Grain-Free, Guilt-Free Pizza!

“I just really miss eating pizza with my family.”
This lament from my client struck a familiar chord with me.

Because when we hosted a build-your-own-pizza night for our friends on New Year’s Eve, I resorted to making myself a gluten-free flour base for my own creation…
This is not how I usually roll! And I felt nicely bloated from it on New Year’s Day! (because gluten-free flours can be hard work for your body too, yaknow!)

My client’s similar dilemma kicked my butt back into my usual approach to such a challenge.

So I set to work to create a grain-free, healthy alternative that would mean my client could join in with her family’s traditional Friday Pizza + Movie Night.

• If you have ever looked longingly at a friend’s thin-crust-with-extra-cheese.
• If you have ever wished you’d had that one last Hawaiian before being diagnosed celiac.
• Or even if you wished that new gluten free option from your fave pizza chain didn’t leave you feeling bloated…

This grain-free pizza crust is going to change everything…

Because not only is this recipe grain-free, it replaces that white flour with a wholesome yet somewhat unlikely vegetable – the humble cauliflower.
And you know what? you wouldn’t even know it from the taste.
Don’t believe me? Seriously, try it for yourself!

If you’ve read my book Don’t Toss the Juicer Pulp, you could even consider this a bonus recipe. Because although you can make this recipe without a juicer, it’s easier if you have one AND you’ll get a juice from it too.

You can use the cauliflower juice in several ways:

1. Drink it as a shot in the same way as the Broccoli Anti-Cancer Shot in my book – Don’t Toss the Juicer Pulp.
   Cauliflower has many similar anti-cancer nutrients to broccoli.
2. Add it to the other juiced ingredients in the recipe for Marvellous Melon Metaboliser in my book.
3. Juice a chunky slice of pineapple (after you have removed your cauli pulp), mix with the cauli juice and drink!

Just in case you’re thinking this right now…

Why Use Cauliflower In A Pizza Crust???

First of all, it’s an opportunity to replace a simple, processed carbohydrate such as the white flour in pizza crust, with a REAL, WHOLE vegetable. And that is always a good step for your health.

Second, if you received my Take5 Recipe Series, you will already know I’m a fan of cauliflower and its nutrient super powers:

• There are dozens of studies that have linked cauliflower-containing diets with cancer prevention, in particular bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer.
• As an excellent source of vitamin K, cauliflower provides us with one of the hallmark anti-inflammatory nutrients.
• The fibre content of cauliflower makes this cruciferous vegetable a great choice for digestive system support
• Sulforaphane (made from a glucosinolate in cauliflower) can help protect the lining of your stomach. This is of great importance to anyone who has food allergies, chronic fatigue or an auto-immune disorder, as ‘leaks’ in the gut wall exacerbate these conditions.

So let’s get down to it, shall we?

Grain-Free, Guilt-Free Pizza Crust

Grain-Free, Guilt-Free Pizza!

Ingredients:

• All the pulp from 1 juiced head of cauliflower
• 1 Tablespoon ground nuts – I used a mix of almonds and pine nuts ground in my blender, but you can use any nuts you like
• ½ Cup (I use the fluid cup measurement even though it’s cheese) grated cheese – I used a 50/50 mix of hard goats cheese/soft goats cheese, but honestly just use what you want!
• 1 Tablespoon of dried herbs – oregano, basil or mixed Italian herbs all work well
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (use a brand labelled gluten-free if you are gluten sensitive)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds soaked for 5 minutes in 2 Tablespoons of water
  (I used white chia seeds to keep the colour light, but you can use black, white or a mix)

Equipment Tips:
A pair of silicone baking trays will make this recipe much easier to make. Otherwise, you can use flat baking trays with baking paper.
A 12inch square of muslin is a handy piece of equipment to have in the kitchen, and ideal for this recipe. Otherwise, use a clean tea towel.
A flat, wide spatula slice (silicone is great!) is ideal for easing the pizza base from your tray.

Make the Magic

Note: These instructions look lengthy but they really are not. I’ve just explained some steps in a lot of detail to ensure you get the desired outcome – a truly workable and delicious pizza crust without using grains. Okay, let’s go…

1. Preheat oven to 220c / 425f

2. If you are using a silicone baking sheet, lightly spray or brush it with a little oil.

3. Place your baking tray in the oven as it is preheating – you just want to get a little heat on it while you mix your ingredients.

