20

All right, so not the greatest picture, but that’s what you get with an iPhone and oven lighting. It looks like a pizza, right? And the title of this blog post is “My Paleo Pizza,” so that must mean it contains no dairy, grains or deadly omega 6-ridden oils, right? Almost.

That picture is of the mostly Paleo Pizza my fiancé made the other night, before he put it in the oven. It’s true that it has no grains or dairy. But it does have a couple ingredients worthy of a tsk or two. Regardless, I wanted to share this amazing recipe with you all so you, too, can enjoy a pizza when you’re in the mood for an exciting night in.

First, here’s the crust recipe. He found the original one here, but modified it a bit. He added the almond flour and subbed olive oil for the sunflower oil to make it more paleo.

Crust Ingredients
1.25 cups flaxseed meal
1 cup Almond flour/ meal
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons natural baking powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Italian mixed dried herbs
3 large eggs, beaten until smooth
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup water

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 425 F.
2. Combine flaxseed meal, almond meal, sea salt, baking powder and Italian herbs together until lump-free.
3. Beat together eggs, olive oil, honey and water until smooth.
4. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture. Blend well until smooth.
5. Cover with a  towel and put in a warm place until doubled in size for about 1 hour.
6. Press into desired shape.
7. Place on a pre-greased or non-stick pizza pan or sit on a silicon baking mat.
8. Bake for 15 minutes in the center of the oven until cooked.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool until warm to the touch.
10. Add favorite toppings and then return to the oven to bake as with any normal pizza.

Makes 1 medium (12in) pizza base

Toppings
After the crust had baked, he added a few essentials to make it look so pizza-like. First, he smothered an organic tomato pizza sauce over the crust. Then he added Daiya cheese. So Daiya may not be the most Paleo of Paleo ingredients, but it sure is a nice treat sometimes, and the most Paleo of all the non-dairy cheeses that I’ve found. This is what’s in it, according to their website:

Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, vegan natural flavors, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor), titanium dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral).

Daiya isn’t a staple in my diet, but I’m alright with eating negligible amounts of safflower oil and pea protein when I have a hankering for pizza, because it’s preferable for me over actual dairy.

Carrying on. He then added some sliced mushrooms, bell peppers, pan-fried bulk sausage, and onions. And of course, as if you hadn’t noticed, he topped it off with some pepperoni slices. They were as big in real life as they look in the picture. He stuck it in the oven for another 20 minutes or so and it was done. And it was amazing! Our cheese and pizza-loving friend confirmed that it even passed for pizza to a non-Paleo person.

How It Turned Out
The flax and almond meal crust gave it this nutty, savory, rich flavor. The Daiya made it cheesy, since that stuff melts like real mozarella. And the traditional toppings reminded me of pizzas delivered to my door as a chunky college student.

Of course it wasn’t the paper thin, perfectly crispy and chewy crust you’d get from Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria in Chicago. It was a little crumbly, but I think the thinner you make it, the more crust-like it would be.

Some of you Paleo nerds are wondering how I could bear to see the polyunsaturated fatty acids in that flax meal be exposed to heat of any kind. Didn’t the baking render them oxidized?! It’s similar to cooking fish with their equally unstable fatty acid composition. When the flax is in its whole form, as opposed to just the extracted oil, it’s more protected from heat damage by the natural anti-oxidants present in the whole seeds. I wasn’t too worried about it.

All in all, a delicious, satisfying, and pretty paleo pizza experience. I highly recommend it.

Anyone have any improvements to this pizza recipe? Any words of wisdom?