Brown Rice & Zaatar Crackers

Posted by Hiba on Sep 11, 2013 in Recipes & Food

As mentioned in a previous post, I try to avoid bread and bread-like products as much as possible. Not only because white flour is void of nutrients and spikes blood sugar levels, which is what makes us fat, but also because conventionally bought bread has a lot of yucky stuff in it like preservatives. Seriously, check the ingredients next time you’re in a supermarket – it’s actually quite shocking!

So in an attempt to find a bread alternative and use up 4 cups of cooked brown rice that I miscalculated after having my family over for lunch and slightly overestimating their appetite for brown rice, I had this idea: Make a healthier cracker using brown rice and seeds, loosely based on this recipe. I added zaatar, a herb mix frequently used in the Arab world but you could add pretty much any herb or spice, or even onion and garlic powder or olives. Otherwise, you should be able to find zaatar mix in Middle Eastern stores and often in Fair Trade type stores as well. I have included the recipe in the photo below if you want to make your own mix!

Ingredients (makes 2 full trays)

4 cups brown rice

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup linseeds

5-6 tbsp olive oil

sea salt to taste

Herbs or spices – I used zaatar which was a match made in heaven.

Method 

Put rice in food processor and pulse until it is mushy. Add all the other ingredients and continue to pulse until a dough-like consistency is formed.

Place the dough on a parchment paper, then take another piece of parchment paper and a rolling pin and flatten the dough as much as possible. The flatter the dough, the crunchier the crackers will be.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30-45 minutes. Turn them over at the 30 minute mark – you should be able to do this with the whole block.

Once they are as crisp and golden as you would like them to be, take them out and leave them to cool. Once they have cooled, you can break them into pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Enjoy!