After doing a lot of online research I settled on a recipe that uses a combination of white and whole wheat flour, includes nutritional yeast, and is seasoned with garlic, cayenne pepper and a little bit of mustard. I also wanted my crackers to have a light texture, so added baking soda and lemon juice – some cracker recipes don’t have any kind of leavening to my great surprise.

This recipe is very adjustable and the spices can be just about anything. I made a batch with only whole wheat, seasoned with tahini, sesame seeds, and wakame seaweed, and Heikki really liked that combo. For me, this is the recipe that works best:

Cayenne Garlic Crackers:

• 2 dl whole wheat flour
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 dl nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (for color)
• 1 dl water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

First, I set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Then I combined the water, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, and garlic, and placed the resulting wet mix in the fridge to cool down. I mixed the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and covered a baking sheet with parchment paper. When the oven was ready, I added the fridge-cold wet mix to the dry mix bowl, and stirred with a fork until combined. The dough was a little sticky at this point but that’s okay, it was still easy to roll out with the help of a little bit of extra flour.

I sprinkled the parchment paper with some flour, and rolled out the dough with a rolling pin, adding a little more flour here and there when the dough started to stick. I rolled it out until it filled the whole baking sheet, trying to make it as even as possible, and then cut it with a pastry wheeler into triangles as pictured here:

This can be done with a knife as well. It’s not necessary to cut all through the dough – the crackers will bake more evenly if they stick together in the oven, and they’re easy to separate after baking.

Now, I baked my crackers for 20 minutes, until they started to brown just a little bit. These burn very quickly, so it’s best to keep an eye on them after the first 13 minutes or so. Our oven is old and tired, and for some reason it gets very hot in the central area, so the crackers in the center of the baking sheet got a little browner than the ones around the sides. If your oven bakes unevenly, it might be a good idea to turn the baking sheet around midway through baking.

The crackers don’t need to be completely crispy once taken out of the oven, they do crisp up while cooling down. I let mine cool completely on the baking sheet, and then stored them in an airtight container.

It’s important to choose waxy potatoes for salads, since they won’t get all mushy once cooked and cubed like their starchy relatives do. I even forgot my potatoes on the stove this time, and consequently overcooked them until their skins started to crack, but they still kept together just fine!

The Dressing:

• 1/2 dl olive oil
• 1/2 dl apple cider vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, rubbed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon red paprika powder
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

The Salad:

• 1 and 1/2 kg waxy potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cubed
• 4 Russian-style salted cucumbers, cubed (see our Stroganoff recipe for more information on Russian cucumbers)
• 35 g capers (1 small jar, or about 5 tablespoons)
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely cubed
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed, or about 3 dl cooked chick peas
• 1 small leek, rinsed and sliced
• chives (for garnish)

I just combined all the ingredients, whisked the dressing together, and mixed it in the salad. At this point, I always adjust the saltiness, and check if the salad still needs a dash of vinegar, or a little more black pepper.

Then we let the salad develop in the fridge overnight before taking it with us to the May Day picnic. This makes a big amount, and we even had leftovers with lunch for a few days after the picnic day – which is good, because this salad just gets better and better.

The plate in the picture is actually my leftover lunch, since there wasn’t enough light to take a decent picture when we had this for dinner. This recipe is adapted from the first vegetarian cookbook I ever owned, ETNOkasviskeittokirja from 1994. Another leftover item in the photo is beetroot salad that Heikki made.

Here’s what I used:

• 2 onions, finely cubed
• 1 big carrot, finely cubed
• 1 package vegan sausages, sliced (or fried cubed tofu)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• salt, white pepper, black pepper, and marjoram to taste
• a pinch of sugar
• 1 tablespoon barley (or potato, or corn) starch mixed with 1 dl water
• 2 Russian style pickled cucumbers, cubed
• 2 tablespoons plain soy yogurt

I fried the onion cubes in a little olive oil until browned, and then added the sliced veggie sausage. After frying them for a few minutes, I added carrot cubes, tomato paste, and garlic, and fried them for 5 minutes. Then I added the mustard with about 2 dl water, seasoned to taste, and let the sauce boil until the carrots were done.

Now, I added the starch mixture, let it thicken up the sauce, removed the pan from heat, and mixed in 3/4 of the pickles and the soy yogurt. Before serving, I sprinkled the additional pickle cubes on top.

Sliced Wheaty sausages before frying look a little too much like bratwurst to me…