serves 3-6// active time 30 minutes, total time 1 hour
This non-traditional, yet highly flavorful, pizza-style dish is made with a cauliflower, ground almond and chia seed crust. Top the crust with your favorite toppings and enjoy this healthy meal any night of the week. Serve with a side salad and a vinaigrette dressing.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup chia seeds 3/4 cup water
3/4 cup ground almonds or almond meal
1 head cauliflower
2 tsp dried oregano
sea salt, or to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
1 onion, sliced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 green pepper, sliced
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
1/4 olives, sliced
chiles flakes, to taste
DIRECTIONS
To make the crust, combine together the chia seeds and water and let sit for at least 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Next, clean and roughly chop the cauliflower. Place the pieces of cauliflower into a food processor and pulse until it has a fine rice-like texture.
Measure out 3 cups of the cauliflower and place into a large bowl. Add the ground almonds, oregano, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast (if using). Other flavorings, such as garlic and/or onion powder can be added to the crust if you like.
Make a hole in the center and add in the Chia mixture.
Using your hands, combine the ingredients and shape into a rough ball. The mixture will obviously not resemble a traditional flour dough.
Next, place the mixture onto a baking tray and press into an even flat crust — making sure that the sides of crust are the same thickness as the middle, otherwise they will burn more easily. If desired, the crust can also be shaped into individual pizzas.
Bake the crust for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. At this point, the crust could be used as is, but it won’t be firm enough to lift with your hands. For a firmer crust (which we recommend), carefully flip the crust onto the back of another baking tray that has been lined with a clean piece of parchment. Next, carefully lift or slide the crust back onto the same baking tray and then gently and slowly remove the parchment paper from the top of the crust. Place the tray back into the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or so.
Assemble the pizza: Top with your favorite toppings or use the ingredients listed above as inspiration.
For this particular combination of ingredients, it is best to cook the ingredients first. To do this, heat a large fry pan over medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onions and dry-sauté for a minute and then add the mushrooms and let cook for another 2 or 3 minutes, or until most of the moisture has evaporated. Next, add the green onion and let cook for another minute or so.
No matter which vegetables or ingredients you use, keep in mind that they will not really get cooked in the oven. So if they you want them cooked once the pizza is done, you will need to do so before you add them to the pizza.
Lastly, mix together the pizza sauce and sun-dried tomatoes (if using). The sun-dried tomatoes just add a bit of depth and richness to the sauce.
Next, spread a thin layer of the sauce onto the crust and top with the vegetables, sliced olives and chile flakes. Bake the pizza for another 5 to 10 minutes, just to fully heat the crust and toppings through.
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