Updated date:

May 21, 2021

20 Delicious and Easy Toppings for Crackers

Author:

Linda Crampton is a teacher with an honors degree in biology. She enjoys exploring nutrition as well as the culture and history of food.

Toppings for crackers are easy to make.
Linda Crampton

Interesting and Tasty Cracker Snacks

Crackers with toppings are great snacks to eat every day and at celebrations. They can be attractive, very tasty, and quick to make. They can also be a healthy food, depending on the ingredients in the crackers and their toppings.

Making cracker snacks is a creative process. It's fun to try new topping ingredients and to mix old and familiar ones in new combinations. Whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and meats work well in toppings. Herbs, spices, sauces, dips, and spreads like pesto, salsa, guacamole, tzatziki, and hummus are also useful.

In this article, I describe twenty tasty ingredient combinations for cracker toppings. Video recipes are included for people who like to create their own sauces. I took all of the photos in this article after I’d made my own cracker treats.

A Wealth of Ingredients

I use whole foods on crackers as part of my regular diet and add prepared products such as spreads and sauces for special events. I prefer all-natural spreads and sauces that have no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives and contain only healthy oils, such as olive oil. I also look for varieties with a reasonably low sugar and salt level. Occasionally, however, delicious but less healthy toppings manage to reach my crackers, like the miniature marshmallows in the photos above. Many choices of toppings exist, both savory and sweet. The number of foods that can be a good match for crackers is impressive.

Savory Toppings With Meat or Fish

Meats, cheeses, sauces, herbs, nut butters, chopped or sliced vegetables, and even some kinds of fruit can be combined to create delicious savory toppings. Moist ingredients should be drained as much as possible and either added not long before crackers are served or placed on top of a drier component to prevent the crackers from becoming soggy.

Salmon, Pesto, and Tomato

I use wild salmon that was canned in water without salt and has been drained. Pesto is a traditional Italian sauce made from basil, pine nuts, cheeses, olive oil, garlic, and salt.

Place salmon on a cracker. Add a small spoonful of pesto. Top with a sliced cherry tomato. Alternatively, replace the pesto and cherry tomato with a tomato pesto.

Tuna and Cheese

Canned wild salmon is low in mercury, but canned tuna may not be, depending on the type of fish. Canned light tuna is the lowest in mercury. Canned albacore tuna is high enough in mercury that major health agencies in the US and Canada recommend that its consumption be limited. It's sometimes known as white tuna.

Place drained, water-packed tuna on a cracker. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and black pepper. For the most flavorful pepper, grind it just before use.

Chicken, Yogurt Cheese or Tzatziki, and Grapes

Yogurt is too liquid to stay on the surface of a cracker and can make the cracker soggy. Yogurt cheese is simply yogurt with some of the liquid removed. It has a thicker consistency than whole yogurt and is very easy to make, as described in the instructions below. Fresh or dried herbs can be gently added to the yogurt cheese before it's used.

Tzatziki can be used instead of yogurt cheese. Tzatziki usually contains yogurt, cucumbers, lemon juice, olive oil, dill, garlic and salt. It's sometimes made with sour cream instead of yogurt.

Place chicken on a cracker. Add a spoonful of yogurt cheese or tzatziki. Place sliced grapes or banana slices on top.

Sauces, dips, and spreads work well in cracker toppings.

How to Make Yogurt Cheese

Place a double layer of cheesecloth in a colander or other strainer which has been placed over a bowl.
Pour yogurt into the cheesecloth and cover the colander with plastic wrap. Allow the yogurt to drain in the refrigerator for six to twelve hours.
Place the yogurt cheese in a very clean container that has a lid. Keep the container in the refrigerator. The yogurt cheese should remain usable for up to a week.
The liquid from the yogurt can be added to other foods.

Precooked meats are useful for cracker toppings. Sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate are often added to deli meats as preservatives, however. These chemicals are converted to nitrosamines in the digestive tract. Nitrosamines are suspected carcinogens.

More Meat Combinations

Chicken and Salsa

Chicken cooked at home, canned chicken that has been drained (after being rinsed to reduce the salt content), and chicken slices without sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate are all good cracker toppings.

Traditional salsa is a sauce made chiefly of tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions. Some salsas are made of fruit, peppers, and onions, however. The video below gives a recipe for salsa containing avocado and mango.

Create a "bed" of chicken on a cracker. Add a spoonful of salsa from which any excess liquid has been drained. Sprinkle with dried or fresh herbs, such as oregano, marjoram, or cilantro.

