Rawlicious Pizza
One thing guaranteed to make anybody think twice about becoming vegan is giving up cheese and maybe more specifically the thought of no more pizza! Well worry no more. Raw pizza in my opinion is a good substitute. I’m not going to lie, this doesn’t taste like the processed offering from a pizza joint, but it’s completely and utterly delish in its own right and a million times healthier. One thing I would encourage you to do is add your own toppings – like, mushrooms, rocket, watercress whatever pleases your palate. I’ve listed below what I added but feel free to get your creative juices flowing and make it your own.
Instant Pizza Crust
144g sunflower seeds – ground as finely as possible in food processor
180g flax meal
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 clove garlic minced
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp of water – more if needed
1/2 tsp of salt
Place the sunflower and flax meal, oregano and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Add the garlic, oil and water and mix. Be careful you don’t add too much – you need a nice firm consistency for the crust.
On a serving tray, press the entire crust into one large pizza crust with a raised edge.
For the tomato topping
225g of cherry tomatoes
3 sundried tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
60-70ml olive oil
1/2 tsp of salt
Put all the ingredients in a blender/food processor. Spread over the pizza crust.
For the vegan cheese
300g of cashew nuts
1 clove of garlic minced
juice from 2 lemons
2-3 tbsps of water as needed
1/2 tsp sea salt
Put all the ingredients in a blender/food processor. Spread over the pizza crust
Now you have your tomato and cheese base you can assemble the toppings. I added 2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves, black olives, green olives stuffed with chillies and chunks of ripe avocado and some torn basil leaves. So add whatever takes your fancy – get creative!
Nutritional Benefits
Tomatoes are well known for their antioxidant content and a rich concentration of lycopene. Apparently researchers have found an important connection between lycopene and bone health. Sunflower seeds provide a significant amount of selenium, magnesium and Vitamin E. Selenium benefits your skin as its antioxidant properties regenerate vitamins E and C, delaying the onset of ageing. Also, researchers now rank flaxseeds as the number 1 source of lignans in human diets. Flaxseeds contain about 7 times as many lignans as the closest runner-up food (sesame seeds). Lignans are unique fibre-related polyphenols that provide us with antioxidant and fibre-like benefits, and also act as phytoestrogens. This is probably the healthiest pizza you’ll ever eat. Nom Nom!
Bon Appetit!
With love,
Deliciously Miss V*
*An aspiring novelist who lives in London and turned vegan earlier this year
