I love pizza. When I was growing up we made pizza from scratch and it tasted fantastic – especially the ones my Grandmother made. Mind you it wouldn’t matter what she cooked – it always tasted better than anyone could ever make because she would put in that extra special bit of love 🙂
I realised how much I love pizza when we stopped eating it. In our household we’ve been avoiding a few foods due to discovering a host of food allergies and food sensitivities. Unfortunately a wheat allergy AND sensitivity to a range of grains meant cauliflower pizza base was the best I had made. Now while it is absolutely DELICIOUS (see recipe at the bottom), you do need a knife and a fork to eat it AND it makes just a couple of small bases that only feed two people 🙁
While there are a stack of Gluten Free and Grain free recipes – and for Gluten Free Grain Free ALWAYS go to the Guru Tania Hubbard from Gluten Free Grain Free Co, finding ones that I could actually make (without the specific ingredients that caused issues) AND that you could eat without a knife and fork, were in the too hard basket – UNTIL NOW!!
I’m excited to share with you the results of my experiments! All are gluten free and grain free – some could be paleo – 
which is pretty much how I need to cook these days. Most of the bases have eggs, one option doesn’t. They also don’t have almond meal as I try AVOID using it for EVERYTHING!!!!!!! I only use almond meal in the amazing Almond and Chia Seed bread created by the Gluten Free Grain Free Guru Tania Hubbard from Gluten Free Grain Free Go. Anyhow the reason is because of the level of oxalates in almonds.
Oxalates are a natural chemical found in food. In small doses it is ok – but if you eat a lot of almond meal please read this post from US based Nutrition Consultant Julie Matthews (from Nourishing Hope and Founder of the BioIndividual Nutrition Institute). According to Julie:
“Oxalates are sharp crystals that are very inflammatory. Oxalates bind to minerals in the diet like calcium and can create mineral deficiencies. They can perpetuate a yeast overgrowth, even if you are on a low sugar and starch-free diet like the GAPS diet. They can cause chronic pain and inflammation including in the gut. Oxalates can not only lodge in inflamed tissue causing chronic pain for years, such is the case with vulvodynia. Oxalates can also affect the cellular “works” like the mitochondria causing low energy, low thyroid, blood sugar imbalance, and I suspect mitochondrial disorders.”
http://nourishinghope.com/2012/07/oxalates-and-the-low-oxalate-diet-interview/
Moral to the story = don’t just eat almond meal!!!! There are heaps of other exciting ingredients out there!
Pizzas also represent a great revamp opportunity too! The pizza for the topping was the leftover chicken from a Thai Chicken Salad. I also keep in the freezer cooked chicken – tenderloins tossed in organic wholegrain mustard and pan fried!
Pizza Base 1: Tapicoa and Coconut Flour Pizza Base
This has to be my absolute favourite! It was so easy and the taste was great. I think I precooked it a little too long as it was really crispy but even then it was amazing and super delish the next day!
This recipe comes from the Paleo Sprit Blog: http://paleospirit.com/2014/paleo-pizza-crust-recipe/
The ingredients you need are:
1 cup tapioca flour (plus more for rolling out dough)
1/3 cup + 2-3 tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup olive oil (or any oil we used avocado oil)
1/2 cup warm water
1 large egg, whisked
The method can be found here on the blog post. Please note the temperature of the oven is listed as 450 degrees F – in Celsius that would be about 230 degrees C.
I just loved how easy it was to make, and it is another way to use coconut flour – so BIG thumbs up! My next experiment is going to be making an egg free version of this – using chia seeds and water.
Pizza Base 2: Buckwheat Flour & Chia Seed pizza base {Egg Free}
This recipe was inspired by the following blog – http://nyoutritious.com/grain-free-chia-buckwheat-pizza/ – but I added more buckwheat flour to it, garlic, parmesan, fresh herbs and more dried herbs. I also omitted the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts.
So here are the ingredients for my version – that makes 1 dinner plate size pizza* – note this is very filling):
1/4 cup chia seeds
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
(Four pizzas: 1 cup chia; 3 1/4 cups water; 2 cups buckwheat flour)
ADD a mix of flavours (for one or more pizzas):
1-2 cloves of garlic, choppped
1 – 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1-3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs
1 teaspoon dried herbs – oregano and thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Basically I just mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, let it rest for 5 minutes, I then spread out the gooey mix into a pizza base shape (keeping it about half a cm to under 1cm) thick, then cooked it in the oven (200 degrees) for 10 minutes, then flipped it over and cooked it for a further 10. Then I added the toppings – and cooked it again until hot, bubbling and yummy! It was egg free and was great! I’ve made this a few times since!
Pizza Base 3: Buckwheat pizza base
This was a really easy recipe. I did expect the base to make more – but it was so easy – this one didn’t require precooking but it was also the driest of all the base options. Not quite sure what I did 🙁
The ingredients you need are:
1 cup (150g) buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil
approx. 3 tablespoons water
This recipe comes from the blog http://cookingwithandwithout.com/blog/glutenandyeastfreebuckwheatpizza
Pizza Base 4: Cauliflower
This recipe comes from http://www.domesticate-me.com/cauliflower-pizza-crust-with-roasted-vegetables-and-goat-cheese/
The ingredients you need for the cauliflower pizza base – per dinner plate size pizza are:
1 small head of cauliflower, florets removed
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg
It was a great recipe to follow and super delicious! It is one that you need to prep a bit ahead so I only do this one when I have time to let the cauliflower cool. OR I cook the cauliflower, let it cool, squeeze it out put it in the fridge READY for the NEXT night when I want and need to save some time! It is full of vegetables but for this recipe you need one cauliflower per pizza. That said it is very delicious but not one you can eat with your fingers….
I am keen to try an egg free version too using chia seeds as well!
Of course there are HEAPS more options – so I’d love you to share your favourites in the comments box below too.
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