Turkey, Peanut Butter, and Dried Cranberries

Use home cooked turkey, canned turkey that has been drained, or prepared turkey slices without preservatives.

Spread peanut butter or tahini (sesame seed butter) on a cracker. Add turkey. Sprinkle with dried cranberries or raisins.

Turkey and Strawberry Jam or Jelly

I buy all-fruit strawberry jams, which are usually called spreads instead of jams. Plum and apricot jam go well with turkey, too.

Spread the cracker with jam or jelly. Place turkey on top.

Beef, Mustard, and Salsa

I prefer to use home cooked beef or beef slices without preservatives bought in a store.

Spread mustard on a cracker. Cover with a slice of beef. Place a spoonful of salsa on top of the beef.

Three Vegetarian or Vegan Toppings for Crackers

Cucumber, Cheese, Tomato, and Pickled Onion

This is an old favorite from my childhood. I use it as a sandwich filling as well as a cracker topping. I use English-style pickled onions that don't taste excessively sweet, unlike some other versions of pickled onions that I've tried. Vegan cheese could be used instead of a dairy version.

Place sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, sliced cheddar cheese, and sliced pickled (or fresh) onion on a cracker.

Vegan Sausage and Hummus

Vegan sausages usually contain much less fat than sausages made from meat. They are often sold in a precooked form.

Hummus is a spread traditionally made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt.

Spread hummus on a cracker. Top with slices of vegan sausage. Sprinkle dried cranberries over the sausage.

Cheese, Pear or Apple, and Marmalade

Cheese goes well with either pears or apples. It also goes well with marmalade, a combination that I love.

Place a slice of cheese on a cracker. Spread marmalade on top of the cheese. Add pieces of ripe pear or apple. Sprinkle with crushed walnuts.

Salsa works well in cracker snacks as long as the excess liquid is drained and it's placed on top of a bed of drier ingredients.

More Vegetarian Combinations

Vegan Ham or Bacon with Egg

Place a slice of vegan ham or bacon on a cracker. Fold over if the slice is too big for the cracker. Place chopped, hard boiled egg on top. Sprinkle black pepper on top of the egg layer if desired.

Swiss Cheese, Sun Dried Tomato, and Basil

Place a slice of Swiss cheese on a cracker. Add slices of sun dried or fresh tomato. Cover with basil leaves.

Salad Greens and Herbed Scrambled Eggs

Create a bed of dark salad greens on a cracker. Fold the leaves over if they're too big for the cracker. Add a spoonful of a scrambled egg mixture that was cooked with Parmesan cheese, oregano, sage, and black pepper.

Herbs and spices can be wonderful additions to cracker toppings. They create interesting and sometimes unique flavors when mixed with other ingredients.

Sweet Toppings for Crackers

The toppings below all contain nut butters. Butters made from nuts and seeds are nutritious and contain healthy fats, especially when they're sold without additives. Since I love the taste of chocolate, I often add a mixture of cocoa and sweetener to a sweet topping.

Many types of sweeteners are available in stores. My favorite is erythritol, which is generally considered to be a healthy sugar substitute. I also use buckwheat honey or another dark honey as a sweetener. These too have health benefits and have a delicious taste, but they are rich in sugars. For special treats, though, honey is a great sweetener.

A peanut butter and Seville orange marmalade combination is basic and delicious.

Chocolate Syrup or Spread

Chocolate syrup can provide a nice taste in a topping. It's high in sucrose, so ideally it should be used in small quantities or only on special occasions. The syrup can be bought in stores or made at home. As the video below shows, making the syrup at home is a quick and easy process. You may prefer the ingredients that are used in home recipes. Commercial products often contain high fructose corn syrup, a controversial substance.

I often use a homemade chocolate spread instead of a syrup. The spread has a thicker consistency. It's quick and easy to make by mixing a nut or seed butter, cocoa, and the sweetener of choice. It's lovely on bread and cakes as well as crackers.

Some Sweet Combinations

Hazelnut Butter, Honey, and Cocoa

Spread hazelnut butter on a cracker. Drizzle honey on top of the hazelnut butter. Sprinkle cocoa on top of the honey. Chocolate syrup can be used instead of the honey/cocoa mixture.

Peanut Butter and Banana

Spread peanut butter on a cracker. Add slices of banana. If desired, drizzle with the honey and cocoa mixture as above or use chocolate syrup instead.

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam or Jelly

Spread peanut butter on a cracker. Cover with a layer of all-fruit strawberry jam or jelly. Many other flavors of jam and jelly go well with peanut butter, including raspberry and grape. Adding pieces of fruit on top of the jam or instead of it creates an interesting taste and increases nutrition. Try strawberries, raspberries, grapes, or blueberries.