4. Processing Your Cauliflower:

If you have a super-efficient masticating juicer, you can probably skip this first step, depending on just how dry your cauliflower pulp is.
If (like me) you have a centrifugal juicer, we will be extracting that last bit of moisture from your pulp in the next step.
If you are using a blender, you need to blend the cauliflower florets as finely as possible and then do this:

Pile your cauliflower pulp into the centre of a square of clean muslin or a clean tea towel, gather the cloth around the pulp and twist and squeeze out the remaining liquid. You will be left with a firm-ish ball like this:

Squeezed Cauliflower Pulp

I squeezed another ¼ cup of liquid from my juiced pulp with just a few good twists!
If you have used a blender, you will get a lot more juice from your cauliflower – keep going until you can squeeze no more!Once you are satisfied that your pulp is well and truly squeezed:

5. Place the cauli pulp and all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. I like to do this with my hands, squeezing the mixture between my fingers to really blend them and ensure the mixture will stick together.

Cauliflower Pizza Dough

6. Form the ‘dough’ into a ball and roll it into a smooth ball in your hands.

7. Remove your baking tray from the oven and place the dough ball onto your tray.

8. Use your hands to press, flatten and shape the ball into a pizza base approx ½ inch / 1cm deep.
TIP: As you tidy up the edges, keep them a little thicker than the rest of the base – the edges will brown quicker and a bit of extra thickness stops them from crisping too much.

Cauliflower Pizza Base on Silicone Tray

9. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 mins, until the base is browning on top and losing its ‘wetness’

Okay, this next bit can be a bit tricky. But this step really transforms this recipe into a workable alternative to a bread pizza base. Trust me on this:

10. Remove your base from the oven, gently loosen the base from the tray by sliding a flat spatula between the two, working your way gently around the base until all of it has been loosened.

11. And then you flip it!

If you are using a silicone baking tray this is where a pair of them comes in really handy: you can simply place the second tray on top of the first and turn upside down (wearing suitable heat protection on your hands, of course).
If you only have one suitable baking tray, flip your base onto a large plate or chopping board, then slide it back onto your tray.

12. Return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes, until it is browning and drying on the top side.

And there you have it! A grain-free, gluten free and delicious pizza base made from an actual vegetable.

Grain-Free, Guilt-Free Pizza!

I can also happily tell you that I have thoroughly tested this pizza base and it freezes really well (I was worried it would go soggy but it didn’t). Just defrost thoroughly, preferably on a baking tray, and then pop in the oven to warm through before adding your toppings.

Now please tell me in the comments below….
Will you try this recipe?
What is your reason to try a grain-free pizza option?

I would love to know, so please get the conversation going below.

Buon Appetito!

It’s here at last!

My book Don’t Toss the Juicer Pulp is now available to download on Kindle at Amazon, and for 3 days only you can download it for FREE!

If you’ve been following my videos, you will have had a sneak peek into some of the recipes from the book.

So, if you’ve been inspired by these to use your juicer pulp, you will love the recipes I have created for the book.

All you need to do is go to your Amazon page for your country and search for ‘Don’t Toss the Juicer Pulp’.
It is free to download from 20^th to 22^nd December, so please get there quickly and get your copy!
Share with your family, friends and on social media so that everyone can take advantage of this Free Download period!
There are links to the major Amazon stores below.

As a special thank you for all the encouragement I have received about my recipes and the book, I have created a special bonus set of recipes that will be especially helpful in this festive season.
These recipes are available as part of a special bonus download called Festive Food Hacks, created to help you survive the holidays with your health intact – you can sign up below to receive this.

I’m also addressing the dilemma of how to keep juicing during the colder months, for those of you (like me!) who are in the midst of winter and finding juicing at its most challenging.

If you have a juicer, and especially if it’s gathering dust since the temperature dropped (if you’re in the southern hemisphere feel free to ignore this!), this juice recipe will at least help your juicing taste buds get into the Christmas spirit. Instead of tropical sunshine, this recipe imparts feelings of a deeper sweetness, with cinnamon and ginger bringing spicy warmth and blood sugar regulation.

And you should know by now…. don’t toss that leftover pulp! We have a very festive plan for that in the next food hack, available in the free download book below…

Winter Warming Juice

Winter Warming Juice

One of the highlights of the cold months for me is the arrival of persimmons on the grocery shelves.

Tasting like the exotic love child of a mango and a nectarine, these super sweet-tasting  fruits contain worthy levels of vitamins A and C to ward of winter chills, along with B-Complex vitamins, and minerals.
They also have a healthy fibre content, which we’ll be using in the in a further food hack.

This juice will not only help to control those pesky festive sugar cravings with its natural, grounding sweetness, drinking juices laden with raw enzymes will help your body digest any heavy Christmas foods you simply can’t resist!

Ingredients

1 Sweet potato – peeled
1 Large orange – rind and pith peeled off, cut in half widthways and remove any pips
1 Persimmon – peeled (you can substitute with nectarine or other stone fruit if you can’t source persimmon)
1 Pear – top and tailed, quartered and any pips cut out
1 Large Carrot – top and tailed
2 inches of ginger – skin peeled off
Pinch of ground cinnamon

Juice all ingredients, pour into a glass, stir in the cinnamon and drink!

