Grain-Free Nut-Free Pizza
After 3 years of eating mostly Paleo (don't worry, we splurge!), I have finally found an amazing pizza crust recipe that we ALL love!
Here is the Eat Drink Paleo crust recipe!
One common complaint I hear from friends about paleo recipes, is the quantity of nuts involved. Nuts are great (unless you are allergic!) but they contain lots of phytic acid, which is inflammatory. Here is a blog post from Mark Sisson's blog about phytic acid and how to soak your nuts to remove the phytic acid.
I have developed a convenient pattern when I do soak nuts: First I soak my nuts in a glass jar for at least 4 hours, depending on the nut (usually cashew or a nut mix), then I rinse them 2x. Next I add them to my blender with filtered water and turmeric for golden milk. (here is a golden milk recipe. Just be mindful that lots turmeric is high in lead because of contaminated soils from where it is sourced. Unfortunately, that's the world we live in, now.
After I squeeze my cashew milk through the nut bag (a fine mesh double strainer bag) I am left with a wet cashew meal. I have dehydrated the wet cashew meal overnight and ended up with a dry meal/flour that I can use for baking! It might seem like a lot of work, and it is at first, but eventually the routine gets faster and more natural with practice.
BUT luckily this pizza crust recipe doesn't use nuts!
Instead of butter (we are dairy free because most dairy is inflammatory and because my daughter is allergic) I use bacon grease from uncured meat that I save.
When I quit dairy for my daughter, it took me 2 months to get through the cravings! I was like an addict! Just saying, it wasn't easy, but now I don't even think about dairy!
Another substitution that I used in Eat Drink Paleo's recipe was arrowroot flour instead of tapioca. I think tapioca flour is great, I just normally have arrowroot on hand and they are a similar starch. They are a little higher glycemic than other "paleo" flours, so use in moderation if you are trying to stick to a low-sugar diet.
This recipe said that the dough would spread out, and mine didn't. I anticipated that the dough wouldn't spread out so I spread it out with a spatula before I put it in the oven. One reason why I think the dough didn't spread out is because of the coconut flour that I used. The absorbency of coconut flour varies greatly from brand to brand, so even when recipes call for coconut flour, your might have to make adjustments depending on what brand you use. There isn't a way to know if your brand is more or less absorbing than others, but if you have a dry dough, add another egg or some extra water. Also, coconut flour takes minutes to absorb. If at first your dough appears too wet, let it sit and come back in 2-5 minutes, you will be surprised how much the consistency has changed!
Also, for MOST paleo recipes that I have tried, the cooking time is way longer than indicated. I have baked paleo recipes in different ovens for years and I still have to add cook time. Now I know, to wait until things are golden brown regardless of what the recipe says. For me, this recipe, took about 20 minutes instead of 7-8 minutes.
I made the dough and my husband started on the sauce, which was cooked down jars of blended diced tomatoes since we ran out of paste, then we washed and chopped the veggies which were cauliflower, green bell pepper, and zucchini. Then we washed, cubed, and cooked the chicken. The cauliflower was baking at 480 for about 25 minutes while I cooked 2 batches of crust and the rest of the veggies were chopped and left raw to broil later.
Once the crust was baked, we added the sauce, veggies, and meat to the pizza. We broiled it on high for 5 minutes, checking regularly.
It came out so delicious and I got to use all the veggies in my fridge plus we have delicious kid-friendly food that we can eat at our leisure all day!
Thanks for reading this blog post! Often times my clients ask me about different foods, diets, and nutrition. This blog is not to be taken as medical advice and I always think you should listen to your body and follow your intuition. It took my body a long time to adapt to an intuitive paleo diet. I am constantly learning and tweaking parts of my diet to make things easier or adapt to my growing child.
Eating low glycemic, even if not completely paleo, is a really good way to manage your pain. Pain has a way of creeping up on us in a surprising way. Treat pain from the inside out with tried and true foods that you love! If you have favorite anti-inflammatory, paleo, or low glycemic recipes, share them in the comments below!
