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