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Saturday, February 5, 2011

flax-less raw thin pizza crust


good news, flax-avoiders - you can make raw pizza crusts without it! (personally, i don't avoid flaxseeds, just forgot to add them.) the crusts are on the thin side and may crack a bit when frozen, so please be gentle.

flax-less raw pizza crusts
(fits one excalibur deydrator tray and yields 9 crusts)

ingredients:

1 1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats
2/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup summer squash, chopped
1/4 cup water
1 T olive oil (more for a softer crust, less for a crunchier crust)
1 tsp herbs of choice (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley...)
1 tsp fresh garlic
1 tsp sea salt
love


preparation:

• soak buckwheat groats and sunflower seeds in filtered water.
(buckwheat groats 30 minutes, sunflower seeds 4 hours)

• rinse soaked groats and seeds thoroughly.

• chop squash (i use zucchini or yellow squash).


procedure:

• in a food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth.

• spread onto teflex sheet and score into 9 crusts.

• dehydrate at 145° for one hour, then turn down to 115°.

• after a few hours the batter will peel nicely from the tray. at this point, flip batter onto mesh screen and dehydrate at 115° until dry.

crusts may be stored in the fridge a few weeks or frozen for months. they thaw quickly at room temperature.


quick and easy cashew cheezy topped the crusts, with walnuts subbing half the cashews in the recipe. it added a nice, rich flavor and made for an interesting color - before tasting john asked if i added blueberries! he's grown to expect the unexpected in our kitchen.=)

kale and mushrooms lightly coated and massaged in olive oil and balsamic vinegar went on last, and the pizza was dehydrated about an hour prior to serving.

the lemon love dressing recipe is robyn's from girl on raw. though a bit tart (as to be expected with lemons) i found it to be quite tasty. i did use less local raw honey and blended the dressing with about one tablespoon of irish moss gel for added nutrition.

spirulina was sprinkled on the salad, another superfood from the sea.

here's an interesting comment i found while researching sea vegetables:

Edible sea vegetables have many useful benefits. Besides the benefits you mentioned, they are loaded with fiber too. When my daughter was a baby, we made her gentle laxatives out of agar-agar. We mixed the dried seaweed flakes with hot cherry juice (the all-natural stuff, not the cocktail) to make a sort of seaweed gelatin. We poured the liquid into ice cube trays and let them set in the refrigerator. We would give her a couple pieces a day, and she would be her regular self in no time. The agar-agar has no taste and it is low in sodium, so it is totally safe for a baby. Adding the cherry juice made it tasty enough for the baby to nibble on, and it was able to be mushed up with just her gums, so it wasn't a choking hazard.

agar-agar was also used by barbara to make a fascinating onion, dill and horseradish uncheeze in this video featured at the sunny raw kitchen. (barbara got off her high blood pressure, high cholesterol, auto-immune, constipation and retinal vein inclusion medications and released a lot of weight eating vegan food. yay barbara!) i've yet to work with agar-agar. have you?

16 comments:

  1. Squash in the pizza crust? Fascinating...I love it.:)

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  2. Oh, and I have a question for you. Have you ever eaten Pawpaw and if so do they really taste like a banana flavored custard as the nursery catalogues suggest? We might order up and try to grow some trees this year...maybe.

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  3. I haven't used agar-agar yet, because it's a bit expensive. But I think I'll still try it one day, money isn't the important thing.

    I'd love to try raw pizza, too!

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  4. flax-less, yippee! I am working on some raw pizzas too.

    i haven't worked with agar-agar, just irish moss. i would like to try it sometime.

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  5. I love agar-agar for making vegan block cheese and jams. It really is a neat substance. Pizza looks good.

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  6. I saw some agar-agar at the health food shop recently and remembered seeing someone (i can't quite remember who) making block cheeses with it. I'll be curious to see what you get up to if you use it.

    Love pizza - with or without flax

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  7. Wow, delicious! Never used agar agar, can't find it at Whole Foods!

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  8. yummy! that looks fab sweetie! x

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  9. aargh! i've jst moved over to wordpress and am addicted to changing my blog design!! i'm now at theqirkykitchen...yeah the title changed too!

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  10. it's runnerbeangreen btw! :-) or Emma!

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  11. yum, that totally looks delicious. i love thin crust, raw or cooked. i haven't used agar agar myself either, but a lot of people do use it at whole foods. mainly to make vegan cheeses and such.

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  12. Blueberries in the pizza! HAHA. Pizzas look yummy. xoxo

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  13. mr. h - i've never heard of paw paw, but it sure sounds interesting!

    lela - let me know if you'd like me to send you some!=)

    bitt - are you flax-free for health or taste reasons?

    jane - i'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

    antony - i'll keep you posted.=)

    lauren - my local health food store sells it, though i haven't purchased it yet.

    thanks emma! love your new blog name - john doesn't call me quirks mcgirks for nothing!=)

    griffen - i love pizza, raw or cooked. it's my weakness.=)

    thanks mom. funny thing - he sounded a little excited that i may have made blueberry cheese pizza! hakakaka. =)

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  14. I avoid flax. When I added it to dehydrated recipes it tasted so bitter to me. Have you heard anything negative about flax?
    Your pizza looks just amazing. Great post!
    Peace & Raw Health,
    Elizabeth

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  15. So lovely! How long does it take to sun dry the crust? I dont have a dehydrator and am guessing using an oven would not qualify it as raw...
    Also whats wrong with flax? I thought it was a superfood!

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  16. elizabeth - i've only read positive benefits of flax, but i know some don't like the taste of it. i hardly notice it in my pizza crusts.

    hi raw girl! that's a great question. i'll look into to it. i've never dried anything in the sun, have you? and i've only known flax to be a superfood, too!=)

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