For those of you looking for an elegant dish, this isn’t it. The crust is chewy and crispy, but exactly uniform. You can buy one in any grocery store that looks a lot better. The toppings make it marvelous. This one has artichoke, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes, but you’re only limited to your imagination. I’m working on one with fig jam, onions, and savory cheese. This is not a fancy meal, but it’s delicious.
Layers of tomato sauce, onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, pesto, and cashew parmesan
This is what the crust looks like before being topped.
Ingredients:
2+ cups of riced cauliflower, steamed and squeezed (about 1 medium head of cauliflower with just the ‘flower’ parts and not the stalk)
1/4 cup of Cashew “Parmesan cheese” with nutritional yeast, salt, and oregano
3 tablespoons of arrow root starch
1 tablespoon of Avocado oil
1/4 cup of garbanzo bean flour
2 eggs (or egg substitute - 2 TBS Sunflower oil + 2 Tsp ground flaxseed)
Salt, pepper, oregano, and any other seasonings
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400
Turn the cauliflower into “rice” by using a food processor
In a big pot, boil some water. Use a strainer over the pot and steam the cauliflower (about five minutes).
Let it cool enough so you can squeeze it really well in cheese cloth or a linen dish towel. It will ‘shrink’ but everything does eventually
Make the cashew parmesan cheese in the food processor
3/4 cup of cashews
3 tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
Any other seasonings (garlic, oregano, basil, etc.)
Optional: use 1/4 cup of real Parmesan Cheese
In a separate bowl, beat the two eggs or substitute for the oil + ground flaxseed
In the main bowl, combine the dry ingredients (garbanzo bean flour arrowroot starch, and salt/pepper.
Add the 1/4 cup of cashew mixture, the oil, the riced cauliflower and the eggs or egg substitute. Stir this until it’s all mixed together and you can handle it.
On a cookie sheet, put a piece of parchment paper and either spray it well with avocado oil or sprinkle some garbanzo bean flour to avoid from sticking.
Form a pizza crust (about 1/4-1/2 inch thick)
Bake at 400 for 15-25 minutes. You can flip this over and get each side browned.
FOR THE SAUCE & STUFF:
In a large pan, heat up the sauce (you can make your own of find a brand that you love), add the other ingredients (e.g. artichokes, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, fennel, onions, etc.)
Simmer this until the sauce is thick and the ingredients are cooked
Spread the sauce on the crust
You can top with actual cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) or some of the plant-based cashew cheese.
Put it back in the oven and let the cheese melt and get gooey