Pita Chips

Though I’m not entirely convinced these deserve their own post, sometimes the simplest things are the ones you need to be reminded of. And I took some pretty pictures while I was making them yesterday, so, with no further ado, here they are, the simplest things.

These pita chips are never, ever lacking in our house. (In case you feel like helping yourself, they’re always in the cupboard under the cutting board.) I usually buy pita and freeze it until our stash is low (yes, we’ve been watching The Wire).

We eat them in the evenings before dinner when we’re deciding what to have, we eat them with soups and dips and cheese and sometimes, in the rare occasions when we run out of croutons, broken up on top of salad.

I understand that some people are pressed for time. Unlike me, some people have jobs. And kids. And friends. (Kidding!) But still, I find it very hard to believe that so many people will shell out for pre-made pita chips. All you do is buy pita. Put some olive oil and salt on it, and put it in the oven. The most time-consuming part is cutting the pita up which takes, at most, 5 minutes. And if you’re really pressed for time, you could probably stick the whole loaf right in there and break it into chips after.

If you want to get fancy with these puppies, you could sprinkle on cayenne pepper or za’atar or oregano before baking. You could even go sweet an add a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, and have them with ice cream.

Ok, who am I kidding? They totally don’t deserve a recipe. But I’ll write it out anyway; let’s just call it a reminder to buy pita.

One normal bag of pita will make about 8 cups of pita chips.

1 bag pita

olive oil

salt

anything else your heart desires (cinnamon & sugar; oregano; sesame seeds; cayenne; black pepper)

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C (if your oven has a convection fan setting, use it). Cut up pita into little triangles or rectangles or whatever you want, and arrange them on two baking trays lined with tin foil. Pour a good amount of olive oil over the pita so that they shine but aren’t soaked. Sprinkle with ample salt (and whatever else you want) and toss with tongs to coat evenly. Bake for around 10 minutes or until the chips are golden brown (if you’re using the fan setting, watch out because it bakes them really quickly). Don’t worry if some are a little soft, they’ll harden as they cool.

They’re delicious warm, but will last for a couple weeks in a tupperware container.