Gluten Free Pizza Roll-up -- vegan, grain free, gluten free, dairy free, delicious!!! Fancy!

Our friends are coming for dinner!! One of our friends cannot eat any gluten at all. Nor can she eat cheese. So, while the others enjoy a more traditional pizza, some of us will enjoy this vegan, gluten free, grain free, pizza-esque roll up.

This dish is wildly successful, and super delicious. It was devoured by everyone. My 5 year old prefers it to regular pizza, and every guest that ate some came back for more. Need I say more?

ingredients:

dough:

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce puree

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp oregano

black pepper 

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

2 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp coconut flour

filling:

cashew vegan ricotta and spinach dip

1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours, drained.
300 g package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp nutmeg
black pepper
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

directions:
puree in the food processor until homogeneous and creamy

sauteed onion:

2 onions sauteed in coconut oil with a pinch of sea salt


directions:
1. roll the dough flat
2. spread with spinach dip
3. sprinkle with well sauteed onion
4. roll up
5. bake for 60 minutes at 345 degrees
6. let cool for a few minutes then cut and serve


and it's fabulous the next day.


A few things:
1. The spinach ricotta mixture can be made a day or two ahead then stored in an airtight container
2. The dough can be made a day or two ahead, then wrapped in parchment and sealed in a ziplock bag.
3. When you roll the dough out, cover it with parchment to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. I roll it out on a silicone baking mat. Do your best to roll it out to the whole dimension of the mat.
4. The trickiest part was rolling up the layers together. Use the mat to help you, because it will move everything in one go and keep it smooth and even. So, use the mat to turn over that first edge and then to keep on easing the roll.
5. Do your best to coax the whole rollup into the middle of a mat for baking, and slide a baking sheet under it before putting it in the oven.
6. The whole thing can be made ahead, then frozen. I froze mine unwrapped on a parchment lined baking sheet, then wrapped it very well once frozen. I then baked it for frozen at 345 for 2 hours. Let cool and set for a while before serving.

Zephyr's Birthday Lunch

Crudites with:
guacamole
cashew cheese dip

pizza crescents
gluten free vegan pizza roll

chocolate babycakes decorated with angry birds ... 

snowglobes!!!

Gluten Free, Vegan, Pizza Roll -- Warrior Food!!

This dish is wildly successful, and super delicious. It was devoured by everyone. My 5 year old prefers it to regular pizza, and every guest that ate some came back for more. Need I say more?

ingredients:

dough:

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce puree

3/4 tsp sea salt

black pepper 

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

2 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp coconut flour

filling:

cashew vegan ricotta and spinach dip

1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours, drained.
300 g package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp nutmeg
black pepper
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

directions:
puree in the food processor until homogeneous and creamy

sauteed onion:

2 onions sauteed in coconut oil with a pinch of sea salt


directions:
1. roll the dough flat
2. spread with spinach dip
3. sprinkle with well sauteed onion
4. roll up
5. bake for 60 minutes at 345 degrees
6. let cool for a few minutes then cut and serve


and it's fabulous the next day.


A few things:
1. The spinach ricotta mixture can be made a day or two ahead then stored in an airtight container
2. The dough can be made a day or two ahead, then wrapped in parchment and sealed in a ziplock bag.
3. When you roll the dough out, cover it with parchment to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. I roll it out on a silicone baking mat. Do your best to roll it out to the whole dimension of the mat.
4. The trickiest part was rolling up the layers together. Use the mat to help you, because it will move everything in one go and keep it smooth and even. So, use the mat to turn over that first edge and then to keep on easing the roll.
5. Do your best to coax the whole rollup into the middle of a mat for baking, and slide a baking sheet under it before putting it in the oven.

Pizza Crescents

So, these little crescents can be made ahead of time and frozen, so that you don't have to do any prep on the day. I made them for my son's birthday party. I froze them single layer on a baking sheet (lined with parchment) so that on the day I could just pop them in the oven. Simple!!! Tasty!!! These crescents are not gluten free, BUT there is a gluten free crust option for an open pizza.

dough

ingredients:

1 cup  warm water

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp oregano

2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup almond meal

1/4 cup ground chia seeds
1/2 cup quinoa flakes

1 cup kamut flour
1 cup spelt flour

directions:

1. combine water with honey (should be ‘bath’ temperature)

2. add yeast, stir, and let sit.

3. Combine other ingredients in a bowl (or in your mixer -- I use my mixer to make all doughs. but it's completely doable by hand, especially because of the short kneading time)

4. Add proofed yeast mixture and stir to combine and form into dough

5. Knead dough for a couple of minutes (only). Add as much kamut flour as you need to for correct dough consistency. Dough should be soft but not really sticky.

6. Make a dough ball, coat in olive oil, put in bowl, cover with a piece of parchment and a damp tea towel, and allow to rise.

when ready, divide the dough into 40 gram pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten. 