Cashew Butter and Orange Marmalade

Spread cashew butter on a cracker. Cover with a layer of all-fruit orange marmalade. Sprinkle with powdered cinnamon or ginger.

Shredded coconut and spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg can be lovely additions to sweet toppings.

Devonshire double cream, kiwi fruit. and honey

Three Dessert Toppings

These dessert toppings are great for special occasions, although the crackers and their toppings may not be a healthy combination. They are delicious, though.

Almond Butter and Lemon Curd (or Lemon Spread)

Lemon curd is a thick and creamy spread made from butter, eggs, lemon juice, and sugar. I've found lemon curd that contains no added color or artificial ingredients in big health food markets, such as Whole Foods.

Lemon spread is a suitable substitute if you can't find lemon curd, though I prefer the curd to the spread. Both products are high in sugar, but I love their taste.

Spread almond butter on a cracker and cover with a layer of lemon curd. I usually make the layer of lemon curd thicker than the layer of nut butter since I like it so much.

Blueberries and Cream

Thick cream topped by sweet fruit is a wonderful cracker topping for celebrations. I use Devonshire double cream, to which I add a small amount of sweetener. The fruit and cream combination tastes especially nice on top of oat cakes (which are a type of cracker, despite their name).

Place a spoonful of thick, lightly sweetened cream on a cracker. Top with blueberries or another fruit.

Peanut Butter and Marshmallow

Marshmallows may not have any redeeming health benefits, but they are very nice as a cracker topping.

Spread peanut butter on a cracker. Add mini marshmallows or spread marshmallow fluff (or marshmallow cream/creme) over the peanut butter.

More Ingredient Ideas for Cracker Toppings

There are many other possible ingredients for cracker toppings. I sometimes use the following foods.

vegetables such as coleslaw, bell peppers, hot peppers, and avocados
seeds such as sesame, cumin, and fennel
fruits and berries other than the ones mentioned, including dried versions
salad greens with a peppery taste, such as arugula and mizuna
chopped onions, chives, or garlic
cream cheese
chutney
herbs and spices besides the ones mentioned
nutritional yeast
textured vegetable protein or TVP

Guacamole is another possible addition. It's a sauce made from avocado, limes, garlic, salt and sometimes other ingredients, such as tomatoes.

Creating New Ingredient Combinations

A "Build Your Own Cracker Snacks" activity can be fun for parties and other social gatherings. If crackers, containers of food, and utensils are placed on a table, people can make their own snacks according to their tastes. Some strange but tasty ingredient combinations may be created, especially if there is a wide choice of ingredients.

Discovering new mixtures that work well on crackers is fun. Many foods can be chopped, sliced, grated, crumbled, folded, or drained to place on a cracker. If you have favorite toppings that aren't mentioned in this article, I'd love to hear about them in the "Comments" section below.

Questions & Answers

Question: What are the leaves added to the guacamole recipe?

Answer: Guacamole often consists of mashed avocado, lime juice, and seasonings. Sometimes cilantro leaves are added as well. These are probably the leaves that you've noticed.

Comments

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on June 24, 2020:

Thank you for the visit and comment, Lisha.

Lisha C on June 23, 2020:

Your photos look very decorative and appealing! I couldn't even imagine such a long list of toppings; my go-to is usually always just the same old cheese topping. Thanks for all the new ideas.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on June 23, 2020:

Thanks for the comment, Liza. It's interesting to think about all the possible toppings for crackers.

Liza from USA on June 23, 2020:

Oh wow, all toppings look delicious! My favorite toppings for crackers are usually savory toppings such as salsa, tuna, clam chowders, pesto, and guacamole. However, the sweet toppings are great and delicious to pair with the crackers too. I think I'm going to try some! Thanks for the ideas, Linda.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on April 06, 2018:

A summer picnic on a dock sounds like a lovely idea, Mary. I appreciate your visit.

Mary Norton from Ontario, Canada on April 06, 2018:

These are tasty ideas Linda. I always have to think out creative snacks for the dock the whole summer so this would be a resource. I like that yoghurt cheese and will try to make that.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on October 04, 2016:

Thank you, Nancie M. I hope you enjoy the crackers.

Nancie McKinnon from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Seoul, South Korea on October 04, 2016:

Lovely h'ordeuvres selection. I'll be trying some of these during the holidays.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on November 24, 2015:

Thanks for the comment, raguett!

