Naturopathic Control: Vegan & Gluten-Free Pizza Recipe

If you have been following my blogs (including my blog on Tropical Organic Gardening), you may know that I spent the last 3 months traveling. My stops included a stay in a very rural tropical countryside with a middle aged couple. The lifestyle was nearly as simple as I believe it ought to be and I loved it. In fact, I consider 'simplicity' a luxury. That is the real good life (but that's another discussion).

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza & Tropical Guacamole Topping for Dinner. Yummy!

Anyway, the food was no exception; it was phenomenal. So I wish to share this simple but very tasty vegan and gluten free pizza recipe from that visit. Although this vegan pizza recipe sufficed with its own vegan 'cheese' topping, we were decadent by smearing the top with an exotic but so simple guacamole.

As a child, I meditated on favourite dishes and delivered a secret prayer. It went like this. 'Dear God, please have this dish in heaven!' No kidding! I no longer do that. However, if I did, I would have placed a similar order for this gluten free and vegan pizza recipe.

In reality, my host never followed fixed recipes. It was always unique because she reinvented her vegan pizza recipe every time by tossing in what was available in her tropical organic garden and pantry. In the end, her pizza was always phenomenal. Consequently, this pizza recipe below is what I noted one day. Please be kind and suggest variations to the ingredients.

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Crust:
Mix the following vegan & gluten free pizza crust ingredients until you achieve a dough ball. The ingredients for the vegan & gluten free pizza crust are garbanzo bean flour; spices; water and oil. Other vegan pizza topping ideas include broccoli, eggplant and sweet peppers. Please offer alternatives for vegan, gluten free crust. My host combined all the ingredients except the oil. In her case, she used olive oil. She then smeared a generous layer of oil over the crust. Since coconut oil has a higher smoking point and is consequently among the best oil for heating foods, coconut oil is my personal preference for this baking recipe. In reality, my host's dough did not hold together very firmly well. In fact, we needed to handle slices by cutting each slice into tiny squares with knives and forks. To hold together the dough better, consider using grounded flaxseed, a vegan egg substitute.

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Crust

Grease the bottom of the pizza pan.
Evenly flatten your vegan, gluten free pizza dough into the bottom of the pizza dish.

As mentioned previously, generously cover the smooth dough with oil (coconut oil or olive oil). I find that either a large spoon or spatula is useful.

Bake the gluten free pizza crust until it needs as much remaining cooking time as the toppings will need to cook.

Remove your vegan, gluten free pizza crust from the oven and spread the vegan pizza toppings over the partially baked pizza crust in the following order (before returning the pizza to the oven).

Basil leaves, fresh and chopped. Other greens and vegetables may go on this layer

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Toppings

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Basil is one of the Toppings

Tomatoes, sliced

Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza Recipe - Tomatoes are among the Toppings
~~Cheese, shredded for topping.~~ Unlike me, my hosts do not create vegan recipes. As you may also know, while traveling, I often eat vegetarian foods. You can make a quick vegan cheese pizza topping by making a paste with nutritional yeast (NOT regular baker's yeast), water and coconut milk. Another quick vegan pizza cheese substitute is this exotic guacamole topping.