Beanitos Bean Chips

Another kind of Benito.

Okay, I admit it: I bought these bags of Beanitos for the lulz because…well, because who the hell ever heard of a chip made of beans, right? I had no idea what they would taste like, or what kind of texture they’d have, or whether they’d stand up to dipping. All I knew was that one of them was made from black beans, and the other from pinto beans and flax seed. And the manufacturer gave them a name that reminded me of Il Duce.

Somewhat to my surprise, Beanitos are pretty good. The ingredient lists for either chip are short: The black bean version contains whole black beans, whole grain rice, vegetable oil, guar bean gum, and salt. The pinto bean version has whole pinto beans, whole brown flax seed, whole grain rice, vegetable oil, guar bean gum, and salt. That’s it – no unpronounceable ingredients at all unless you have trouble with “guar,” which is admittedly pretty odd. They’re light and very crispy, and they’re also strangely filling for a chip (I think that has something to do with the beans.) Not only do they dip without breaking, but the somewhat beany flavor actually goes pretty well with dips. I experienced a strange sort of “meta-bean” moment by using them to scoop up some hummus; using chips made of beans to eat a dip made of beans caused my appetite to divide by zero and disappear.

Using beans to scoop up beans.

This is also the second snack I’ve reviewed that is not only tasty, but good for you (remember Bhuja back in February?) Beanitos are low glycemic, gluten-free, high in fiber, and high in Omega-3a, and they contain no cholesterol or transfats. If we can keep them from stomping around in Ethiopia and get ‘em to make the trains run on time, I think we’ll have a winner here.

Link:

Beanitos Bean Chips webpage.

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