Monday, July 15, 2013

Gluten Free and Vegan Pizza Crust

A while ago I purchased a book by Kimberly Snyder called The Beauty Detox Foods.  I absolutely love the book.  She covers all her favorite beauty detox foods and their benefits.  She does suggest guidelines to follow by:

  1. Give up Dairy
  2. Drink the Glowing Green Smoothie every day
  3. Eat more veggies and fewer animal products
Included also is a guideline of meals for 3 different levels, depending on how strict you want to be.  I don't care to much for that.  I just want to focus on the foods she highly suggests incorporating into your every day diet.  So I have been keeping in mind her 3 main principles, and in fact I feel great!

The Glowing Green Smoothie is absolutely delicious.  It's really fun to play with the recipe.  I like to add cilantro, parsley or mint to give it a different taste.  I also change between adding pineapple, pears, kiwi and apples.  So you can change it up and make it fun and exciting.  It took me about a couple of weeks to actually look forward to my green smoothie because I was use to making eggs, sweet potato and veggies.  So in other words, I was use to a heavier meal.  So there was a bit of transition.  But aside from that, I definitely feel more energetic after drinking my green smoothie and I don't feel hungry afterwards.  The batch I make makes about 24 oz.  I drink it all in the morning.  Or if I'm in a hurry, I'll drink 1/2 and save the rest for later.  She also includes some breakfast recipes if you're finding that you're still hungry.

So the only downside of the book is her recipes.  Granted, I'm sure they are delicious but there are a lot of ingredients that are expensive or not everyday ingredients.  So I have a hard time finding myself purchasing some of her ingredients to make some of her recipes.  So I will only SLOWLY integrate her recipes because of the expense of some of the ingredients.

THE RECIPE: 

One recipe that definitely caught my eye was the Gluten Free & Vegan Pizza Crust recipe.  I've been doing really good with avoiding gluten and dairy (if you read the book, you'll understand why).  However, I've been really missing pizza.  So I decided to make a pizza!  I was a little scared because I was afraid it was going to taste nasty.  But surprisingly, it all came together really, REALLY well.  The dough formed together beautifully!  It wasn't hard to spread it out on my 10" pizza pan.  It was all quite easy!  Which I love.  

The taste of the crust is really quite good as well!  I'm really surprised by this recipe which is a very good thing because I was afraid I was going to suffer through it.  It's a great substitute for pizza.  I mean obviously not exactly the same, but good enough when it's gluten free and vegan. I might've had 6 pieces that night!!! 

I kid you not, It really is delicious!

Ingredients:
makes 1, 10" round pizza

1.5 c brown rice flour
1.5 tsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 -1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp powdered stevia
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp arrowroot starch
2 Tbsp tapioca starch
3/4 c cold water
2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer,**
mixed with 4 Tbsp very hot water
Coconut oil, grease pan and help spread out dough

**I used 2 tsp Flaxseed meal soaked in water instead (soak for 10 minutes).  
Sorry I don't really understand Ener-G egg replacer.  I think it's weird stuff :P

Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 425.  Grease 10" pizza pan (I used coconut oil).
  2. With a standing mixer, mix brown rice flower, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, stevia, oregano, arrowroot, and tapioca until well blended.
  3. On low, slowly add 3/4 c cold water.  Add egg replacer/ water mixture.  Mix well on medium speed. Mix dough until none of the dough is sticking to sides of bowl.
  4. The dough will be quite sticky so Rub some coconut oil on your hands to remove dough from bowl and spread out dough onto 10" pizza pan.  
  5. Bake in oven for 9 minutes.
  6. Add Toppings: I used salsa as the base, baby kale leaves, shredded salsa chicken (crockpot), fresh pineapple and chopped green onions.
  7. Reduce heat to 350 degrees.  Place pizza back in oven.  Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

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