A grain and gluten-free paleo pizza base with vegan mozzarella cheese: perfected recipe!
It’s finally here!
As discussed with many of my personal trainer clients and boot camp attendees, I’ve been experimenting with grain-free, gluten-free paleo style pizza bases for a while now. Even though they were mostly delicious, I was never 100% happy with the results.
The cauliflower bases would often end up a little soggy and fell apart, the tapioca base either too soft or not crispy enough and the pan style bases ended up looking mostly like omelettes! Plus many of them took absolutely ages to create and cook, which is no good when you want to keep things simple and fast!
So I decided I wasn’t going to share the recipe until it was nailed and I was 100% happy with it (and one was also able to pick up the slices to eat with one’s hands). Which is why I’m delighted to let you know that that day is TODAY!
And not only will I share with you my perfected pizza base, but also this amazing vegan mozzarella ‘cheese’ that melts, stretches and doesn’t taste like a fake substitute for the real thing!
Many shop-bought vegan cheeses often contain poor quality oils or high levels of soy (something my body doesn’t agree with) so I’m thrilled to bring you this additional simple recipe you can add to your pizza base too.
IMPORTANT: the pizza base itself is NOT vegan, as it does contain eggs. If you do wish to keep it vegan, you can substitute the eggs for chia seed eggs or egg replacer.
On to the recipes then and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Gen x
- 1/2 cup organic arrowroot flour
- 1/2 cup organic coconut flour
- 2 organic eggs
- 1/4 cup organic olive oil
- 1 teaspoon GF baking powder (I use Doves Farm)
- 1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano/Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup organic pasata
- 2 tablespoons organic tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon garlic olive oil (I like Pomora but you can always use regular olive oil and garlic granules)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Black pepper to taste
- Use whatever you like, but my favourites are white onion, yellow pepper, sweetcorn, mushrooms, kalamata olives and fresh basil leaves
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Combine all base ingredients in a a medium mixing bowl until a dough is formed.
- Scant your rolling pin with coconut flour.
- Roll the crust out on to a sheet of parchment paper and form a circle shape.
- Transfer on to the parchment paper and then on to your baking tray/dish
- Bake for approx 20 minutes or until it is starting to firm up.
- Add your tomato sauce, spreading evenly followed by your toppings (if these are not precooked).
- Bake for a further few minutes until your toppings have cooked.
- Add the cashew mozzarella and either bake or grill for a further few minutes until it has started to brown.
- Top with fresh basil leaves.
- Optional: sometimes I pre-grill my toppings before adding them to the pizza. This ensures the pizza base has cooked evenly and does not burn while waiting for the toppings to cook.
- ½ Cup organic Raw Cashew nuts (soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours)
- 1 Cup Water
- 3 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons organic Tapioca Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
- 1 teaspoon organic Apple Cider Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon pink Himalayan Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- Drain and rinse the cashews.
- Add them and all the remaining ingredients to a blender
- Blend until completely smooth (very watery consistency)
- Pour into a small saucepan over medium-high heat
- Start stirring it immediately and continually stir as it cooks
- It will start to form clumps, and will firm up quite quickly
- Continue to cook and stir to make sure it has thoroughly cooked and firmed up. It will be stretchy like traditional mozzarella
- Add as many teaspoons as you like to your pizza
- It can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days and in the freezer for up to a month.
- To reheat, just transfer to a saucepan and keep stirring as before
