Vegan Homemade Black Bean Chips & Simple Avocado Dip
Vegan, Gluten Free & Grain Free: Homemade Black Bean Chips with Avocado Yogurt Dip, + How to Make Black Bean Flour at Home!
If you’ve ever made homemade tortilla chips, you know they’re SO easy to make and much healthier than most store-bought varieties. But, few people know how simple it is to make healthy homemade grain free chips, too. These homemade black bean chips are all the proof you’ll need—gluten free, vegan, and perfectly crispy!
And, they’re made with just 4 ingredients: black bean flour, water, a bit of oil, and salt. You may be able to find black bean flour at some grocery stores or online, or you can save some dough (HA) by making your own! I’ll show you how easy it is to whip up homemade black bean flour with just dried black beans and a trusty food processor.
Store-bought or DIY flour, the result will be the same: deliciously clean, homemade black bean chips that are totally plant-based. Since these are baked chips rather than deep-fried (like many ultra-processed store-bought chips), they’ve got a lighter, crispier crunch that’s more like a cracker in texture. But, their earthy, savory flavor is eerily similar to blue corn chips!
Best of all, these homemade black bean chips are WAY more nutritious than corn chips—with 5g of plant-based protein PLUS 5g of fiber per serving of 10-12 chips. Serve with your favorite dip or try my simple avocado dip recipe! It’s like a cooler, creamier guacamole that’s just as wholesome as these bean chips, and even easier to throw together!
How to Make Homemade Black Bean Flour
If you’ve never made homemade flours of any kind, you’re in luck—it’s super easy! Most of the highly refined grain-based flours, like all-purpose flour, are super cheap to buy. But, most whole grain or grain free flour options unfortunately tend to be pretty pricey… Plus, they’re not always easy to find in the grocery store, or even online.
So, if you’ve got a quality food processor or high-powered blender that you trust, homemade flours are definitely the more convenient and affordable way to go! To make homemade black bean flour, simply add dried black beans into your food processor or blender.
For this homemade black bean chips recipe, you’ll need 1 cup of flour. Since 1 cup of dried black beans yield around 1⅓ cups of homemade black bean flour, I recommend grinding up a full cup of dried beans, just to be safe. Or, feel free to blend up as much as you’d like and store any leftover black bean flour to use another time!
Once you’ve measured out your beans, just let ’er rip.(You may want to cover your ears since it’ll be loud!) It’s really THAT easy—the hardest part is that it will take some time…
How to Make Black Bean Flour without Breaking your Food Processor…
The trick to making homemade black bean flour really is patience. Take care of your food processor or blender, unless you’re prepared for it to break!
It’s crucial to check on your machine regularly, and ONLY let it run for 3-4 minutes at a time! Then, let it rest for a few minutes before starting it up again. Otherwise, your food processor may overheat since it’ll be working overtime trying to grind those beans into a flour. So, be sure to give it some time to cool down between rounds of processing!
It will take several rounds of processing a few minutes, then rest a few minutes, processing, then rest, but it’s worth it. Eventually, you’ll have a finely-ground gray flour that’s packed with nutrients—and cost just a fraction as much as pre-made black bean flour!
You can sift your flour to remove larger chunks, especially if you plan to use it in baked goods that require a finer texture, but it’s not necessary for this recipe. In fact, I think the chunkier texture of homemade black bean flour makes these bean chips even tastier and crunchier!
Check out my Homemade Flour Recipes video to learn how to make homemade almond flour, quinoa flour, and oat flour, too!
Tips for the Best Homemade Black Bean Chips
Seriously, you won’t believe how easy this homemade black bean chips recipe is until you try it. Just mix together your 4 ingredients, dollop onto baking sheets, and bake—bada bing, bada boom! But, there are a few tips to keep in mind so your bean chips turn out as delicious as possible.
Add your Water Slowly, in 3 Parts
First, start by mixing together your flour and salt. Then, add in your oil until it’s integrated. AFTER those 3 ingredients are well-mixed, slowly add in your water, stirring as you go. I recommend adding your water in 3 parts (¼ cup at a time), so your mixture doesn’t get too wet too quickly. Once you’ve got a viscous, spreadable batter, you’re ready to go!
Spread your Batter Thinly and Evenly, without any Holes
Onto lined and sprayed baking sheets, dollop spoonfuls of batter and spread them into thin, rustic, chip-like shapes. I used an offset spatula to scoop about 2-3 teaspoons of batter per chip, and gently spread each chip to be about 2 inches in diameter. The shapes don’t need to be perfect, and the sizes don’t need to be exact!
The more important thing is to spread each chip as evenly as you can and keep them pretty thin, so they’ll get nice and crispy. Above all, do your best to avoid leaving any holes in your chips! They’ll still bake and crisp up if they’ve got holes in them, but you’ll have crumbly pieces of bean chips rather than whole, dippable chips.
Once you’ve got all of your chip shapes spread onto baking sheets, into the oven they go! I was able to fit 16 homemade black bean chips onto each baking sheet, and I put two sheets in the oven at a time. Altogether, I ended up doing 2 rounds of baking, 4 baking sheets in all, for a total of around 60-70 chips.
Bake, Flip, Bake
Pop your prepared baking sheets in the oven at 375°F (190°C) for just 7 minutes to start. Then, since these homemade black bean chips have a stickier texture and can’t bake on top of wire baking racks, you’ll have to flip all of ’em part way through the baking. It’s a minor annoyance, but worth it so they’ll cook and crisp up on all sides!
