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These light and crispy puffed rice crackers taste just like pizza! Flavored with tomato, nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor, and plenty of oregano! Delicious dipped in cream cheese, or served with appetizers! Vegan, gluten-free, and just 8 ingredients needed!
The concept of this recipe came to mind after trying “cơm cháy,” which is a type of Vietnamese rice cracker. It’s crispy and has the texture of rice puffs, just like the cereals.
This version is heavily adapted and flavored with tomato paste, dried herbs, and nutritional yeast and cut into bite-size pieces. It’s basically pizza in a cracker form!
🥣 How to Make Puffed Rice Crackers
These crackers are incredibly easy to make and require very minimal ingredients. It does require some patience, though, as the crackers first need to be dried in the oven before being fried. Here is what you will need to make these pizza crackers:
- Sticky rice – You must absolutely use sticky rice for this recipe. The crackers would not hold together well with another type of rice.
- Tomato paste – For a deep tomato flavor. Make sure you are using tomato paste, not tomato sauce.
- Nutritional yeast – Nutritional yeast brings a subtle cheese flavor to the crackers.
- Oregano and basil – Both of these herbs help give that specific “pizza flavor.” Use dried oregano and basil.
- Onion powder – For extra flavor and umami. You can also add a pinch of garlic powder!
- Sugar and salt – To balance the acidity of the tomato paste and for saltiness.
While this recipe may be uncommon, fear not, it’s super easy to make! Here is the process:
- Cook the rice. Rinse the sticky rice and add it to a saucepan with the water. Cook uncovered for 8-9 minutes, or until no more liquid remains and rice is tender.
- Combine with the seasonings. Once the rice is cooked, combine it with tomato paste, dried herbs, nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, and sugar.
- Flatten into a thin layer. Transfer the cooked and seasoned rice to a sheet of parchment paper, top with another sheet of paper, and flatten using a rolling pin into a very thin layer.
- Dry in the oven. Dry the layer of rice for about 40 minutes. Next, use a pair of scissors to cut it into squares. Dry the squares for another 40 minutes or until hard.
- Fry. Finally, to make the rice puff up, fry the crackers in hot oil for about 10 seconds.
- Transfer to a kitchen paper towel to remove excess oil, and let cool for a few minutes before enjoying!
🧀 How to Enjoy These Crackers
These crackers are delicious as is, but things get even better when you dip them into homemade cashew cream cheese or caramelized shallots hummus!
You can also serve these with guacamole, black bean dip, or your favorite cheese sauce!
📔 Tips
- Make sure the oil is hot enough. The crackers should puff up almost as soon as you throw them in the oil.
- Do not fry for too long. As soon as the crackers have puffed, which should take about 10 seconds, remove from the oil. If you fry them for longer than that, they will take a bitter flavor.
💬 FAQ
Baking will not work, and you will end up with very hard crackers. It’s the very hot oil that makes the rice puff so well. Do not worry. These are far from being oily or fatty!
Yes, it’s the sticky rice that helps hold everything together.
Crackers will keep for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Light, crispy, and loaded with pizza flavor, you are going to love these crackers!
And while these puffed rice crackers are fried, I can swear these are not greasy at all! Crackers stay less than 10 seconds in the oil, and the rice doesn’t absorb much of the oil.
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Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
Puffed Rice Pizza Crackers
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dry sticky rice
- 1 and 1/4 cup water
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Rinse the sticky rice. Drain and transfer to a medium saucepan. Cover with the water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until rice is tender and no water remains. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked sticky rice to a bowl and add the tomato paste, nutritional yeast, sugar, oregano, basil, salt, and onion powder. Stir to coat the rice with the seasonings.
- Transfer the seasoned rice to a large sheet of parchment paper (about 20×14-inch). Cover with another sheet of parchment paper and flatten the mixture using a rolling pin into a thin layer (about the thickness of a grain of rice). Carefully remove the top sheet of parchment paper.
- Transfer the sheet of parchment paper with the layer of rice to a baking sheet. Bake at 250°F (120°C) for 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes. The layer of rice should be soft and foldable. Using a pair of scissors, cut the layer of rice into 1.5-inch squares. Arrange the squares into a single layer on the baking sheet and bake at 250°F (120°C) for another 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven. The crackers should be dry and hard. That is normal. Let cool for a few minutes.
- To fry: heat about 2 cups of oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, fry 3-4 crackers at a time for about 10 seconds, or until crackers have puffed. Do not fry for longer than that, or the crackers will be overcooked and get a bitter taste.
- Transfer the puffed crackers to a plate lined with a kitchen paper towel to drain the excess oil, and repeat with the remaining crackers.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
About the Author
Thomas Pagot is the founder, photographer, and recipe developer behind Full of Plants. He created the blog in 2016 as a personal cookbook for vegan recipes. Through years of recipe development, Thomas has successfully grown Full of Plants into a trusted resource for plant-based recipes.
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Thanks for this recipe. I definitely want to try it. Can you please be more specific about the type of rice? I looked up sticky rice, but lots of different types came up – sweet, glutinous, taiwanese, japanese. It would help to know exactly what you used and recommend.
Thanks!
Sure, so sticky rice is the same as glutinous rice and sweet rice. It’s also sometimes called Thai sweet rice. It can be found online, or in all Asian stores.
Japanese rice is different and often refers to short grain rice.
Cant wait to make this soon for me i never had puffed rice pizza crackers i love pizza sooooooooooo much before perfect for my office snacks love your recipes as always brightens up my day everyday after work
Thanks Ramya!
This is GENIUS and so delicious.. Thank you Thomas!!
Thanks for your feedback Sarah! 🙂
Hi Thomas, I haven’t visited your website in a while and immediately noticed how your eyes were Shining, then I saw Vân, your lovely wife standing right next to you and the very same light was shining in her eyes, too! Belated congratulations, sending best wishes! You two make a lovely couple. I’m so happy for you both! Much joy!
Hi Linda,
Thank you so much for your kind words! ^^ That is so nice of you to say that, we really appreciate it 🙂
Have an amazing day!