Raw Mixed Seed and Herb Crackers

My foray into raw cracker making is a relatively new one and I'll be honest, it took a while to get around to making it happen - it seemed like a whole lot of hard work. I have since learnt that it is (almost) impossible to stuff these up - you literally just throw whatever you want into your blender, blend it until finely combined, roll it out thinly and whack it into your oven or dehydrator. SO simple (admittedly it takes hooouuurrssss to dry out but it's not like you have to stand by your dehydrator, life can go on). It's all about having that first go, succeeding and then shaking things up a little and playing around with your recipe.

A word on raw crackers. They are soooo super good for you. Because they are made up of dehydrated raw ingredients they retain their nutrient value. When food is cooked or baked it loses some of it's nutritional goodness and can be harder for our bodies to digest. Personally I try and make two out of my three meals each day (on average) raw - though I appreciate as we move into the cooler months I am likely to include a higher portion of tummy-warming foods. That being said I am a big fan of bio-individuality and doing what's right for your body.

I have designed this cracker recipe as a cracker that is not too strong in flavour that it could be eaten at any meal of the day. I'm not so keen on the idea of garlic and onion first thing in the morning. I think it's a good safe cracker for any dip or topping that will not over power anything else. So here you have it.

You'll need:
1 cup of reasonably well-packed basil
1/3 cup coriander
1/3 cup dill
1 cup water
1 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked over night and drained
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked over night and drained
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup hemp seeds (optional)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt – use your discretion here but it needs a good dose.

Throw all ingredients except the sesame seeds and water into the blender and blend until very well combined. Slowly add the water during this process and only enough so that it is not too sticky and you will be able to roll it. I ended up using a cup but go carefully! When done add the sesame seeds and combine (I choose to add sesame seeds to my thermomix at the end and on reverse speed so that they don’t chop up and remain a full seed – I do this purely for aesthetics so it is optional). If your mixture is too thick simply add more ground flaxseed.

Roll the mixture between two pieces of baking paper until thin. Place on teflex sheets/oven trays (you should need 3) and pop into your dehydrator on 41 degrees/105 Fahrenheit for 6 hours (or in oven on about 50, or lowest temp). Remove the teflex sheets and turn the cracker mixture over. At this time also scour the sheets with a knife to the size of the crackers you are wanting (I like mine big enough to pop lunch on!). Put back into the oven/dehydrator until you get the desired consistency. I like mine really crunchy so I popped them back in for another 5 hours or so. Just whip them out when you get them to your desired crunchiness.

You could use a multitude of herbs in this dish, whatever you have too much of is always a great place to start. If all you had was basil that’d be fine too.