**UPDATE: It’s the end of 2015 and I buy a bag a week if I can. I’m obsessed.**
**UPDATE: Well, it’s 2014, actually the end of 2014. And you know what? I AM OBSESSED WITH PLENTILS. I can’t get enough of these things. These have to be the number one product that I have turned my review on. I hated them at first! They tasted like pork rinds. Well, now – after eating approximately a kajillion bags of them, I love them. YES, they are VERY different. They are made from lentils and have a crisp crunch – and a texture that are like rinds. So, if you’re contemplating trying Plentils – just do it. Try the plain, then move onto the other flavors. It may take more than one bag, but after a bag, I’m pretty sure you’ll grow to love them like I have.**
I’m a big fan of Enjoy Life foods – because they’re free of the 8 common allergens, and they typically make amazing food. They recently shipped me an awesomely colorful box of their new lentil crackers – Plentils.
Plentils have 40% less fat than a typical potato chip and are made from high-protein lentils.
I try to be really honest with my reviews because I want my readers to trust me and buy products that I think are awesome. That being said – as a whole I really don’t like these chips.
Why? They taste like pork rinds. WHY DO LENTIL CHIPS TASTE LIKE PORK RINDS?!?! They have this unique texture that reminds me of pork rinds. It’s crispy but then it’s also melty in your mouth. It’s so confusing. They also kind of taste like them – again, no idea why!?! Once I had my first bite, I thought of pork rinds and could not shake them from my head.
That being said, I enjoyed the Margherita Pizza chips. I don’t really understand why just them – but they didn’t taste as much like pork rinds as the others. They kind of tasted like Combos – but not as gross as Combos. Since the idea of eating a bag of Combos kind of makes me nauseated now. Seriously – I’m so confused about these chips and why I like what I like!
Non-GFBF, however, enjoyed them enough to eat most of the bags that we had for sample. We brought up an interesting concept while eating them – sort of like the law of diminishing return, but with a bell curve. So you start eating them and you don’t like them. Then after a few handfuls you say “these are pretty good! What a unique taste, I’m going to keep eating them.” And then, after a few more handfuls, you kind of regret eating half of the bag.
I thought they tasted like pork rinds the whole time.
The sea salt ones were too plain and thus very pork-rindy.
The dill and sour cream ones were better than the sea salt, and was very unique as it incorporated dill. I really like dill on my salmon, but there’s some odd disconnect between the dill and the lentil chip. The garlic and parmesan ones were pretty okay, the garlic taste was a good match against the lentil chip. And the pizza ones were my favorite.
Overall, Plentils get a 2. The margherita pizza ones get a 3.5. Non-GFBF would buy them again, but I would not. I cannot get the idea of a pork rind out of my head and I’d prefer to never have that thought in my head ever again. I applaud Enjoy Life for breaking out and doing a chip that’s unique and allergy-friendly, but I will not be a part of it.
[ratings wheat=”2″]
So strange, because I never really liked pork rinds, but I love Plentils, and the are sorta pork rindy. I like the crispy-salty taste, but I think it’s the texture I like best. I keep meaning to try them with dip or hummus or something (we usually have the sea salt lying around), but I haven’t yet. They kind of remind me of Popchips.
Hmmmm. I just tried these and loved them. I thought the dill & sour cream ones reminded me more of funyuns, only much less greasy. The airy texture does somewhat resemble pork rinds, but I didn’t get that flavor at all. I haven’t had Popchips. I didn’t think they were gluten free, or is it they just aren’t made in a dedicated GF facility.
Sooo sad! Have recently become allergic to tree nuts and a few seeds. One seed in particular is the sunflower seed. Haven’t had any severe (emphasis on severe) reactions but have been advised, don’t mess with it. Found Plentils and found what I thought was an awesome treat! Surprise! They use sunflower oil just like every other company out there! FYI, when the companies label the ingredients as safflower and/or sunflower oil, doesn’t help! How to choose……..