Almond Butter Rice Cakes 4 Ways

There's nothing worse than stale rice cakes. Unfortunately puffed rice loses its crispiness very quickly once exposed to air, even quicker than biscuits or cereals out of their boxes.

Whether you are going for plain rice cakes or garnishing them with one of our vegan toppings above, we suggest you eat them within 2 hours of taking them out of their wrappings.

Luckily it takes only 2 minutes to prepare one of our rice cakes, so you don't have to worry about batch-cooking them. Just enjoy them fresh on the go.

Unless you plan on consuming a full bag of rice cakes at once, you must store them properly to preserve their crunchiness. We encourage you not to keep them in their original bag once opened, but to transfer them to a proper air-tight container.

Rice cakes packaging is often flimsy and can easily rip once opened. If this goes undetected, or you don't seal the bag properly, air can seep in overnight and spoil the product. If you transfer the rice snacks into zip-locked bags or food-grade boxes with an air-tight seal, you can be 100% sure they will still be crispy next time you crave them.

Organic rice cakes are probably the snack with the shortest list of ingredients in the world, comprising only rice and a little salt.

Are the rice cakes the holy grail of snacking, something that everyone can enjoy no matter their diets or food allergies? And are they as good as we they appear? Let's take a closer look.

This low-carb, low-fats snack seems ideal to those following a weight-loss diet. A typical- sized rice cake has only 27 calories, but almost none of them come from fats or sugars. But there is a caveat. Rice cakes have very few fibres, which makes us digest them quickly without feeling satiated. Also, the lack of healthy fats means rice cakes are not suited for the keto diet.

When trying to lose weight, we must curb our hunger to avoid imprudent snacking. Plain rice cakes don't do this effectively, but there is a solution: avoid eating too many rice cakes on their own, but instead top them with fibrous and nutritious ingredients like the ones we suggest above. Also, opt for rice cakes made with brown rice, which are more nutritious and fibrous.

Another shortcoming of low-fibre foods is their effect on blood sugar levels. Although rice cakes report very few sugars, rice is a high Glycemic Index food, which at first sight doesn't spell good news for people with diabetes. But the Glycemic Load of rice is not bad, hovering around the medium range. What this means is that people with diabetes can eat rice cakes occasionally and in moderation. Just like for those who want to lose weight, diabetics should top rice cakes with high-fibres ingredients to get a safer nutritional profile.

Finally, rice cakes are both vegan and gluten-free. Vegan food is also dairy-free and egg-free, making these crispy snacks accessible to the majority of people suffering from food allergies.

In conclusion, rice cakes have a plain nutritional profile that can fit almost all diets. To address some of their shortcomings and turn them into a nourishing snack, you should buy the brown-rice variation and serve them with high-fibre foods.

We did just that in our recipe above, where we topped rice cakes with wholesome ingredients like fruit, nuts, and seeds to give you the right balance of fibres, proteins, and vitamins.

Although rice cakes have been praised as a staple among weight loss snacks, we recommend you limit them to a serving of two or three rice cakes per day, due to their weak nutritional profile.

These crackers are indeed very low in fats, carbs, and calories. Still, the very way in which they are manufactured - high heat and high pressure - strips them of precious fibres, vitamins and minerals.

Therefore, plain rice cakes aren't much of nutritional value and eating too many of them is likely to raise blood sugars more quickly than a slice of wholemeal bread. This will lead to food cravings and ultimately to weight gain.

There are ways to turn rice cakes into a more balanced snack, like topping them with nutritious ingredients.

For example, you could pair them with fruits, nuts and seeds as we did in our recipe above. You can also accompany them with savoury toppings like hummus, cheese, and eggs.

These fibre-packed and protein-rich ingredients will slow down the digestion of the rice cakes, thus stabilising your blood sugar levels.

Moderation is key. Eating two or three of these crackers won't affect your waistline as they still make a better choice over other processed snacks like crisps and cookies. However, opt for wholegrain and low-salt varieties and pair them with healthy toppings to compensate for their plain nutritional profile.