Quinoa Crackers

Since I'm trying to incorporate more heart-healthy sardines into my diet,  I decided to try making my own crackers to use as a vehicle for eating sardines. I wanted them to be gluten free (GF) since more people are being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and pay big bucks for GF products such as the popular Mary's Gone Crackers.  I used several different quinoa cracker recipes as a basis for my own version. 

Quinoa Fun Facts

º It's a pseudo-cereal, but is grouped with whole grains because it is used and cooked like one. 

º It is related to beets, chard, and spinach.

º It comes in red, ivory, and black.

º It is a complete protein with all 9 essential amino acids.  This means vegetarians don't have to worry about pairing it with complementary proteins.

Nutrition Highlight: Quinoa

ºHeart healthy. Quinoa has the most potassium of all the grains; potassium helps regulate blood pressure.  Quinoa is also high in magnesium which is crucial for proper heart functioning.

ºProtein packed. Quinoa has twice as much protein as other grains.  It's also considered a complete protein.

ºMitigates migraines. If eaten regularly, quinoa can help you manage migraine attacks because it's high in magnesium and riboflavin (vitamin B2). 

ºHas THE relaxation mineral. Magnesium does the best job at relaxing blood vessels, in turn making it the antidote to stress and helping you get better sleep.

ºEat it often! 1 cup of quinoa has about half of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for magnesium; many Americans are deficient in magnesium.

Costco recently started selling this Organic No-Salt Seasoning which is similar to Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.  The seasoning is a mixture of black pepper, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, basil, oregano, savory, mustard seed, cumin, marjoram, coriander, cayenne, rosemary, onion, garlic, celery, red bell pepper, tomato, orange peel, and lemon peel. 

Use it to enhance these quinoa crackers or jazz up your salads and roasted vegetables.

 Cooking Tip

 Place plastic wrap on top of the dough when rolling it out so it won't stick to the rolling pin. 

Quinoa Crackers
Printable Recipe 

These are great smeared with mashed avocado and topped with a piece of sardine to make sardine tartines (recipe featured in the previous post).

2 c cooked quinoa (or 1/2 c dry+1 c water)

1/4 cup sesame seeds (or pepitas)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 T chia seeds+ 1/4 c water (let sit at least 7 min. until water is absorbed)

1/4 tsp salt 

1 T   21 seasoning salute or Costco's seasoning mix

2 T sunflower seeds for sprinkling on top

1) Make quinoa.

Bring quinoa and water to a boil, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, and let stand with lid on for 5 min. to let the grains absorb any extra moisture.

2) Make dough.

Preheat oven to 350 (325 convect). In a food processor, combine the quinoa and all the seeds, salt, and seasoning and pulse until you have a mushy ball.  It will be a little damp.

 Get out a sheet of parchment paper about the size of a baking sheet and lay it on the counter.  You could also use a Silpat. Take half of the mixture and place it on the parchment. 

Cut a sheet of plastic wrap the same size as the parchment or Silpat and place on top of the dough.  Roll out the mixture, putting the plastic wrap between the rolling pin and the mixture. That way, you can roll it out without stickage problems.  Roll as thin as possible and then transfer the parchment and rolled mixture onto a baking sheet. Repeat the same steps with the second half.

Scatter sunflower seeds on top.  Place plastic wrap on top and lightly roll dough with pin to press in the seeds.

3) Bake.

Note: Plan on about 50 min of baking time.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Pull out and carefully flip them and bake for another 12 minutes. They'll be firm and starting to brown at this point. 

Remove baking sheets from oven and cut the sheets of quinoa into bite sized pieces which takes about 5 or so minutes to do.

Return sheets to oven and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the pieces are crispy.  Some of the pieces crisp faster than others, so it's important to check at 10 minutes to remove some and then let the rest keep crisping. 

Makes about 30 crackers—quantity depends a lot on how big you cut them.  I keep them in a lidded plastic container.