Gluten Free Pizza

We love homemade gluten free pizza. As much as I do really love healthy food I’m not so dietetically pure that I’m going to try and convince you I don’t like foods like ice cream, French fries and pizza. Let’s be frank: who doesn’t love to eat pizza?

Homemade Pizza is the Best

In my clean eating quest, I’ve been making my own homemade whole grain pizza out of white whole wheat flour (read more about white whole wheat flour HERE) and flaxseeds for a few years now. Making homemade pizza is actually pretty easy. I also have a more “adult” version of homemade whole grain pizza that’s also super easy and very veggie-rich. But, since I keep getting requests for gluten free this and that, including gluten free pizza and crust recipe, I thought I’d experiment a bit and see what I could come up with…

Gluten Free Pizza Recipe

Gluten free is sort of a buzz word in many health circles these days. Back in the 90’s “fat free” was in, then “low carb” resurfaced and now “gluten free” is all the dietary rage. But, just because a food is “fat free”, “low carb” or “gluten free” does NOT make it an intrinsically healthy food (if you to have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease you of course need to avoid gluten for health purposes.)

Food manufacturers capitalize on whatever dietary trend is “hot” at the moment and they more often than not concoct some highly processed empty calorie food product that meets nutrition-of-the-moment criteria. Gluten free pizza crust is a perfect example.

You can absolutely buy a premade gluten free crust but chances are it’s gonna be made with a bunch of empty calorie ingredients (white rice flour, potato starch, potato flour, tapioca flour, etc.)

Since it’s a challenge to make a gluten free pizza crust recipe taste good while using flour that’s free from gluten, I decided to experiment a bit and make an “outside of the box” flour-free.

Gluten free pizza recipe from beans, cooked whole grain brown rice and flaxseeds…which happens to be a super healthy clean eating recipe that really and truly does taste good. And fine, I’ll admit the crust sounds strange. But it does work. And it is tasty. As long as it’s healthy and tasty, I’ll eat it.  As an added bonus it’s incredibly easy to make too. 

Note: if the pizza crust is difficult to handle and doesn’t seem “sticky” enough you can try adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds at a time.

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Gluten Free Pizza

Note: You can’t exactly pick my pizza up the same way you would a “normal” pizza, but it’s easy to eat with a fork and knife.

• Author: Ivy Larson

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 cups cooked short grain brown rice (cook rice in a rice cooker for best results)
• 1 can (15 ounces) organic garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (look for a BPA-free brand such as Eden Foods)
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseeds
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• Unrefined sea salt, to taste
• Garlic granules, to taste

Topping Suggestions:

• 3 zucchini, quartered and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 box (3.5 ounces) Shitake mushrooms, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (kitchen shears make snipping mushroom a snap!)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Unrefined sea salt, to taste
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• Good quality prepared marinara made with extra virgin olive oil (avoid those made with empty calorie cheap vegetable oils)—I like Rao’s, Amy’s Marinara, Mezzetta, and Gia Russa
• Organic grass-fed (pastured) shredded cheddar cheese, use about 2-3 tablespoons per pizza

Instructions

Crust

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly oil a heavy baking pan.
2. In a food processor, process the brown rice, garbanzo beans, flaxseeds, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, unrefined sea salt and garlic granules until mixture starts to ball up (you may need to stop and start the food processor several times to mix ingredients with a fork.)
3. Divide the “dough” into 4 equal parts. Spread mixture on baking pan about 1/4 inch thick (you can make it slightly thinner if you prefer.) Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove gluten free pizza crust from the oven and spread a thin layer of marinara on top of each crust. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of cheese on top of each pizza. Put the gluten free pizzas back in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Top with warm roasted vegetables.

Toppings:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If topping with vegetables, place on a large heavy baking pan and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. Roast for 25-30 minutes, or until tender. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.