Meagan Elaine on November 24, 2015:

great info thanks cant wait to try a few during my after dinner snack.. thanks i love nibblies

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on August 25, 2015:

Hi, Au fait. Thanks once again for the comment. I appreciate your visits.

C E Clark from North Texas on August 25, 2015:

A great selection of h'ordeuvres. Several of them look yummy and easy to do for a dinner party or holiday party, or just a quick snack.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on April 25, 2015:

Thanks, Diana. I appreciate the comment.

Diana Abrahamson on April 25, 2015:

Thanks for your snack toppings. The one that caught my attention was eith kiwi fruit..very creative, I must say!

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 16, 2015:

Thank you for the comment and the vote, peachpurple.

peachy from Home Sweet Home on January 16, 2015:

i want to try peanut butter and the marshmallows, voted up

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on March 17, 2014:

Thank you, VioletteRose. I love the combination of hazelnut butter and cocoa, too!

VioletteRose from Atlanta on March 17, 2014:

These are really great snack ideas, would definitely love to try some of them. Love the combination of hazelnuts with honey and cocoa :)

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on February 15, 2014:

Thanks for the comment, kerlund74. I hope you enjoy the salmon and pesto topping!

kerlund74 from Sweden on February 15, 2014:

So inspriring, I usually just put cheese on mine;) I love these, gives possible variations, I will try the salmon and pesto today!

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on February 15, 2014:

Thank you so much for the kind comment and votes, Victoria! I appreciate your visit.

Victoria Van Ness from Fountain, CO on February 15, 2014:

Wow! What a thorough article! I feel like I learned a whole new culture reading through your article. Awesome job! Voted up and more!

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on February 13, 2014:

Thank you for the visit, Deb. I appreciate your comment!

Deb Hirt from Stillwater, OK on February 13, 2014:

These are all fabulous thoughts and make excellent snacks, or even meals, for that matter. Thanks for the great suggestions.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on February 12, 2014:

Thanks for the comment, WriterJanis. I appreciate your visit!

Janis from California on February 12, 2014:

I like munching on crackers and you have given me some good ideas for toppings. You've also made me hungry with all of the yummy photos!

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on February 02, 2014:

That sounds like an interesting and very tasty snack, Writer Fox! Thanks for sharing the idea. Thank you for the vote, too.

Writer Fox from the wadi near the little river on February 02, 2014:

Great recipes, Alicia. Here's another one to try: A little Mayonnaise, gefilte fish, pickle relish and lettuce on a Euphrates cracker.

Enjoyed and voted up!

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 31, 2014:

Hi, b. Malin. Thanks for the lovely comment, as well as for all the votes!

b. Malin on January 31, 2014:

Hi Alicia, this is such a Wonderful Hub, one that I am going to Bookmark for future ideas...I love the Cracker Recipes, some I really had thought of. The Videos you chose were fun as well as educational to look at.

I'm voting your Hub, UP & Interesting and of course Useful.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 31, 2014:

Thanks for the visit and the comment, Deborah.

Deborah Neyens from Iowa on January 31, 2014:

Good suggestions, just in time for all those Super Bowl parties this weekend.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 29, 2014:

Thank you very much for the visit, Dianna! I appreciate your comment.

Dianna Mendez on January 29, 2014:

I am keeping this handy. There are times when you want something to top a cracker or piece of fruit and you can't think of what works. Here is the answer to it all! Thanks.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 29, 2014:

This sounds like a lovely cracker topping, EGamboa! Thanks for the comment and for sharing the idea.

Eileen Gamboa from West Palm Beach on January 29, 2014:

Great ideas. Love the new ideas for my cracker snacking which is continuous. Yesterday one of my hard boiled eggs burst, so I quickly chopped up, egg salad style (mayo & mustard) and started scooping it on crackers with cream cheese. (For such small messy jobs, I just chop and mix on a piece of wax paper, and toss the paper)

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 28, 2014:

Thanks, Peg. I appreciate your visit. I love snack crackers, too! Cheese and fruit is a lovely combination.

Peg Cole from North Dallas, Texas on January 28, 2014:

Yummy ideas just in time for the big game this weekend. I love snack crackers and your incredible variety of toppings are mouth watering. I'm partial to the cream cheese and fruit ones.

Linda Crampton (author) from British Columbia, Canada on January 28, 2014:

Thanks for the comment and the vote, Eddy. I hope you enjoy your day, too!

Eiddwen from Wales on January 28, 2014:

Have to save this one Alicia and voted up.

Enjoy your day.

Eddy.