Tomorrow, I’ll be flying from Toronto to Vancouver and then from Vancouver to Portland, on my merry way to the Vida Vegan Conference! I seriously can’t wait. In my typical fashion, I’ve been dealing with a lot of anxiety about this trip, but I’m sure I’ll be having too much fun to even notice it. I mean, come on – it’s Portland – only one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world! I’m looking forward to meeting the wonderful people behind many of the blogs I read each day.
Of course, before all the fun happens the traveling has to take place. If I’m going to be traveling for 9-10 hours, I want to have something exciting to look forward to (and of course I mean healthy, great-tasting food). What is it about being trapped on a plane that makes me so hungry? With just a little preparation, I’ll be feasting like a queen. A good book, music, and in-flight TV never hurts either!
This week I racked my brain to think of a new food to bring on the flights. At first, I thought of my Endurance Crackers, but then I decided they were slightly too delicate for travel. I played around with the recipe and this is what I came up with. I’m happy to say this power bread turned out exactly as I hoped. It’s bursting with chia seeds (1 tablespoon per slice!) and it also happens to be gluten and nut-free, making it friendly for many travelers. Best of all, it’s perfectly sturdy for travel.
Plus, it’s only 5 minutes to prep which is a huge bonus, especially when getting ready for a flight. Just like my Endurance Crackers, you simply dump the ingredients into a bowl and stir in water. After that, I spread it into a 9-inch baking dish and baked it for 25 minutes.
Now this is some quick and easy bread – ready in 30 minutes flat! It disappears just as quickly. Try it with all kinds of toppings. I personally love hummus, avocado, and Herbamare as well as almond butter and strawberry jam.
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Super Power Chia Bread
Yield
4 slices
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Thick, hearty, and dense – this isn’t your average slice of bread! Packed with 9 grams of protein and over 7 grams of fibre per slice, this bread will keep you going for hours. Inspired by Endurance Crackers.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds*
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats, ground into a flour
- 1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats, ground into a flour (or more oat flour)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 cup water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325°F and line a 9-inch square pan with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way.
- Add rolled oats and buckwheat into a high-speed blender. Blend on highest speed until a fine flour forms.
- Add all dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir well until combined. Stir in the water and quickly scoop this mixture into your prepared pan. Spread it out with a spatula as evenly as possible. You can use lightly wet hands to smooth it down if necessary. Sprinkle the bread with Herbamare or fine grain sea salt before going into the oven.
- Bake at 325°F for about 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then lift it out and transfer it to a cooling rack for another 5-10 minutes. Slice and enjoy!
- This bread keeps for 2-3 days max – any longer and it gets gummy in texture. I suggest freezing it for enduring freshness. I like to toast it straight from the freezer!
Tip:
1) I made a batch without sunflower seeds and it still turned out great. I’m sure you can play around with the seeds (or even add nuts!) and reduce them if desired.
2) A reader successfully made a batch using brown rice flour and quinoa flour- I’m sure you can play around with the flours too.
3) I’m not yet sure how long this stays fresh for – my guess is a couple days. However, I expect it should freeze well, but I have yet to try it. I’ll update this when I do and be sure to leave your own tips in the comments section!
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
I hope this bread brightens up your own travels or busts you out of a lunch or breakfast rut. I’d love your feedback on this recipe if you try it out or make other variations.
If you’d like to check out what I’m up to at the conference, you will most likely find me on Instagram documenting my journey. If you are attending the conference, I hope to meet you soon! Please come say hello!
What are your favourite foods to pack on a flight?
This looks awesome!! I would LOVE to make a pb & j out of this!
I will definitely be making this later today! I’m a flight attendant and am ALWAYS looking for new food ideas to pack in my lunchbox.
This looks amazing! such captivating pictures too :)
Made this yesterday! My hubby and I have gobbled it up over the weekend. I used chickpea flour instead of buckwheat and it looked awesome and tasted even better.
Thanks for an awesome gluten free bread!!
Oh! Great idea on the chickpea flour. Glad to know it worked well!
I have been loving chia lately! I was super excited to see this! I will definitely have to try this :)
Gah!!!!! I’m STOKED about this recipe! I have been looking for a bread recipe precisely like this!! I will be trying this with almond flour too. Thank you!!!
