The term snacking refers to the foods or beverages consumed between meals—regardless of their health content. Yet, many snack foods from grocery stores are so processed while containing various unrecognizable ingredients, artificial colors, and trans fats.
Crackers are also typically made from wheat flour and possibly cheese. Wheat contains gluten proteins that could cause various digestive issues, brain fog and memory problems, frequent headaches, depression and anxiety, neurological disorders, and autoimmune diseases. Those sensitive to dairy will also experience stomach issues, mood swings, and nutrient deficiencies. So, why not try gluten-free crackers for your snack-time fix.
5 Delicious Gluten-Free Cracker Recipes
Rather than scanning the cracker aisle for healthy gluten- and dairy-free versions, a better alternative is making your own crackers at home. Gluten-free crackers allow you to choose your ingredients to better support your health needs. You can also pack them full of vegetables, herbs, nuts, and seeds.
The following are five healthy gluten-free cracker recipes that will help you enjoy snacking guilt free. These crackers are best enjoyed with guacamole, hummus, or another one of your favorite homemade dips.
1. Almond Flour Rosemary Crackers
This first gluten-free cracker recipe is a simple one that will likely take you less than half an hour to make. The almond flour in these crackers is a rich source of protein, manganese, and vitamin E. The rosemary in the crackers also contains antioxidants like carnosol, which has had positive results against leukemia and various other cancers.
The almond flour in the recipe may taste more like a dessert cracker. If you prefer, enjoy with almond butter or cashew butter. This cracker recipe will make eight to 10 crackers for you to enjoy.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of almond flour
- 1 1/2 tsp of dried rosemary
- 2 tsp of coarse sea salt
- 1 medium organic egg
- 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- In a food processor, combine almond flour, salt, and rosemary, and pulse to mix. Add the egg and oil, and pulse until combined.
- Roll out the dough as thinly as possible between two sheets of parchment paper. Remove the top sheet of paper, and slide the other sheet with the dough onto a cookie sheet. If the dough is very soft, put it in the freezer for 10 minutes before cutting. Use a pizza wheel or knife to cut out eight to 10 crackers about one and a half inches wide and three inches long.
- Bake the crackers for 10 to 12 minutes, or until it is golden around the edges. Let it cool completely on a rack, and your favorite dip.
2. Olive Flaxseed Crackers
Do you crave chips on a regular basis? As an alternative, the next cracker recipe is a better idea. They contain salty olives that will help with that chip craving. Although they take a long time to make, these crackers are worth the effort. They are also full of flaxseeds, carrots, bets, hemp hearts, spinach, parsley, onions, turmeric, garlic, and other anti-inflammatory herbs and spices. The cracker recipe will make 48 delicious crackers.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup of whole flaxseeds (enough for 1 cup ground) or 2/3 cup of whole chia seeds (enough to make 1 cup ground)
- 1/2 cup of filtered water, for soaking the seeds
- 2 cups of grated carrots, using a food processor
- 2 cups of grated beets, using a food processor
- 2 cups of hemp hearts and/or raw sunflower seeds
- 1 cup of tightly packed baby spinach
- 1 cup of tightly packed fresh parsley
- 1 cup of pitted black olives
- 1 cup of chopped red onions
- 1 clove of garlic, sliced
- 2 tsp of ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 tsp of coarse sea salt
- 1 tbsp of chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp of curry powder (optional)
Directions:
- Using a clean coffee or spice grinder, grind the whole flaxseeds or chia seeds. Use pre-ground seeds if you don’t have a grinder.
- In a bowl, soak the flaxseeds or chia seeds in the water for 20 minutes.
- In a food processor, add the soaked chia seeds or flaxseeds, hemp hearts and/or sunflower seeds, parsley, spinach, olives, onions, turmeric, garlic, salt, thyme, and curry powder, if using, and process until well combined.
- Transfer to a bowl, and fold in the grated carrots.
- Preheat the oven to 200° Fahrenheit or the dehydrator to 145° Fahrenheit, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread the mixture evenly over the parchment paper, and smooth it out to a quarter-inch of thickness.
- Bake or dehydrate for five hours. Invert the baking sheet onto a cutting board, and remove the parchment from the crackers. Using a pair of scissors, cut and separate into two-by-two-inch squares. Return the crackers to the baking sheet, and bake or dehydrate for another two to three hours. If the crackers are still pliable, turn off the oven and leave them in overnight, or continue to dehydrate for an hour or two.
3. High-Endurance Crackers
The following gluten-free cracker recipe contains lots of healthy fats, with chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. As a result, they will improve endurance and give you energy for hours after you eat them. At the same time, the crackers are also very light and crispy, which makes them easy to transport and eat during any time of day. They also go well with a variety of dips and spreads. You can even use avocado as an easy spread for these tasty and light crackers. The recipe will make 25 to 30 crackers that store nicely in an airtight container or counter jar for up to two weeks. You can also freeze the crackers in freezer bags for up to a month.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of chia seeds
- 1/2 cup of raw hulled sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup of raw white sesame seeds
- 1 cup of filtered water
- 1 large garlic clove, finely grated
- 1/4 tsp of coarse sea salt, plus more as needed
- 1/4 tsp of dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp of dried thyme
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 300° Fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and sesame seeds. Add the water, garlic, salt, oregano, garlic powder, thyme, and your choice of other spices. Stir with a spatula until combined. Allow the mixture to sit for a couple of minutes until the chia seeds absorb the water. After the two minutes of rest, when you stir the mixture, you shouldn’t see a pool of water on the bottom of the bowl.
