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!).
As promised, here is the recipe I mentioned in my post 
One afternoon, I was craving crisps, as I do every once in a while. Yes, I know, I’m supposed to be a juice nut and a health nut, but I’m human! About twice a year I indulge, and then remember why I don’t eat them: they give me indigestion and I always want more!
Cauliflower is my favourite vegetable, but for some reason it doesn’t appear regularly on the family food order, so I find myself making a special request when I realise we haven’t had it for some time. Our local Waitrose isn’t too hot on organic foods and there’s no farmers’ market, so if we forget to include cauliflower in our weekly Ocado order, we have to wait another week.
We just had one of those midweek days when you have some bits of vegetables that are less than fresh and there’s not quite enough to use each on their own. When this happens, we don’t discard them, we make soup. In this instance, the weather had gone from scorching hot to wet, windy and distinctly chilly, so soup would be very welcome.
Well, it’s mid June and still we are wearing long socks and woolly cardis while cowering inside from gale force winds and rain, but worry not, we Brits are a hardy bunch and we know how to keep our peckers up! Here’s an easy wholesome dinner that will not only warm your cockles but is satisfyingly healthy too.
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
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