It’s been a long time since I had pizza. To be honest, it was the melted cheese I liked, so when I became gluten-free and tried commerical free-from pizza (and found it disgusting), I stopped eating them. Going vegan therefore made no difference. But just occasionally I’d like to be able to have some, especially when the family are here. There isn’t time to make a one-off just for me, so I usually miss out. (Elsewhere in this blog is a recipe for Amazing Tomatoless Sauce for a vegan and gluten-free pizza).
The base is a quick, healthy, yeast-free version, using up leftover veg and tomato purée. It was inspired by Thalia, but I changed the flours as I don’t like commercial gluten-free flour if I can use more nutritionally-dense naturally gluten-free flour in its place.
This tasty pizza has a higher nutritional content than the usually high-fat, high-salt commercial varieties. Chickpea flour has protein, calcium, B6, iron, magnesium and fibre, tiger nut flour is gut-friendly, high in prebiotic fibre which helps balance blood sugar levels.
The base is sweet, crisp and filling, makes enough for about 3-4 servings depending on your appetite and what you have alongside it. (I’m thinking of trying the base recipe as savoury or sweet biscuits too, watch this space).
Ingredients
Base:
1 Cup Chickpea Flour (aka gram flour, besan flour)
1/2 Cup Fine Tiger Nut Flour
1 Tsp G/F Baking Powder
1/3 Cup Water
3 Tbsps Olive Oil
Pink Himalayan Salt & Black Pepper
***
Tomato Purée or Paste, or passata
***
Toppings: I used
Chestnut Mushrooms
Courgette (Zucchini)
Spring Onions
Finely chopped Broccoli
Spinach
Sweetcorn
Green Beans
Olive Oil to drizzle over toppings
***
Fresh Basil
Nutritional yeast sprinkled on when cooked.
***
Method
Oven Temp: 180C
Sieve the dry ingredients, gradually add the water and oil in the middle and mix until it comes together like dough, adding more flour or water if necessary until it is the right texture to roll out. (If you have time, chilling it for a while may make it easier to handle, but I did it without). You can add spices or herbs if you want to flavour your crust.
Flour the surface and rolling pin well, and roll gently until you can lift it without it breaking – don’t overstretch it – and place it on a pizza tray – one with holes in so both sides will cook without having to turn it over. (I tried turning it and it stuck, best to leave it in situ for the full cooking time). Once on the tray, press it with your fingertips so that it spreads more thinly and becomes the shape you want.
Cook for 10 minutes.
I stirfried the beans and broccoli very lightly as the green beans in particular wouldn’t have cooked before the rest was ready.
Spread with tomato purée or paste (or ready-made sauce if wished)
Cover with toppings, a couple of twists of black pepper, drizzle some olive oil over them
Cook another 10 minutes until it’s the colour and texture you like.
Sprinkle with fresh basil
I don’t use vegan cheese so I sprinkled nutritional yeast over it after it was cooked.
Serve with green salad and/or Sweet potato chips
Copyright: Chris McGowan
I know I’ve already posted a recipe for chilli (see 
After several hours of watching La Vuelta (that’s the Professional Cycling Tour of Spain to the uninitiated), it was time to refuel, it had been a stressful but exciting ride and I needed something quick and easy. Pasta is always good in this respect, there was a ripe avocado begging to be used and lots of spinach as well as a glut of homegrown cherry tomatoes, so pasta and pesto it was. I had asked for peas, but husband had forgotten to add them to the shopping list so frozen mixed veg it was. This is great for a midweek meal.
While the pasta is cooking, make the Pesto and chop the tomatoes – makes enough for 2-3, I froze what was left over.
Over the last couple of years, since I first became aware of the arsenic content of rice,* I have gradually cut down the amount I eat and swapped rice milk for homemade nut and seed milks**. I often use quinoa and buckwheat as gluten-free alternatives to rice. However, one option has taken some psyching up to try: cauliflower ‘rice’ or ‘couscous’. Recently, I decided to go for it and here’s how it turned out, plus the recipe (the hardest part was persuading my husband it was a good idea!).
I was feeling a bit sorry for myself when I came downstairs, suffering horrible back pain, no sleep, gloomy sky, prospect of rain, drop in temperatures. I was also very hungry, having gone to bed early evening and not getting up until 14 hours later. That did it, I needed chocolate and I needed it fast. Chocolate? For breakfast? Absolutely!
As promised, here is the recipe I mentioned in my post 
It’s no secret that I love avocados. I eat them in some form or other every single day: blended with juices, smashed on corncakes or toast with tomato and chilli powder, as a dip or dressing with crudités or salad (see photo) as a sauce with pasta, even in chocolate mousse! (There are recipes in the Menu at the top of the page).
As many of you know, I recently injured my back again being much too optimistic about how far I could walk. This is an ongoing problem I have had all my adult life since lifting an overloaded case of albums (as in LPs), along with subsequent whiplash injuries, surgery and medieval torture!
It is difficult for people, especially the medical profession and often some family members, to understand why one day, or even hour, you can do something, but the next day it is completely impossible; why – even though you’re smiling – you are still in deep, often agonising pain. In this photo, I had had no sleep for a couple of nights due to deep persistent pain, but I was up on Christmas morning ready to join in the family gift-swap.
Juicing and adopting a vegan diet eased my aches and pains by reducing inflammation, removing extra weight from my joints, resetting my hormones, calming and relaxing me, providing energy and a positive outlook – you can read about my first juice fast and the positive effects on my health here: 
Looking and feeling better does have its drawbacks however! People sometimes think that because I look healthy, smile, study, make cards and write a health and wellness blog, everything is hunky dory in the pain department. Sometimes it is hard not to feel a bit of a fraud when I see myself through other people’s eyes. The more I do the more I am expected to do, my health improvements tend to be taken somewhat for granted. I, however, appreciate every little thing I can do, but I do have a tendency to get over-confident and my body will soon let me know how it feels about that!
I love mango, all smooth, exotic and tangy with a delicate aroma, and I adore passionfruit. It doesn’t look up to much, all wrinkly, dark and swarthy, and when you slice it open, what do you get? No juicy flesh, just a spoonful of less-than-appetising crunchy seeds covered in what looks like yellow frogspawn! But the smell and the flavour are gorgeous, and they are so good for you, so putting them together in a breakfast smoothie was a no-brainer, why hadn’t I thought of it before? This particular week we’d found a pack of four in the supermarket greatly reduced as they were close to their use-by date, so I used two of them in this smoothie.
From the 4th – 8th September 2017, Jason Vale (aka the the Juicemaster) is holding a free Big Juice Challenge using his 5lbs in 5 Days programme, which is available free if you join up via 
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
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