Mirjam Henzen There’s something about the smell when these sundried tomato crackers are in the dehydrator — deep tomato, rosemary, a warm savory richness that fills the kitchen hours before they’re ready. And when they finally are: full flavor, a satisfying chew, and ingredients you recognize by name.
No oil. No baking. No flour. Just sunflower seeds, flax meal, zucchini, and sun-dried tomatoes doing what they do. One batch makes 16 crackers. Keep them as a snack, load them up as a meal, or serve them alongside a big salad for dinner. Either way, they disappear fast.
Should These Crackers Be Soft or Crispy?
Both are right — the only difference is how long you leave them in the dehydrator.
The recipe as written gives you a cracker that’s dry to the touch and pliable. That’s the intended result. Firm enough to hold a good pile of toppings, flexible enough that it doesn’t break easily. The flax meal is what creates that texture — it binds everything together without gluten or oil and gives the cracker its characteristic chew.
If you prefer your sundried tomato cracker crispier and firmer, just keep going until they reach the texture you’re after. The flavor stays exactly the same. It really is just a matter of what you like.
Seven Plants Before You’ve Added a Single Topping
Count them: sundried tomatoes, zucchini, sunflower seeds, flax, rosemary, onion, garlic. Seven distinct plants in every cracker — before you’ve picked up a topping.
That number matters more than it might seem. Plant diversity — not just quantity — is one of the most important things you can do for your gut microbiome. Thirty different plants a week is the benchmark most gut health experts now reference, and seven in a cracker is a meaningful contribution to that. Most people eat far less variety than they think — the same few things on repeat, week after week. The gap between what most people eat and what their gut actually needs to keep digestion moving is broken down in Signs of Fiber Deficiency: Why Your Gut Is Still Sluggish.
And because these crackers are made at low temperature, the natural enzymes in all seven of those plants are still alive when you eat them. When food comes with its own enzymes, your body doesn’t have to do all the breakdown work on its own — how that actually works is explained in Digestive Enzymes Explained: How Raw Foods and Juice Help You Absorb More.
Are Dehydrated Crackers Healthy?
Yes — and in a few specific ways that baked or store-bought crackers genuinely can’t match.
The first is oil. Almost every cracker you pick up from a shop has refined oil in it. These have none. The healthy fat here comes from whole sunflower seeds and flax — arriving together with fiber, protein, and everything the seed naturally contains.
The second is temperature. Your dehydrator runs at 115°F/46°C for most of this process — low enough that the natural enzymes in the ingredients stay alive. A regular oven at 350°F/175°C would wipe them all out. Those enzymes make a real difference to how your body handles the food.
The third is control aka what’s simply not in these crackers. No starch fillers, no preservatives, no refined flour, no added refined sugar. Eight ingredients — all of them things you’d recognize at the market. That’s not something you can say about most things in a cracker aisle.
And they taste genuinely good. Not good-for-a-raw-cracker good. But really good — savory, herby, and the kind of thing you reach for when you want something real to eat.
How to Make Raw Vegan Sundried Tomato Crackers
All you need is a food processor and a dehydrator.
Plan 4 hours ahead for the soaking — the oil-free semi-dried sun-dried tomatoes and sunflower seeds both need time in water before you start. Save the tomato soak water. It goes into the dough and it’s full of flavor.
The dough comes together in minutes. Everything into the food processor, out comes a smooth, workable dough. Spread it onto the dehydrator sheets and let the dehydrator do the rest. What comes out is dry and pliable. Cut the crackers into pieces when they’re done. Want them crispier? Leave them in a longer.
That’s it. The dehydrator does the heavy lifting.
How to Turn These Crackers Into a Full Meal
The crackers start at 7 plants. Here’s where it gets. even more interesting.
The Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing works two ways here. Made as written, it drizzles. Use a little less water and it thickens into a spread that sits beautifully on this sundried tomato cracker. Spread it on, layer with leafy greens, add the Smoky Walnut Meat, pile on sprouts and fresh tomato — that’s 12 plants on one cracker. A fiber-rich snack or a light lunch that actually keeps you going.
For dinner, load them differently. Spread, leafy greens, marinated carrots, capers, sprouts — pile everything on top. Then build a taco meat salad alongside using: walnut filling over leafy greens with the dressing. Or scoop your salad straight onto the crackers. Either way you’re looking at 15 or more plants in one meal without even counting.
Plant diversity adds up fast when the food is genuinely this good.
Once fully cooled (which happens quickly), store these sundried tomato crackers in an airtight container in the fridge — they keep usually well for up to a month (this is, if they lasts that long!).
Come share what you topped yours with in Healthy & Free — I love seeing what people come up with.
Are These Sundried Tomato Crackers Worth Making?
Seven plants per cracker. No oil, no flour, no baking. Eight ingredients you recognize. A snack that turns into a full meal the moment you start adding toppings.
The dehydrator does most of the work— and most of it is completely hands-off. Mix the dough, spread it, flip it. Come back to crackers that smell incredible and taste even better. What you get in return is a cracker that’s genuinely satisfying, genuinely good for you, and versatile enough to carry a dinner plate. That’s what a dehydrator does, and it never gets old.
Keep them simple as a snack, pile them high for lunch, or bring them to the table as a dinner side. Make a batch whenever you like and you’ll see why these sundried tomato crackers become a staple.
Sundried Tomato Crackers (Raw, Vegan, Oil-Free, Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Add the ingredients to a food processor and mix them into a smooth dough.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts and spread evenly onto two non-stick dehydrator sheets, about ¼"/0.5 cm thick. Create the crackers with your hands or a spatula.
- Dehydrate the crackers at 145°F/63°C for two hours. Flip the crackers onto other dehydrator trays and carefully remove the non-stick sheets. Dehydrate the crackers for another 6 hours at 115°F/46°C.
- The tomato crackers should be dry and slightly pliable.
- Score the crackers into equal pieces.
Nutrition
Notes
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