This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. Thank you for supporting the brands that support my site.
Gluten-free, grain-free Bob’s Red Mill Cassava Flour is the perfect vegan and paleo option for wheat-free baking. It can be swapped in 1:1 in lots of baking recipes. Here, I’ve mixed it into a delicious homemade cracker recipe. Crispy, scented with rosemary and perfect on an easy-to-prepare rainbow veggie platter, you may never want to buy another box of crackers again.
I have this friend who is my go-to resource for trendy, top-notch nerdy nutrition advice. She always has her finger on the pulse of the healthy food industry. And is a whiz at knowing what to eat, why to eat it and how to enjoy clean, nourishing foods that taste great.
So one day, we’re supposed to meet her for dinner. It had been on the calendar all week. We’d been looking forward to having a deliciously decadent night, full of wine and lots of good food.
'But she shows up 10 minutes late, in a flurry of distracted excitement.
“You guys! I can’t eat dinner. I just ate 8920 crackers.”
This was an unexpected intro to the evening. So we order in appetizers just-for-us and ask her to elaborate.
“So there are crackers that I found a few months ago in a health food store. They are perfect. They are made with only a few ingredients and are TOTALLY PALEO. Like not even kinda paleo. Just 100% paleo. And they are made with Cassava flour, which is hands down my new most favorite paleo flour because it’s got such great texture and is grain-free and can basically be swapped 1:1 for wheat flour in a lot of recipes—”
We take a sip of our wine, she finally takes a breath.
“Sooo, anyway. I found these crackers in the store. But they are so expensive. But the ingredient list was so simple, I thought SURELY I could hack the recipe at home. So I got all of the ingredients and spent all afternoon try to replicate the crackers. AND YOU GUYS, I TOTALLY DID IT.”
We high fived her.
“But they are so good, so I ate all 3 batches.”
We wrapped up the night shortly after. I went home and couldn’t stop wondering what these crackers were and HOW I could make them myself.
Since turning paleo-ish several years ago, I’d completed avoided crackers because the gluten-free were usually made with rice flour—something I was avoiding—or they tasted like cardboard.
But THESE cassava flour crackers, they sounded worth a try.
So I called her up the next day, got the ingredient list and her approximate baking instructions, grabbed a bowl and got to mixing.
It was so easy. Ridiculously easy.
A few simple ingredients mixed together in a bowl, then rolled out thin, cut into whatever shape my heart desired, then baked until crispy.
The end result: light, crunchy crackers with an almost-shortbread like butteryness to each bite. They pair perfectly with cheese, hummus or any other savory topping you’d serve a cracker with.
This time around, with healthy January goals in mind, I opted for a rainbow veggie platter. Bright, beautiful and surprisingly simple to make.
Grab the recipe & details below. Hit the grocery store for this quick list of easy-to-find ingredients. Built your own. And let’s all give a hip-hip-hooray to Bob’s Red Mill for making Cassava Flour so accessible.
DIY Rosemary Paleo Crackers with Bob's Red Mill Cassava Flour
6-8 servings | 60 minutes total prep & cooking time
Ingredients:
nonstick olive oil spray
1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 1/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Cassava flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
⅛ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
Heat oven to 275 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with olive oil, add rosemary and cook just until aromatic, about 60 seconds. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a large bowl, whisk together Bob’s Red Mill Cassava flour, salt, garlic powder, baking powder, cream of tartar and toasted rosemary. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and water. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing first with a spoon then kneading until a soft dough forms.
Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment until very thin, about 1/8-1/4” thick. Cut into desired shape (I used a 1 1/2” heart-shaped cookie cutter, but feel free to cut them into squares or triangles with a knife, or any other cookie cutter shape.)
Transfer cut pieces to parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes at 275 degrees F, then turn up oven for last 10-12 minutes to 325 degrees and cook until crackers are firm. They’re finished when you tap them gently and hear a hollow rap.
Remove from oven, allow to cool. Serve as desired. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
How To Create a Rainbow Veggie Platter:
Grab some pre-made hummus at the store and pair with oodles of rainbow veggies for a beautiful party tray (top with pan-fried chickpeas and a drizzle of olive oil for a bit of froufrou styling intrigue).
For my platter, I pan-fried most ingredients on the stovetop. Drizzled a bit of olive oil into a skillet heated to medium-high, salted & peppered generously, then served cool. Pan frying the veggies gives them a nice glow on the prepared platter, plus I love the texture of quick-fried veggies in the winter months. It’s just a little more welcoming and cozy than a raw veggie popped on a plate. To make your own, a few considerations:
STEP 1: Gather a variety of veggies in lots if different sizes and colors.
Reds & pinks: red bell pepper, tomatoes, radish and watermelon radish, berries, beets, blood oranges
Yellows & Oranges: orange & yellow bell peppers and tomatoes, carrots, citrus
Greens: snap peas, green bell peppers, green onions, broccoli, asparagus, shishito peppers, cucumbers
Blues & Purples: purple cauliflower, purple carrots, beets
STEP 2: Pan fry veggies if desired, allow to cool slightly.
STEP 3: Place bowls of hummus on platter. Arrange veggies diagonally on a large rectangular platter in rainbow order, from red to purple. Start by placing a few of the larger veggies first, then fill in the gaps with crackers and smaller veggies.
STEP 4: Garnish, if desired, with edible herbs and flowers. Since rosemary is in our crackers, I used a few sprigs of fresh rosemary to tie it all together.
STEP 5: Share! I’d love to see your creation! Upload to Instagram and tag me @brookelark