So, after 7 minutes, take each tray out of the oven and flip every chip over before returning to bake. (I use an offset spatula so I don’t burn my fingers.)
Finally, bake for another 12-14 minutes after flipping—and I definitely recommend watching closely during the final stretch so they don’t burn!
What’s a Chip without a Dip?
Since the best way to enjoy any chip is with a tasty dip, I’ve paired these homemade black bean chips with a creamy avocado dip! It’s got all of the yummy, savory, nutty flavors that I love in a guacamole, with a bit of creamy yogurt added to the mix. Use the non-dairy yogurt of your choice, and you’ve got a vegan dip to serve with your vegan chips!
Best of all, you can throw this simple avocado dip together in literally a minute, with just 5 ingredients. It’s full of cool, refreshing flavors, luscious creaminess, and wholesome nutrients that provide our bodies with fuel. Truly the perfect match for these healthy homemade black bean chips in all of their salty, crispy, crunchy glory!
Chips and dip don’t have to be a demonized, ultra-processed, nutrient-lacking snack. By making tasty homemade alternatives with ingredients this clean and simple, healthy snacking couldn’t be easier!
Vegan Homemade Black Bean Chips & Simple Avocado Dip
Ingredients
Homemade Black Bean Chips
- 1 cup black bean flour
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- ¾ cup water
- 1 tsp salt
Simple Avocado Dip
- 1 avocado
- ½ cup yogurt of choice or sour cream
- squeeze of lime juice
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
To make homemade black bean flour
- Add dried black beans to a food processor or grinder and process to make flour. (You’ll need about 1 cup of dried black beans to get around 1⅓ cups of black bean flour.)
- Only allow food processor to run for 3-4 minutes at a time and check on it regularly, scraping down sides as needed. (This will take some time and several rounds, so be patient!)
- Allow to rest for a few minutes between rounds of processing, so machine can cool down and doesn’t overheat.
- When you’ve got a finely-ground gray flour, it’s done. It will have some black flecks in it from the black beans’ skins, and it may still have some larger chunks—both are fine!
- (For this homemade black bean chips recipe, those chunks won’t be a problem at all. For other recipes using black bean flour—especially for baked goods that require a finer texture—you may want to sift your homemade flour through a fine-mesh sieve to remove those larger chunks.)
To make black bean chips
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine black bean flour and salt. Add oil and stir to integrate.
- Slowly add water in 3 parts, stirring as you go, until you get a spreadable batter.
- Onto lined and sprayed baking sheets, drop spoonfuls of batter and spread to form into thin chip/cracker shapes. (It’s okay if the shapes aren’t perfect—just be sure to spread each chip as evenly as you can, and avoid leaving any holes in them!)
- Bake for 7 minutes, until shapes are holding together and beginning to firm. Flip and bake another 12-14 minutes. Check regularly to make sure they don’t burn!
- Allow chips to cool.
- Yields 60-70 chips (~2-inch diameter).
To make avocado dip
- In a large mixing bowl, mash avocado.
- Add yogurt or sour cream, lime juice, garlic powder, and salt. Mix well to combine.
- Serve with homemade black bean chips or your favorite dippers, and enjoy!
- Yields 1 cup avocado dip.
Notes
Healthy Avocado Dip Nutrition
Per 2 Tbsp avocado dip made with plain whole milk yogurt, yields 8 servings:41 calories | 4g fat | 2g carbs | 1g fiber | 1g sugars | 1g protein
8 Comments on “Vegan Homemade Black Bean Chips & Simple Avocado Dip”
If you put the parchment on a rack, won’t the undersides cook without flipping? If there’s a concern with the thin areas where the rack wires are just pull the parchment over a ¼” halfway through baking, perpendicular to the wires, of course.
Some dried beans are not always easy to get here in the Philippines so as soon as I get my hands on some I want to try these chips. I wonder if it’d work with canned black beans if they were dried in an oven or dehydrator?
Hi Dave, great question. You could try arranging the parchment on a wire rack, and then baking your black bean chips on top of it – if you’re able to make it work, you likely would’t need to flip them. But since the black bean chip batter is rather mushy at first, it might be difficult to spread the mixture into chips on top of that textured wire rack. We haven’t tested this ourselves, but we’d love to know how it works out for you if you decide to give it a try!
Unfortunately, this black bean chip recipe calls for black bean flour, which you can only make with dried black beans. Again, I’m not sure how it would turn out if you started with cooked/canned black beans, and then dehydrated them to make black bean flour. But if you’re unable to find dried beans, I’d say it’s worth trying!
Apologies for my delayed reply, and I hope these ideas can help 🙂
Delicious. good food. Easy to make
Thank you, Christian! We’re glad this recipe turned out well for you, and we appreciate you giving it a try 🙂
Great recipe! I will definitely try this recipe. Thank you) I really love healthy and clean food.
Thank you, Marina! We’d love to hear how these vegan black bean chips turn out for you whenever you try them 🙂
Best vegan chips I’ve ever made! Now that I’ve found the black bean flour I’ll be making these black bean chips every week. So easy, they turn out really crispy, and they’re pretty fun to make. Haven’t tried your avocado dip but these are perfect with guacamole. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Janet, we’re thrilled to hear you’re enjoying these homemade black bean chips so much! Hard to beat a 4 ingredient vegan chip recipe 🙂 Thanks so much for trying the recipe letting us know how they turned out!