Raw Cheesy Crackers

What is more stereotypically “raw vegan” than a flaxseed cracker? Nothing. But, I can assure you, there’s nothing predictable or samey about these babies!

These crackers are raw, dehydrated and perfectly crunchy, the way a cracker should be! They are super flavoursome and make excellent shovels for your hummus or vegan cream cheese.

Flax seed and linseed are the same thing, but they are more often referred to as flax in the recipes I have come across, so that’s what I’ll be referring to them as. Also, you can get both golden flaxseed and brown flaxseed. I prefer to use golden in cracker recipes as it has a milder flavour and of course gives a much cheesier look. Brown flax is very nutty, but it would work in the same way if that’s what you have.

Flax has this crazy way of turning into crackers. Once soaked, its weird gelatinous goo that magically appears sticks it to itself and makes a kind of seedy paste. You can dehydrate this weird mixture and voila you have a cracker. Now obviously, that is not necessarily something you’d want to eat since it would be bland as. Also, whole flaxseeds are very difficult to digest and tend to exit in the same form that they entered, so to speak. So while they might make a crunchy cracker, the seeds that your teeth don’t actually bite into are pretty useless when it comes to nutrients. But, there is a way! Grinding! You can either buy your flaxseed ready ground or milled or whack it in your blender until you have a lovely flaxseed dust. This is the stuff you can use to make “flax eggs” and it is what we will be using in this cracker recipe to create a great texture that is also nutritionally valuable.

I have included a mere 1/4 cup of whole flaxseeds as they create some variety texture-wise but you could swap this for more sesame seeds if you like.

This recipe uses dehydrated tomatoes which are different from sun dried tomatoes and are such a useful ingredient to have in your pantry if you plant to make much raw food. Dehydrating tomatoes really intensifies their flavour and adding dried tomato to raw foods (or cooked ones) like crackers or sauces, can add so much flavour. To make them, all you need to do is thinly slice tomatoes (try to make them all the same), lay them out in a single layer on a non-stick sheet and dehydrate until they are crisp. You can then stir them in an airtight container and whip them out whenever you need them.

Ingredients

Dry

1/2 cup ground golden flax/flaxmeal, also known as linseed

1/4 cup whole golden flax seeds, also known as linseed

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 tablespoon black sesame seeds

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt

a few rounds black pepper

1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika

Wet

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1/2 cup cashews, soaked (from 1 hour up to overnight)

1/4 cup dehydrated tomatoes (no need to soak as long as you have a good blender)

1 teaspoon miso paste (I use yellow miso in this recipe)

2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons tamari

1 cup water + a little more depending on whether you need it

Optional - extra sesame and flax seeds to sprinkle on top

Method

Switch on your dehydrator and prepare two trays and two non-stick sheets.

Throw all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

Add the wet ingredients to a blender. I use my nutribullet for this as it is quite a small quantity.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix everything really well. You can add a little more water if you’re struggling to mix everything together but 1 cup should be enough. Equally if you need to use a little extra to swish around your blender to get everything out, that’s fine. It’s all gonna dehydrate anyway!

Leave the mixture to sit for at least 10 minutes or so, until it becomes really gloopy. This is when the flax starts to do its work and the mixture becomes more spreadable.

Place your first non stick sheet onto a freshly cleaned surface, a large chopping board or something similar. Basically the mixture will likely spill over the sides of your sheet.

Pour half-ish of your mixture onto the sheet and if you have one, use an angled pallet knife to spread the mixture so it is about the thickness of a cracker. Alternatively, you could use a dough scraper or a spatula. Keep dipping your knife into a pot of water so that it doesn’t stick to the batter, otherwise you’ll just keep creating holes rather than spreading the mixture.

Don’t be afraid to go over the edge of the sheet, to get everything nice and even. This will take some time, so don’t rush.

When you feel you’ve finished smoothing the mixture out, trim the edges so you have a slight gap with some of the sheet showing all the way round. This will help you to check you have roughly the same thickness all over.

Use your pallet knife, scraper or the back of a knife (you don’t want to cut into the sheet!) to draw evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines into the mixture to create squares the size you’d like your crackers to be. This will allow you to just snap your crackers into little squares once they have dehydrated.

Any extra on the edges that don’t fit into the squares you have scored out will be useful for when you want to test if your crackers are ready at the end of the dehydration time.

Sprinkle some seeds over the top and then repeat the process with the rest of your mixture on another sheet.

Put both trays in the dehydrator for at least 24 hours. They may take several hours more depending on their thickness and the mood of your dehydrator. Remember, you can’t burn these!

Roughly halfway through dehydrating, take one of the trays out, place another tray face down on top of it (you probably won’t need a non-stick sheet on this one) and flip the whole thing over. Then peel off the non stick sheet and return to the dehydrator to allow the underside to dehydrate. Repeat with your second tray.

To test if your crackers are done (at which point they should look completely dry), take out a small piece and allow it to cool cool completely. If it’s ready, the cracker will snap when you break it in half.

When ready, snap your big sheet of crackers into squares, allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

If for some reason when you come to eat them the next day they’re not as crunchy as you’d like, you can just throw them back in the dehydrator for a few more hours until they’re super crunchy.