Eat Real Salted Lentil Chips, 5 x 18g

Eat Real makes chips from pulses and grains rather than potato slices, and this is its plainest lentil chip in a five bag multipack: 18g bags, 90g in all. The full product name on the pack is lentil based chips seasoned with salt, and the pack names Eat Real Ltd as the maker.

Five ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the chips are made from lentil flour (43%), potato starch, rapeseed oil, maize flour and salt. That is the whole list: there is no seasoning blend, and sugar, flavouring and colour do not appear on it.

A chip made from lentils

Lentil flour, ground from dried lentils, makes up 43% of the chip. Potato starch and maize flour bind it into a dough that is formed into thin chips, which gives a light, airy crunch and a nutty, earthy flavour quite unlike a potato crisp.

Why lentils

Lentils have been a staple across the Middle East and South Asia for thousands of years, eaten in dals, soups and flatbreads. Ground to flour, they give a snack with more body than potato and a savoury, slightly nutty taste that suits salt on its own.

Maize flour

Maize flour, ground from dried corn, sits beside the potato starch as a binder and adds a faint sweetness and a golden colour to the chips.

Nothing else on the list

Sugar, flavouring and yeast extract do not appear on the list, so the chips taste only of lentil and salt; the label gives 0.7g of sugars per 100g, from the ingredients themselves.

Rapeseed oil

The only oil on the list is rapeseed oil, a light oil grown widely in Britain, and the label gives 1.5g of saturates per 100g.

The numbers

Per 100g the label gives 456 kcal (1913 kJ), 18g of fat, 1.5g of saturates, 59g of carbohydrate, 0.7g of sugars, 4.4g of fibre, 13g of protein and 2.2g of salt. The published listing gives figures per 100g only; worked out for an 18g bag, that comes to about 82 kcal, 3.2g of fat, 2.3g of protein and 0.4g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 18g is red, just over the 17.5g line, and salt at 2.2g is red too. Saturates at 1.5g are green, right at the line, and sugars at 0.7g are green.

The salt figure

At 2.2g of salt per 100g, the chips carry more salt than many potato crisps, which is why a small bag suits them. An 18g bag comes to about 0.4g of salt, roughly 7% of an average adult's daily reference intake.

Allergens and diet

No allergens from the UK list of 14 are highlighted in the published ingredients, and the listing gives no may contain advice. The pack says the chips are suitable for vegans and carries a gluten free claim with the Crossed Grain symbol, the gluten free mark licensed by Coeliac UK. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

Kosher

The pack carries the KLBD mark, the kosher certification of the London Beth Din, useful for households that keep kosher.

Plant based and gluten free

With lentil flour, potato starch and maize flour in place of wheat, and no dairy or egg on the list, the chips suit several diets at once. That makes a five bag pack a practical choice for a lunchbox rota where one child is vegan or coeliac.

The crunch

Formed chips made from a lentil dough have a crisp, even crunch and a light, airy bite. They are firmer than a baked potato snack and lighter than a thick hand cooked crisp.

Who it suits

A plain lentil chip suits anyone who wants a crisp style snack that is not made from sliced potato, and the short list suits anyone who likes to know exactly what they are eating.

Five bags for the week

Five bags cover a working or school week, one a day. An 18g bag is a small portion, which suits younger children or a snack between meals.

Compared with the sharing bag

The 18g bags carry the same recipe as the 95g sharing bag of Eat Real Salted Lentil Chips; only the portion changes.

Serving ideas

Plain lentil chips make a good dipper: houmous, guacamole, a tomato salsa or a yoghurt dip for anyone who eats dairy. In a lunchbox they go with a wrap, a salad or a sandwich.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the chips make a crunchy, gluten free topping for a soup or a salad, or a coating for fish or chicken. Add herbs or spices to flavour the crumb.

Storage and packaging

The pack advises a cool, dry place, and the bags are packaged in a protective atmosphere. The published recycling guidance says the whole packaging can be recycled with carrier bags at large supermarkets and should not go in home recycling.

Other Eat Real packs

For a sharing bag of the same chips, we stock Eat Real Salted Lentil Chips at 95g. There is also Eat Real Chilli and Lemon Lentil Chips at 95g, and Eat Real Veggie Straws in sea salt and sweet barbecue glaze flavours.

Sizes of Eat Real Salted Lentil Chips we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.