Did you even know Sabra made Greek yogurt dips? I’m not gonna lie, until last year, I didn’t even though they launched in 2010. It’s probably just the craptastic grocery stores near me but I never saw anything besides hummus from Sabra. Now, I totally love hummus but Greek yogurt dip? That stuff has my Greek by marriage heart.

Our trip began with a night in a rented out professional kitchen where we snacked on Greek yogurt dip, veggies, chips and the most amazing fresh berries I’ve ever tasted. They have nothing to do with anything in this post I just feel the need to share that because I’ve literally never tasted a blackberry that good before in my entire life.

All the bloggers on the trip were in charge of one component of the meal. Brandy chose booze and I chose meat.

If you’ve watched any Kick Sass Kitchen videos, none of that should surprise you. I actually made my balsamic dijon crusted beef tenderloin for everyone and nervously drank 2 bourbon concoctions while it cooked afraid that sans meat thermometer I was going to overcook a $200+ piece of meat.

I didn’t, it turned out fine, maybe just a little tipsy by dinnertime.

The next day we met with Sabra’s marketing team in the city before heading out to Long Island to see the factory and production.

The team showed us some new campaign ideas and thoughts about how to really get consumers to understand the key differences between Sabra’s Greek yogurt dips and other competitive brands like the fact that Sabra has more protein, fresh vegetables make up 20% of the product (and they’re 100% farm fresh) and there are absolutely no artificial flavors.

When we walked into the factory and one of the first things I saw were HUGE containers of freshly diced cucumbers and an employee seeding bell peppers by hand, everything the marketing team had told us earlier came to life.

Not only are the vegetables that go into the Greek yogurt dips as fresh as possible, the Greek yogurt itself is also made on site. I don’t know why I assumed it wasn’t, but I was a bit surprised to learn that.

One of the two factory buildings is completely devoted to making the Greek yogurt itself before the vegetables get mixed in and packaged for distribution.

We ended the tour with a sampling and we all attacked the dips, veggies and chip spread like we hadn’t eaten breakfast just 3 hours earlier.

All the dip tasting got me thinking which I preferred more, the chip + yogurt dip or the veggie + yogurt dip combo and honestly, it was a toss up. I’d go back and forth multiple times and never really decide on a clear cut winner. Which is why I decided veggie chips would be the ultimate dipping accessory. All the veggie benefits with the crispness and crunch of a chip…perfect. Since I still happened to have Brandy’s dehydrator at my house after making the buffalo sauce beef jerky, I gave it another go. This time with eggplant.

I’ve more than once admitted I’m not an eggplant lover. Not a hater, just not a lover. Unless it’s fried to a crisp, it’s pretty hard to get me to enjoy the mushy purple veg which is exactly why I chose to dehydrate it into chip form. Because I’m stubborn and refuse to give up on foods I don’t like and I had this sneaking suspicion when the mushy factor was all dried up, it’d make an excellent chip. And it totally did.

Seasoned heavily with some Mediterranean-esque spices, these eggplant chips make the perfect dippers for the Mediterranean herb dip or, any of the dips for that matter. I might be having a love affair with the diced onion lately.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Mediterranean Eggplant Chips

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These eggplant chips are flavored with an array of Mediterranean spices, made crispy in the dehydrator and perfect for snacking when paired with your favorite healthy dip.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 5 hours

Total Time 5 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 baby eggplants, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• generous amount of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Place eggplant slices in a large bowl.
2. Add olive oil and spices to the bowl and gently toss with tongs until each piece of eggplant is coated in the spices.
3. Place the eggplants slices on the trays of a dehydrator and dehydrate on the fruits/vegetable setting (about 135 degrees) for 4-5 hours until fully dried and crisp. You'll want to check the trays around 3-4 hours as some thinner slices may be done sooner.
4. Let eggplant cool completely before storing in a container.

*This post is sponsored by Sabra as part of my work with them as a Sabra Tastemaker. All content and opinions are my own.