Gluten-Free Review: Veggie Chips!

This is the first of a new series of posts that I'll be doing here, reviewing gluten-free vegan products for your eating pleasure!

We just got back from the Natural Products Expo (in Disneylicious Anaheim, CA), where we wandered through a gigantic convention center packed full of items ranging from organic food to eco-friendly fashion. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share some of my favorite foodie finds, and give you the scoop on some of the best new gluten-free products.

For our first food foray, we'll be starting with a nibble:

Veggie Chips from Good Health Natural Products

I was rather surprised by the little snack-bag that Jeremy had found for me. I hadn't managed to find their booth myself, and after seeing so many aisles of gluten-heavy vegan meats, breads, and cookies, I cast a suspicious eye on this dainty bag of inviting vegetables. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, because most "vegetable chips" have either wheat flour or whey protein*, but after reading the label and finding neither hide nor hair of said ingredients, I popped the bag open.

As you can see in the picture, the chips come in three flavours (with their respective colours): plain potato, tomato, and spinach. I tried the potato first, and was quite pleased - crisp, crunchy, and not heavy at all. It's airy enough that it didn't stick in my teeth (like most chips do). Next was the tomato flavour, which was tasty, but a bit too subtle (I'm a tomato fiend). Finally, the spinach. Ding! Just enough spinach to be pronounced without being overpowering. I think I could eat a whole full-size bag of the spinach chips in one sitting.

I would definitely recommend these if you like chips but don't like feeling weighed-down or greasy afterward. Watch out for the Veggie Stix though: they have wheat starch, unfortunately.

*I just have a quick thought I'd like to touch on. Why is it that companies feel the need to sneak dairy products into things like chips? I can understand if they're cheese-flavoured, but why flavors like salsa or barbeque that don't actually contain dairy? I was going through the Veggie Chip company's product list, and it really blindsided me to find whey and buttermilk in their "Chilean Lime" potato chips with avocado oil, and almost all of their polenta chips had either buttermilk or wheat. However, if their other gluten-free vegan products are anything like the Veggie Chips, then I won't hesitate to try them too! They do have a pretty decent range of GF vegan chips and popcorn. :)