Vegetable containing snack product

A method of making a vegetable snack product comprising:

• a. providing a dry mix that includes
• (i) from about 50 wt. % to about 69 wt. % of a base starch that consists essentially of a mixture of potato starch and potato flakes wherein a ratio of potato starch to potato flakes is in the range of about 9:1 to 12:1 by weight and wherein the base starch is free of gluten;
• (ii) from about 3 wt. % to about 12 wt. % of corn flour;
• (iii) from about 20 wt. % to about 40 wt. % of whole vegetable flour selected from one or more of chickpeas, black beans, green peas, yellow peas, lima beans, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, Bambara beans, pigeon peas, lupins, vetches, yams, pumpkin, celery, zucchini, cucumber, onion, scallion, asparagus, or garlic;
• and
• (iv) from about 1 wt. % to about 5 wt. % of vegetable powder selected from one or more of turmeric, beet, tomato, spinach, kale, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, peppers, squash, cauliflower, green beans, navy beans, or fava beans;
• b. hydrating the dry mix to form a dough containing from 31-37 wt. % of moisture;
• c. introducing the dough to an extruder and applying a specific mechanical energy of about 50 W-h/kg to about 75 W-h/kg dough;
• d. extruding the dough through a die slot to form a continuous sheet having a width between about 2 in. and about 24 in. and having a thickness in the range of about 0.2 mm to about 2.0 mm
• e. cutting the sheet to form individual snack sized pieces and/or clusters of individual snack-sized pieces;
• and
• f. frying the individual snack sized pieces to form the vegetable snack product having at least 15 wt. % of real vegetables exclusive of potato and corn and a bulk density between about 60 g/L to about 84 g/L.