Each batch makes approximately 2 dozen

filling:

1 lb ricotta
2 eggs
2 cups tomato sauce
340 grams mozzarella cheese, shredded
sea salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tsp dried basil

mix well!

directions:
1. place a couple  tablespoons of filling  in the middle of each circle of dough
2. fold over and secure the edges, rolling them slightly
3. bake at 345 degrees for about 30 minutes, or freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then bag in an airtight bag for future use.

these can be baked from frozen at 345 for 40 minutes


I had leftover filling so I spread it on this:

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp ground chia seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup almond flour
2 tbsp coconut flour

Which made a really terrific gluten free pizza crust. Yum!

Pizza!!

Pretty much around here it's any excuse for pizza. We keep it simple most of the time, and just do large rectangular ones on our large baking sheets, with either thinly sliced tomatoes or sautéed onion as the only accent to the mozzarella and parmesan mixture atop the tomato sauce. With friends coming over for dinner, it was salads, pizza and meatballs for us. This was all that was left when the dust settled.

dough

ingredients:

1 cup  warm water

1 tbsp honey

2 tsp yeast

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 cup almond meal

1/4 cup chia seeds

2 cups kamut flour +

1 tbsp oregano

2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

(makes enough for 2 very large, thin crust pizzas)

directions:

1. combine water with honey (should be ‘bath’ temperature)

2. add yeast, stir, and let sit.

3. Combine other ingredients in a bowl (or in your mixer -- I use my mixer to make all doughs. but it's completely doable by hand, especially because of the short kneading time)

4. Add proofed yeast mixture and stir to combine and form into dough

5. Knead dough for a couple of minutes (only). Add as much kamut flour as you need to for correct dough consistency. Dough should be soft but not really sticky.

6. Make a dough ball, coat in olive oil, put in bowl, cover with a piece of parchment and a damp tea towel, and allow to rise.

When it comes time to make the pizza:

preheat the oven to 345

1. divide the dough into 2 portions.

2. roll each portion on a piece of parchment until large and thin (fills one baking sheet each)

3. cover each with sauce

4. cover the sauce with a mixture of grated mozzarella and parmesan

5. cover the cheese with sauteed onions and slice tomatoes or whatever else you fancy

6. bake at 345 for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese is getting golden and so is the crust

7. :)

p.s. you can also make little individual crusts for top-your-own pizzas, and bake 'em similarly. That can be fun for the kidlets.

Simmered Tomato Sauce -- A hearty, sweet sauce for all your sauce needs

The sauce I make is typically a sauce of minced garlic, chopped onion, and diced tomato, with some herbs thrown in for good measure. When the tomatoes are sweet, this sauce is sweet. When the tomatoes are sour, this sauce is more sour. This sauce is cooked until the tomatoes break down a little, but it's not a long cooking sauce, and it has the fresh taste of its components. 

Today, I wanted to make lasagne, and I wanted a sauce that was a little more grounded, a little more well rounded, a little more ... substantial.  I accomplished this by the addition of carrot to my sauce, and a rather extended low temperature cooking time. Yep, I simmered this sauce for 2 hours. The result is a reduced sauce, robust, full bodied, a little sweet from the carrots, and bold enough to hold its own, but mellow enough to soften all the edges and please all palates.

I pureed it after cooking (using an immersion blender -- such a great kitchen tool) to make a smooth sauce, which suited my purposes.

I'm of the opinion, when making sauce: go big or go home.  What I mean is, you might as well make as much as your pot will hold, because it freezes beautifully in glass jars, and then you have some ready the next time you need it -- for a quickie dinner when you're pressed for time, or for whatever meal you've lovingly planned -- and it's one thing less you'll have to do then. In harvest season, I will buy as many tomatoes as I can carry, and use every pot in the house. There's no point in doing that now, because the tomatoes are neither local nor cheap (but Loblaws now carries organic romas in pound packages, which is great), but because of the long cooking time of this sauce, it's a great idea to make more than just your needs for the day.

The following recipe, after cooking for 2 hours, made 2 L (8 cups), which I sadly used all at once because I made an extra lasagne for the freezer. 

ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1/4 cup garlic, finely minced

3 cups onion, finely chopped

2 cups carrots, finely chopped

5 lbs roma tomatoes, diced (about 10 cups)

2 tbsp sea salt

2 tbsp marjoram

1 tbsp oregano

black pepper

directions:

1. saute the garlic, onion, and carrot in a covered saute pan with 1 tbsp sea salt until well sweated and translucent. Use low heat.

2. add the tomatoes, herbs, pepper, and rest of sea salt, and stir

3. cook on low heat (just enough for a low simmer) for 2 hours or so, until the sauce has achieved lift-off

4. use chunky, or puree. Use now, or freeze for later. If you freeze it, make sure you leave a little space at the top of the jar for expansion. It would be a shame to break the jars after all your hard work chopping.

This sauce really was perfect in the lasagne. I think it would be really nice with the addition -- either in the sauce or in the lasagne itself -- of a full-bodied mushroom. Alas, my spouse is not only not a mushroom lover, he is a mushroom hater.  I look forward to trying this sauce again for pizza -- ooh, with thinly sliced king mushrooms -- or portobelli. Yum.