You can find out what to do with the pulp from this juice in the free download that accompanies my book. So sign up below and learn how to create these deliciously Christmassy desserts for yourself (Psst… that ‘cream’ you see isn’t what you think it is… and it’s unbelievably delicious, dairy free AND healthy… you’ll love me for this discovery alone )

Three ways to use your juicer pulp (and no one will ever guess ;-)

Be sure to download your free copy of my Book at Amazon, as this bonus package includes resources for the book too.

Don't Toss the Juicer Pulp!

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Here are direct links to Don’t Toss the Juicer Pulp at the major Amazon stores, but please search the book title on your country’s Amazon store if it is not listed here:

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Thank you so much for your support. I hope you’ll love the book as much as I’ve loved creating it for you.
And if it feels good to do so, please leave a review on Amazon of your first impressions as every download and review helps the book to reach more people who will benefit from the healthy suggestions inside.

Juicer Pulp Herb Slices

I have another fab juicer pulp recipe for you that will help you enjoy bready favourites without consuming grains.

But before I get to that, I wanted to answer a question that was asked in some of the many wonderful emails I received in response to my Juicer Pulp Wraps recipe.

If I’m drinking juice and eating juicer pulp, why not just eat the whole foods?

It’s a great question!

And there are several great reasons why juicing AND using the juice pulp separately can benefit your health.

Fresh juices are a nutrition transfusion

Drinking the liquid from veggies and fruits is an amazing way to get quality vitamins and minerals into our cells without the need for digestion.
This gives our digestive system a break – something especially helpful for anyone with a compromised digestive system due to eating irritating foods such as grains and processed foods.

Well balanced juices can give us healthy energy and it would often be difficult and time-consuming to actually eat the amount of veggies and fruits that we can slam in the juicer!

Fibre is essential… but can be tricky to get right

If you’re using juicing to help with a health condition, it is likely that your digestion isn’t working 100% efficiently – our ability to digest and absorb nutrients is so vital to our health that a myriad of health conditions can be caused by an inability to properly absorb nutrients.
For anyone with compromised digestion, there is a Catch 22 situation – fibre is very important for intestinal health but it becomes quite difficult to process precisely because your intestines are not fully healthy. When this is the case, cooked fibre eases the digestive load whilst still being beneficial to the gut.

Food is much more than just nutrition!

We should also take into account that eating is much more than a function – we want to experience our food in many different ways, flavours and textures and this is important as it keeps us inspired and interested in eating healthy foods.

Replacing unhealthy foods with alternatives that still allow us to experience food in our own cultural ways is in fact a very powerful tool. It means we can still connect with the joy of, say, dipping bread into soup without compromising our health goals.

And speaking of dipping bread into soup (see what I did there this week’s recipe will allow you to do just that… and make grilled cheese… and enjoy your favourite sandwich filling… and… ohhhh the possibilities! And all without a grain or a speck of gluten in sight!

Watch the video to see how to transform your juicer into a ‘bread-making machine’!

This juice and pulp recipe pairing is just one of 21 ways to create balanced juices and all kinds of foods with that pulp instead of tossing it!
You can be the first to know when the book is available for download – just sign up here and get videos and inspiration like this in your inbox too!

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Sweet Veggie Juice

Sweet Veggie Juice

Ingredients

1 sweet potato
1 red bell pepper
2 carrots
1 zucchini/courgette
1 apple

Juice all ingredients and drink!

Juicer Pulp Herb Slices

Sup-herb Slices

This bread alternative is packed with mediterranean flavours and reminiscent of rustic, artisan breads.

It’s so satisfying on flavour and nutrition that you won’t need much of it to

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 cups of Sweet Veggie Juice pulp
• 1 cup ground nuts/seeds (I love a mix of almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and sunflower seeds)
• 5 or 6 sun-dried tomatoes preserved in oil, roughly chopped (you can replace with any antipasti preserved in oil)
• Handful fresh basil, chopped
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons oil – avocado or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

Make the Magic

1. Preheat oven to 190c/375f
2. If using a silicone baking tray, brush it with a generous layer of oil
   If using a metal baking tray, line with baking/greaseproof paper and brush the paper with oil
3. Combine all the ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl with a fork
4. Spoon the mixture onto your baking tray and spread evenly to approx. 1/2inch thickness
5. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the edges are nice and rustic-y brown
6. Remove from oven and lightly cut the layer into quarters then turn each quarter over using a wide, flat spatula
7. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes until the exposed side is now browned
8. Remove from oven and leave to cool before cutting into smaller squares

You can store these in the fridge for up to 5 days. They also freeze well.

So tell me in the comments below, are you inspired to give this recipe a try?
Would it help you to not miss out on your favourite foods?