To stay 100% focused on a whole food plant-based diet, you have to stay away from processed foods, which contain so many ingredients, most of which don’t sound like they should be consumed by any living creature. I mean, if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t be eating it.
To stay 100% focused on a whole food plant-based diet, you really have to stay away from processed foods, which contain so many ingredients, most of which don’t sound like they should be consumed by any living creature. I mean, if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t be eating it.
Preservatives are added to manufactured foods to prolong their shelf life, but if you make these things yourself, you can control what you eat, and feel good about eating only what is good for you.
Try whenever possible to use organic ingredients in your recipes.
After many frustrating trips to the grocery store to find some crackers that I could snack on (I am slightly addicted to savoury snacks) I gave up, as I could never find any that weren’t either wheat or rice-based, or contained something undesirable. I ended up giving up on my quest and decided to make my own.
Trust me, these little morsels don’t need any preservatives, as they don’t last long enough to exceed their sell-by date.
Ingredients
150g organic almond flour
50g organic buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of course ground pepper (depending on your love of pepper)
40g nutritional yeast
1 tbs chia seeds
1 tbs tahini
1/4 cut of water, plus 2 tbs
Method
1. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, blend the tahini with the water and add to the dry ingredients.
3. Mix well, adding a little more water if needed, but make sure that the dough isn’t too wet, as it makes it difficult to roll out.
4. The trick to rolling out the dough is using silicone baking sheets. Divide the dough into 3 equal size portions. Place one portion in the middle of the baking mat, and cover with a piece of parchment paper the same size as the mat.
5. Roll out to the desired thickness, approx 2mm.
6. Gently peel off the parchment paper. You will find that as the edges are slightly thinner (or it could be the fact that I am not very good at rolling out dough) that they might stick to the parchment paper and start to tear. Using your finger, just scrape the dough off the parchment paper, and attach it back to the baking mat. The dough is pliable, so you can easily mend any torn edges.
7. If you see that your edges are thin compared to the rest of the dough, just pull the edges in or just cut them off, if you want a neat finish.
8. Using a pizza wheel, cut out the desired shapes. I usually just go with square or oblong shapes. Don’t press too hard with the pizza cutter, as you don’t want to damage the baking mat.
9. Now as for those ragged edges or oddly shaped pieces, don’t worry about those, as I find that they make good treats for the cook…..I mean, you have to test each batch as it comes out of the oven, so eating misshapen crackers alleviates the guilt!
Bake for 10 to 14 mins at 350 degrees.
The baking time will depend on how thick your crackers are, so always start with 10 mins. You will find that the crackers around the outside edge will brown faster, so I just remove those to a cooling rack first, and put the rest back into the oven, until they are all a nice golden colour and crisp.
I hope you enjoy these little morsels as much as I do. They make a great accompaniment to the hummus but are also tasty eaten on their own.
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