A pattern is starting to emerge whenever I give Ollie my new creations to try. Usually, at first he is really in to the new food, enthusiastically shoving it in his mouth in that cute whole-handed way babies eat. Then, just when I’m getting excited that I’ve invented a new baby food for the repertoire, as if sensing my enthusiasm, he stops or the food starts making its way to the floor.

It’s like he knows and doesn’t want me to get too cocky (I did have a win earlier this week but that’s for another post). This particular experiment was beetroot flatbread. I am on a constant quest to create easy, portable snack food for him and had the brilliant idea of turning my beetroot powder into pretty pink flat bread.

To make the beetroot powder, I just dried out very fine slices of fresh beetroot in the oven and when it was cool, blended it into a powder.

I’m on a bit of a quest to come up with natural food colours for his food but that’s a story for another day too. These were based on my flour tortillas with the white flour subbed out for wholemeal. I thought they were quite delicious and so did Ollie for a few minutes. I don’t know if they’d get past Will but I would have these instead of regular tortillas next Mexican night.

When Ollie rejected them my brain started ticking again and remembered making tortilla chips one time when we had people coming over and no food in the house. All I did was used a pizza cutter to slice up little wedges then baked them at 180C (390F) for 10-20 minutes or until they were nice and crispy. They were so good – nice and strong so they’d hold up to any sort of dip but I loved them with a sprinkle of salt and gobbled them down like corn chips. Enjoy!

Side note: you can make chips out of any flatbread just by drying it out in the oven. It’s a great way to save them from the bin and they keep in an air-tight container for ages.

What about you? Have you ever made your own chips? What sort did you make?

Beetroot flatbread

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp beetroot powder (made by drying finely sliced beetroot at 100C (230F) fan-forced for about 2 hours then blending into a powder when cool)
• 2 ½ cups wholemeal plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp oil
• Approximately ¾ cup warm water

Instructions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook (or a regular bowl), combine the dry ingredients.
2. With the motor running, slowly add the water and knead until the dough comes together then keep kneading until it is nice and smooth.
3. Shape the dough into a ball and put it back in the bowl then cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 10-12 pieces (I made 12) and roll each to about 20cm circles. Roll them as thinly as you possibly can.
5. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and cook the tortillas one at a time. When it starts bubbling, it's ready to flip then just 10-20 seconds on the other side should do it.
6. When cooked, wrap in a damp tea-towel to keep soft.
7. Microwave or heat in the oven wrapped in aluminium foil to warm again.