- With the spatula, spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet in two small rectangles, each about 12 x 7-inches and an eighth-inch to a quarter-inch think. Sprinkle more spices on top.
- Bake for 35 minutes, remove from the oven, and carefully flip each rectangle with a spatula. Bake for another 25 to 35 minutes until the edges are lightly golden. Watch closely near the end to make sure the crackers don’t burn.
- Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes on the pan, and then break the rectangles into crackers. Let cool completely on the pan.
- The crackers store for up to two weeks on the counter, or a month in the freezer. If the crackers soften while storing, toast them in the oven at 300° Fahrenheit for five to seven minutes, and let it cool completely. This will make them crispy again.
4. Sesame Orange Crisp Crackers
The main stars of this cracker recipe are sesame seeds and orange juice from two freshly squeezed oranges. Sesame seeds are a good source of many nutrients like healthy fats, protein, amino acids, copper, manganese, and calcium. Oranges are also an excellent source of vitamin C. The delicious recipe also contains flaxseeds, salt, orange zest, honey, and caraway seeds. The combination of all these ingredients will make 24 crackers. You can enjoy with your favorite dip or spread; however, the flavors make them delicious on their own.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of sesame seeds, soaked overnight
- 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice (about two oranges)
- 1/2 tbsp of caraway seeds
- 1 tbsp of raw liquid honey
- 1 tsp of freshly grated orange zest
- 1 tsp of coarse sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups of ground flaxseeds
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, combine the sesame seeds with orange juice until smooth, and add the caraway seeds, honey, orange zest, and sea salt, and process for two minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, and mix in the flaxseed by hand until a dough-like consistency has been reached.
- Roll the dough out thinly between two sheets of parchment paper. Make note that the thinner you roll them, the quicker they’ll crisp up. Cut into the desired shape with a cookie cutter or knife.
- Place them on the prepared baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the crackers over and continue to bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until dry and crispy. This recipe will store in an airtight container up to four days at room temperature.
5. Chickpea Cumin Crackers
Have you ever wondered what baked hummus would taste and look like? Essentially, this next gluten-free cracker recipe is hummus in cracker form. Once you make these crackers, you will have your new snack for the office that makes your co-workers jealous. The chickpeas and chickpea flour are full of fiber and protein, while the flaxseeds contain lots of healthy fats. Although the cumin has a strong flavor, it also provides some protective effects to the liver and is helpful to the immune system. The recipe will produce 24 crackers, and will store in airtight container for up to one week. These crackers also go well with hummus, ironically.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of gluten-free rice crackers
- 1 tbsp of ground flaxseeds
- 1 cup of cooked chickpeas
- 1/4 cup of chickpea flour
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, or 1 half clove of garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp of dried thyme
- A pinch of coarse sea salt
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Water as needed
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit.
- In the food processor, grind the rice crackers down to coarse flour. Add the chickpeas, cumin, flour, garlic, thyme, salt, and oil. Process just until mixed. You may want to leave some of the chickpea texture in there. Scrape down the sides a few times. Add water, if needed, one teaspoon at a time.
- Roll the mixture out between two sheets of parchment paper to an eighth-inch thick, and then score with the back of your knife to create two-inch square crackers.
- Bake for 15 minutes, and remove the crackers from the oven, flip them over, and move the outside edge ones to the inside, and vice versa. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden and dry to the touch.
- Transfer to a cooling rack, and once cooled, store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Crackers Can Be Healthy
If you’re interested in a healthier snack choice for yourself, family, or friends, the provided cracker recipes will give you a better option than many of the processed crackers in grocery stores today. It can be very rewarding to make your own crackers while choosing ingredients you can trust. You also will likely find that they taste even better than the ones from the store! Whether you make these snacks on a regular basis or once in a while, you will surely enjoy the process it took to make these crispy treats. I hope you enjoy.
Sources:
McCarthy, J., Joyous Health: Eat and Live Well Without Dieting (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2014), 222.
Daniluk, J., “Hot Detox: A 21-Day Anti-Inflammatory Program to Heal Your Gut and Cleanse Your Body (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2016), 227.
Liddon, A., Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-Based Recipes (Toronto: Penguin Canada Books Inc., 2016), 89.
Telpner, M., The UnDiet Cookbook (China: Random House LLC, 2015), 99-100.
Mateljan, G., The World’s Healthiest Foods: Essential Guide for the healthiest way of eating (Seattle: George Mateljan Foundation, 2007), 516, 534, 616.