The Most Authentic Raw Pizza Recipe I've Ever Created!
Hey everyone! I am beyond stoked to be sharing this raw vegan pizza recipe with you all today. Perfecting my raw pizza recipe has been in the works for a long time now and I feel that this pizza crust, the sauces, and all the topping combined, create a perfect combo and most closely resemble an authentic, cooked pizza. This recipe is not only raw & vegan, but also gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, and soy-free!
I’ve experimented with making raw crusts from juice pulp, a variety of different types of vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc… but this base is IT, guys. It’s predominantly sprouted buckwheat, cauliflower, and zucchini! I really love how it’s a ‘bread looking’ white crust that actually crisps up and has a slightly ‘doughy’ consistency that resembles wheat.
There are so many benefits to eating sprouted buckwheat, I’m currently reading the book ‘Eating For Beauty’ by David Wolfe, and this book includes many Kirlian photographed images of foods that show the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges of the particular food. The brighter & more vibrant the light is around the food, the more beneficial it is for our body. (Raw & organic foods always have a stronger electrical discharge VS conventional & cooked foods which have a weaker & dimmed field due to heat damage or modern industrial agriculture practices that lower food quality).
From the book ‘Eating For Beauty’ by David Wolfe
Here is a Kirlian image of a buckwheat sprout! How beautiful.
This pizza also features marinated “BBQ onions”, rosemary & garlic dehydrated mushrooms, fresh cherry tomatoes, colourful capsicums, basil, chilli, avocado, and of course, a cashew cheese sauce!
I absolutely love making food for others, but especially this pizza. Bringing this pizza along to picnics and dinner parties is always the best because people can’t actually believe it’s all plants, and RAW! Myself, my friends, and family are always in shock at how great we feel after eating it, compared to how we would feel if we ate a normal cooked vegan pizza (major food coma lol). This is because the pizza has not had its life-enhancing enzymes and nutrients destroyed by heat & cooking. Although I love to eat and share it with others, if I enjoy a whole raw pizza to myself, I still feel light, energetic, and satisfied afterwards because of how nutrient-dense & easily digestible it is. I can assure you, you won’t be feeling like a couch potato after enjoying this!
I can still remember the first time I tried raw gourmet food… I was travelling in Bali, Indonesia, where they have a few incredible raw food cafes on the island. My family and I planned to go to Seeds Of Life Cafe in Ubud one night for dinner. I was so excited to go because their Instagram photos looked epic, but I was also very anxious about dinner that night because I wasn’t feeling too great that day, I probably had a bit of Bali belly :(
Anyways, we get to the cafe, order nearly half the menu and share everything between the 4 of us. I thought I was going to feel so sick afterwards… but to my surprise, I seriously felt AMAZING. This left me slightly confused as we had shared raw gnocchi, pizza, crepes, brownies, salads, nachos, herbal drinks, and more. It was a lot of food, so I was like “how the f**k do I feel this good after consuming all that food after a day of feeling kinda sick?!”. Well, my friends, it was because it was organic, high quality, raw food! I remember walking out of the cafe thinking “wow there’s something about this food that’s different.” Lol, I wasn’t eating many raw meals back then, but I was right, this food is certainly ‘different’ to say the least :)
If you would like a lower fat option for this pizza, you can totally leave out the cashew sauce and just have the avocado. I do this most of the time, but the cheese sauce spiral on top looks so cool! So I wanted to provide this option in case you’re a cashew cheese lover, and come on, pizza needs cheese right?!
In the past I have topped this pizza with my Almond Feta crumbled on top, which is also something I’d highly recommend trying out.
Continue reading for this raw pizza recipe!
Ingredients
Crust
1 cup soaked & sprouted buckwheat groats (sprouting is optional, you totally just use soaked buckwheat)
1 cup cauliflower
1 cup peeled zucchini
1 peeled and diced garlic clove
1/4 brown onion
2 tbsp psyllium husk
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Dash of chili flakes
Tomato Sauce
1 large tomato
3 medjool dates soaked in warm water
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 tsp fresh parsley
Sea salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
Pinch of chilli flakes
Cashew Cheese Sauce
1/2 soaked cashews
Juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8th tsp apple cider vinegar
Marinated BBQ Onions
1/2 brown onion thinly sliced
3 tsp pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp Braggs coconut aminos
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Marinated Rosemary Garlic Mushrooms
7-8 brown button mushrooms thinly sliced
3 tsp pure maple syrup
1 tsp Braggs coconut aminos
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp freshly chopped rosemary
1 diced garlic clove
Other Veggie Toppings
2 cups mixed leafy greens; spinach, rocket, lettuce mix
8-9 cherry tomatoes sliced into quarters
3 mini yellow capsicums or 1/2 a regular-sized capsicum thinly sliced in vertical strips
10 basil leaves
1/2 avocado vertically sliced
1 tsp chilli flakes
Method
To to make your raw pizza crust
1. The first step in creating your beautiful pizza base is sprouting your buckwheat groats. It is best to opt for organic. Soak your 1 cup of buckwheat in high-quality filtered water (I highly recommend Kangen water) for a minimum of 12 hours.
