Red Lentil Lobster Crackers

Unique crackers with gorgeous color made from super healthy ingredients.  Vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free.

I know it’s a little early to start thinking about summer, after all, spring just arrived, but I recently hosted a baby shower and made homemade crackers (in the shape of bunnies) as one of the appetizers. They were such a hit that I was inspired to pull out another one of my favorite cracker recipes – one that I make every summer. These Red Lentil Lobster Crackers are perfect for a summer picnic or lobster bake. They’re made with super healthy ingredients, and they happen to be the exact color of lobsters! I use them as a substitute for croutons in this lobster Caesar salad, but they are equally delicious dipped in hummus or guacamole.

Red Lentil Lobster Crackers are not hard to make but the cracker dough does need to be rolled out extremely thin and even throughout. If it’s not, the crackers will be tough and chewy instead of crunchy and crispy. Unfortunately, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get the thickness (or in this case thinness) of any cracker dough just right using a conventional rolling-pin. The dough will invariably end up thicker in some spots than in others, producing crackers that do not bake evenly. I suspect this is the reason even people who love to cook don’t make crackers! Here’s the specialty rolling-pin I use to solve this problem (pictured below, top left) and it’s my favorite baking tool. I don’t use it for everything – for example, it’s not wide enough for pizza dough and some pie crusts – but it’s awesome for rolling out cookies, crackers, and biscuits, to a perfect, even thickness.

Crackers you make yourself, like these Red Lentil Lobster Crackers, will always be healthier than ones you buy at the grocery store. Even crackers that are marketed as healthy will often contain highly processed ingredients such as safflower oil and maltodextrin. For example, one popular brand of crackers that contains these two ingredients touts on their label that they are 100% whole grain with no artificial colors or flavors, and 0 grams of cholesterol. The important point to remember here is that labels on so-called “healthy” food products can be deceiving, so be wary!

The main ingredient in Red Lentil Lobster Crackers is red lentil flour, which can be hard to find. Red lentils, however, are readily available on-line and in almost any grocery store so if you can’t find red lentil flour you can always make your own. Simply process red lentils in the dry container of a Vitamix blender until it reaches a fine, powdery, flour-like texture. One other tip – if you’re short on time and don’t want to stamp out individual crackers using a lobster cookie cutter, simply score the rolled-out cracker dough with a pizza wheel into rough shapes, then bake and break them apart. You won’t have cute lobsters but you’ll still have healthy, delicious, homemade crackers with a gorgeous color.

Red Lentil Lobster Crackers

 

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Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN

Serves: 24-25

Ingredients

• 2 cups red lentil flour
• ½ cup ground flaxseed
• 1½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 - 8¼ ounce can of beets
• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine the red lentil flour with the ground flaxseed, salt, and pepper and set aside.
3. Dump the contents of the can of beets (including all liquid) into a blender and process until fully pureed. Add this to the lentil flour mixture along with the melted coconut oil. Mix well.
4. Gather the dough into a ball, knead it a few times, and then wrap it in plastic wrap. When you’re ready to roll out the crackers, pinch off 2½ ounces of the dough (roughly the size of a golf ball) and roll it out between two sheets of plastic wrap until it is very thin, approximately ⅛th to 1/16th of an inch thick. Using a lobster shaped cookie cutter (approximately sized 6 x 3½ inches), stamp out the crackers and place them on the baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough. (Keep the dough well wrapped in between rolling so it doesn’t dry out.)
5. Bake for 12-16 minutes on the bottom racks of the oven, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, until the crackers are just starting to brown around the edges.
6. Makes 48-50 crackers.

Notes

One 8¼ ounce can of beets makes exactly the amount needed for the lobster crackers but if you want to use fresh cooked beets simply puree 8 ounces of cooked beets along with a little bit of water until you have the consistency of a smoothie and then measure out 1 cup.

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