Wow this looks like a perfect savory snack! A nice switch from sweet granola bars. I do love chia seeds, but on my budget they can become very expensive. Would this work if I reduced the chia to 1/4 cup and added more (cheaper) seeds? Either more sunflowr or pumpkin, or I was thinking maybe even some sesame seeds. And with this change, would the amount of water need to be reduced? Thanks for the help! Great recipe :)
This bread is phenomenal! Thank you for a great recipe!
I subbed chia seeds with ground flax seeds just because where I live chia seeds are WAY too pricey. Turned out awesome. :)
I tried this recipe over the weekend, but I left out the seeds completely. It looked good when it came out of the oven, but when I sliced into it later, it had a rather gummy texture. I’m guessing that’s not how it was supposed to be (?) I might give it another go, and this time follow the instructions properly. ;)
did you leave out the chia seeds too? those are a necessary ingredient – the other seeds you can certainly play around with. Enjoy!
Hi Angela. I did use all of the chia seeds called for. In thinking it over, though, it is true that seeds/nuts absorb liquid too (even though not nearly as much as chia or flax). So, leaving out a full cup was probably much more of a problem than I realized at the time. Now I really want to try it again with the sunflower and pumpkin seeds. :)
Oh, these are SO good and SOOO quick and easy! I made them last night and used 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. After mixing them up I realized I didn’t have parchment paper or the pan I needed (ha!) so I put my Silpat on a baking sheet and spread the dough out (approximately 1/2″ thick) and baked for 25 minutes. They turned out perfectly delicious!
Hi Angela! I see that the recipe calls for 1/2 cup oats that gets ground to flour. I have a package of oat flour and am wondering how much of that I could use so that I don’t have to grind my own. I looked through the comments and didn’t seen anyone already mention this. I can’t wait to make this, looks good!
Hi Sarah, It’s about equal – so I would use 1/2 cup oat flour. Enjoy!
Fantastic!! I loved this bread! So easy to make, so yummy to eat! I cant eat gluten and this had the perfect softness like bread (and not cracker). Thanks!!! I can’t wait to experiment!
Hi Angela,
I just made this bread to relax as being in the kitchen on a boring, rainy night makes me smile. I also couldn’t wait to try this recipe out! I have one question….have you tried toasting it? I plan on taking a slice to school with me tomorrow, but I don’t know whether I should leave it as is or try toasting it. What do you think?
BTW, for anyone wary of the make-your-own flours, I just ground mine up in a spice blender and it worked like magic! :)
I cannot wait to try this bread as I am already a fan of the crackers ( and so are allof my friends that I have made them for).
Do you know how much flour 1/2 cup of oats makes? i have some already ground oat flour I would like to use up first!
Thanks very much,
Katie
Tastes amazing! Just wish it wasn’t so many calories for 1 piece.
Hi Becky, You can easily reduce the cals by reducing the seeds (for example you can omit the sunflower seeds & reduce the pumpkin seeds too) hope this helps
Made these today and they are really good. Instead of soft (bread like), I would like to try to get them more crunchy like crackers. Do you think if I put them in a slow oven for awhile they might crisp up? (I’m thinking they would taste like Dr. Kracker..)
possibly! Let me know how it goes if you try it out :)
I tried this with all purpose GF flour and buckwheat flour and the rest of the ingredients the same…came out great! I also tried a batch subbing slivered almonds for pepitas (since I ran out of pepitas) …and sprinkled some Nutritional yeast on top w/ salt before baking. Also awesome. Am thinking fennel seeds would be a nice topping too…What about a sweeter version with cinnamon and cardamom and cashews and raisins and coconut (topped with grilled pineapple)? The possibilities really are endless-I think the key is picking ingredients that won’t sink to the bottom of the batter and that don’t hold too much more water than the original ingredients….thank you so much for the inspiration!
I was wondering if you think these would work if you put them in a dehydrater?
I think some one else commented saying they did dehydrate them (24 hours) but I can’t recall the temp. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
Thank you so much for this recipe! It was so amazing and turned out great! I was out of parchment paper, and afraid that it would stick – but it didn’t. I just might stop buying bread completely… this was this that easy, quick, healthy and delicious!
I made this on Wednesday and WOW…it is AWESOME! Thanks for the great recipe!! I made your spicy rainbow rice and bean salad for dinner last night and it was pretty awesome too. I am sold for when the cookbook comes out! :)