Nori, Rye, Oat and Buckwheat Crackers

Nori doesn't just come in sealed packets, shipped across the world in the form of nori sheets. Nori (Porphyra) can also be picked fresh in Winter on Cornish coasts and from European waters. No plastic, no air miles, just fresh nori goodness.

Freshly picked nori needs to be dried to create the same taste as nori sheets. I share how to dry, flake and store seaweeds, as well as guidance on when, where and how to pick seaweeds sustainably in my award-winning seaweed book.

Here I share a recipe which uses flaked nori seaweed, combined with rye, oatmeal and roasted buckwheat to create a rustic cracker. These were shared on a seaweed foraging course with seaweed butter/oil or cheese. They were very moreish - everything always tastes better eaten outdoors on the beach!

Nori, Rye, Oatmeal and Roasted Buckwheat Cracker Recipe

These are easy to make, they store well and are full of natural goodness!

Makes 40

Ingredients
200 g white rye flour
100 g oatmeal (or ground porridge oats)
200 g roasted buckwheat grains
1 tbsp dried, ground nori
Large pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp oil (vegetable, olive oil or half and half of each)
200-230 ml water

Method

Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combined. Add the oil and gradually add the water until it makes a workable dough and set aside for half an hour to allow the moisture to be absorbed. Decide whether you want rustic, oval shaped crackers (1) or crackers shaped with biscuit cutters (2). Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C.

1. Break off walnut sized blobs and roll them out between two pieces of grease-proof paper to the thickness of the buckwheat seeds. If the dough is a little sticky, you can add more oatmeal. Roll in one direction to get tongue shaped crackers or keep turning them around to create rustic round crackers. You may need to change the baking paper if it gets too soggy.

2. Roll the dough out between two pieces of greaseproof paper and use a biscuit cutter to create the crackers. When pressing down the cutter into the dough, take this opportunity to press the dough more firmly together. My dough was quite crumbly, so doing this really helped!

Place the crackers on a large sheet of dry baking paper on an oven tray and bake for 15 minutes. Turn them half-way through with a fish slice or similar (they will be fragile) until all the water has evaporated and they have turned a little brown. Allow to cool on a cooling rack and store in an airtight container.

Made for Valentine's Day, some hearts break easily, some stay whole, still delicious! If you try this recipe, I'd love to hear from you, tag me on instagram @rachellambertwildfoodforaging or ping me a message.