Inspiration: I know this comes as a surprise — I bought a new cookbook. However, what is truly astounding? With all of my stupid, stupid allergies, I can eat 95% of these recipes! Even better? I can cook them without needing to make any substitutions! 

Unless you’re out of a particular ingredient……(Cue ominous music.) 

Within the pages of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen — there’s a recipe for amaranth crackers. This was a thrilling find for two reasons: First, my favorite cracker brand switched from organic to a cheaper enriched flour, rendering them inedible to me. Second, my husband grew amaranth last year (and will grow more this year), and I now have an excellent source for recipes that use amaranth.

My first foray into The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen was amaranth crackers. Naturally gluten-free (not a bother to me, but this fact might be helpful to my ones of readers), this recipe calls for only four ingredients. 

Excited to try a new recipe, and with amaranth on hand — I set out to make these crackers….only to discover I was out of sunflower oil and pumpkin seed oil can’t withstand the oven temp called for….so rather than waiting until I could get to the shops I used generic vegetable oil.

Learn From My Mistake: Do not substitute veggie oil for sunflower oil. Rather than a nice nutty flavor and aroma provided by the sunflower oil, veggie oil gives off a kind of rancid smell when added to the warm batter and then baked. However, even with this unfortunate variation of mine, the crackers turned out okay. 

When I finally obtained the correct oil — the crackers turned out perfectly!

Light, very crunchy, with a delicate nutty flavor, these crackers are a homerun in our house! And I cannot wait to try more recipes from The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen!

Christie: If amaranth was available in the UK around 1920, I could see Poirot enjoying these crackers. They are absolutely fabulous by themselves and pair off well with all kinds of flavors!