Pizza -- the healthy way

Our friends joined us for a fun afternoon of games, followed by a dinner of pizza (and sauteed broccoli -- what can I say, it's broccoli mania here).

Instead of making the pizza in to turnovers, we ate it big and flat. And it was good.

I sauce generously, and use two kinds of cheese -- a boring but organic mozzarella, and some raw milk parmesan.

If you've tried my recipe for panzarotto, this recipe will seem familiar. I thought the pizza bore revisiting, because it's always well received, and before I didn't have any pictures of pizza, only of the panzarotto.  At last, voila, a pizza mosaic:

pizza mosaic

dough ingredients:

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 tbsp honey

2 tsp bread yeast

1 cup almond flour

2 cups kamut flour

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

directions:

1. combine the water, honey, and yeast, and allow to foam up

2. mix together the flours, salt, oregano, and coconut oil

3. add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, and knead until it is a smooth dough

4. allow to rise for a while

5. roll 1/2 the dough flat on a piece of parchment-- this recipe will make to xl pizzas that each fill a standard baking sheet. Repeat with the 2nd half of the dough

6. transfer the flattened dough to baking sheets

7. cover the dough generously with sauce

8. cover the sauce generously with cheese

9. add other toppings if you like. We often like sauteed onions and grape tomato quarters. I think mushrooms might be nice, too. Go wild. 

10. bake for 30 or 40 minutes at 345, swapping the positions of the trays halfway through if you are baking 2 at once.

11. Eat with gusto or make your own pizza mosaic.

Pizza

PANZAROTTO ... OF A SORT

By now you might have figured out that I'm a bit of a make-it-ahead-of-time person. Which involves freezing. Like the samosas. Or these delectable little pizza turn-overs. They make great quick dinners when you can just pull a few out of the freezer and throw them in the oven for 40 minutes with no prep whatsoever. That's what I did last night. The thing that separates this pizza from others is the fact that the dough is amazingly healthy. High in protein. Won't spike your blood sugar. And tastes fantastic. And has a delicate, yeasty tooth to it. You can use this dough to make panzerotto or to make big ol' open pizzas. Or small open pizzas. We'll often throw together 4 XL pizzas (by doubling the dough recipe) when we have a party. Because I make it with a simple and delicious tomato sauce and organic mozzarella, embellished with a touch of raw-milk parmigiano (there's this great cheese guy at the Riverdale Farmer's market), it appeals to all ages. I've been known to add sliced grape tomatoes and caramelized onions. Yum. 

part one: dough

ingredients:

1 cup  warm water

1 1/2 tsp honey

2 tsp yeast

2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 cup almond meal

2 cups kamut flour

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp sea salt

(makes enough for 2 very large, thin crust pizzas)

directions:

1. combine water with honey (should be ‘bath’ temperature)

2. add yeast, stir, and let sit.

3. Combine other ingredients in a bowl (or in your mixer -- I use my mixer to make all doughs. but it's completely doable by hand, especially because of the short kneading time)

4. Add proofed yeast mixture and stir to combine and form into dough

5. Knead dough for a couple of minutes (only).

6. Make a dough ball, coat in olive oil, put in bowl, cover with a piece of parchment and a damp tea towel, and allow to rise.

part two: sauce

ingredients:

4 large tomatoes

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

sea salt to taste

1/2 tsp oregano (or basil or both)

black pepper

extra virgin coconut oil

(I generally make this sauce in larger quantity and freeze it in labelled glass jars. It keeps very well.)

directions:

1. finely mince the garlic

2. finely chop the onion

3. saute the onion and garlic in coconut oil in your favourite saute pan, with a little sea salt

4. finely chop the tomatoes

5. add the tomatoes to the thoroughly cooked onion and garlic. season with sea salt, black pepper, and herbs of your choice to your taste

6. cook the mixture until it has reduced and thickened. cooking time will depend on what type of tomatoes you choose. some have much less liquid than others. You don't want your sauce to be too watery.

part 3a: making pizza

1. to make pizzas, roll the dough on baking parchment until desired thickness has been reached (using a rolling pin). You can make 2 XL pizzas that will take up an entire baking sheet, or you can make little individual pizzas and let everyone decorate their own.

2. top with sauce and cheese and toppings of your choice

3. bake at 345 for 30 minutes or so

part 3b: making panzarotto

1. to make panzarotto, using your weigh scale, divide the dough into 30 gram balls. Keep them covered with parchment and a damp cloth when not being used.

2. roll each ball of dough out with a rolling pin

3. place a spoonful of sauce and some cheese (and whatever else you like) in the center

4. fold in half and crimp the edges with a fork

5. place on a lined baking sheet.

6. when the baking sheet is full, you have the option of freezing or baking the turnovers.

7. to freeze, put the baking sheet in the freezer for several hours. The turnovers can then be bagged and labelled to be used in the future.

8. to bake, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake at 345 for about 30 minutes

9. to bake from frozen, place on a line baking sheet and bake at 345 for about 40 minutes.

makes about 24 little turnovers