2. Strain and rinse your buckwheat in a strainer (be sure to give it a decent wash), and let your buckwheat groats sit in a strainer on top of a bowl, with a thin fabric cover over the buckwheat, rinse 3x a day until they grow little tails — this means they’ve sprouted and now have a TONNE of nutritional value in them. (Note, sprouting is optional, you can totally just use soaked buckwheat).
3. Peel your zucchinis with a peeler to get all the green skin off, you can use these later in salads or even as a pizza topping!
4. In a food processor, using an ‘s’ shaped blade, blend your soaked or sprouted buckwheat groats with the cauliflower and peeled zucchini until well combined. Then blend in the garlic, onion, rosemary, thyme, sea salt, pepper, chilli, and lastly the psyllium husk. You will find that the psyllium husk will thicken your mixture up and cause it to feel ‘doughy’ in consistency. The psyllium husk is great for dehydrated recipes as it’s an excellent ingredient binder and holds everything together. It’s also amazing for your digestive tract!
5. Take your crust mixture and spread it out on a telfex sheet, which you can place on top of a dehydrator tray. Create an evenly spread circle with a pallet knife (icing spatula).
6. Pop your crust into your dehydrator for 7-8 hours at 42 degrees celsius. Flip your crust over for the bottom side to dry about halfway or once the top side is crisp and dry to touch.
To make your tomato sauce
1. Soak your dates in warm water so they soften and can blend easily (be sure to remove the pits!)
2. Add the chopped tomato, the dates, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, cumin, sea salt and pepper to a dressing blender, and blend for a few seconds until it’s smooth in consistency, but still nice and thick. Optional — feel free to add in some paprika and chili to make the colour more red.
To make your cashew cheese sauce
1. Soak organic raw cashews in high-quality filtered water (read more about the water I drink here) for 12 hours minimum.
2. After soaking rinse your cashews well and blend them with lemon juice, sea salt, garlic powder, and a tiny amount of apple cider vinegar.
3. I encourage you to taste test and add more lemon, garlic powder, salt, or any other spices you desire to your liking!
To make your marinated BBQ onions
1. Thinly slice your onion into long strips with a sharp knife or use a food processor with a spinning blade on the thinnest setting to slice up your onion. (Tip! Wear swimming goggles so you don’t cry, who cares if you look like an idiot).
2. In a small bowl marinate the onions in the coconut aminos sauce, maple syrup, and lemon juice.
3. Place your marinated onions on a teflex sheet upon a dehydrator tray and dehydrate for 3-4 hours. (I put these in the dehydrator with the pizza crust for the last 3-4 hours that the pizza will be in there to save me time).
To make your marinate rosemary garlic mushrooms
1. Slice up your mushrooms either with a knife or with a food processor described above.
2. In a small bowl marinate your mushrooms in the coconut amino sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, finely chopped fresh rosemary, and finely chopped fresh garlic. Mix everything together and let this sit for 2-3minutes so the mushrooms can absorb all the flavors.
3. Place your marinated mushrooms on a teflex sheet upon a dehydrator tray and dehydrate for 3-4 hours. (You can place these on the same sheet as the mushrooms if you’d like).
Putting your pizza all together!
Now it’s time to put your beautiful pizza elements together to create your MASTERPIECE!
Using a spatula or spoon, evenly spread your tomato sauce on your pizza base crust.
Next, create a layer of greens upon the sauce, arranging the spinach, rocket and lettuce evenly across the surface.
Evenly disperse the dehydrated onions & mushrooms upon your layer of greens.
Decorate your pizza with sliced cherry tomatoes (I like to cut them in quarters), thin capsicum slices, and basil leaves.
Cut an avocado into long strips and place them in the center of the pizza, directing outwards (like sun rays!).
Using an icing bag or zip lock bag with a corner cut open, pipe your cashew cheese onto the pizza in a spiral or whatever pattern you like! I started in the middle and made the spiral larger and larger until I reached the crust’s edge.
Sprinkle some chilli flakes on your pizza to serve!
Enjoy & thank you for reading!
I hope this blog post inspires you to get in the kitchen and create some raw pizza magic! If you make this pizza I would LOVE to see, please tag me @olivia.harper so I can adore your pizza pics💛
Share this blog post with someone you know who would love this pizza recipe or who is trying to get more creative on a raw food diet!
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I studied with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to become a qualified Holistic Health Coach in 2020. This school & program has changed my life and accelerated this beautiful wellness journey that I find myself on now. Have you played with the idea of becoming a health coach yourself? As an alumni of IIN, I am able to provide a great 4-figure discount on your tuition, so feel free to contact me here and I can refer you directly :)
Wishing wellness & vitality to each and every one of you.
With love,
Liv x