Every Night Should Be Pizza Night

January 15, 2011 By Leanne Vogel July 22, 2015

I removed everything from our fridge yesterday afternoon and cleaned every nook and cranny. This baby hasn’t been this clean since the day we got it! If you haven’t in awhile, take some time to organize your fridge. You’ll be amazed at how good you feel afterward. Your kitchen is the heart to your home. Keeping it tidy, organized, warm, and inviting, will make cooking in it that much more enjoyable. Heck, I wanna run downstairs right now and prepare something. [Although this is a common urge for me.]

On with the eats…

When Kevin and I first met, we did not share the same tastes in food. He was a bachelor living off frozen pastas, and I was a gluten-free, seasoned vegan. Our differences made it pretty challenging to go out for dinner or prepare meals together. Then, in came pizza. It was a perfect solution! I’d cover mine in veggies, and Kevin’s would be stacked full of meat. Everyone was happy. We tested out at least 14 different types of gluten free crusts. Many of them were dry, tasted sour, were not at ALL comparable to gluten crusts, or tasted like chalk. After months of searching we landed on Food for Life Whole Grain Brown Rice Tortillas [seriously the best thin crust pizza you will ever have]. These tortillas have 7 ingredients, are vegan and gluten free. But we decided to take a risk last night and try something new. Honestly neither of us had huge expectations going into this. We decided early in the game to have a Rice Tortilla ready on the side lines just in case. picture below is of Marys Crackers with Sun dried Tomato Pesto [recipe below]

Review of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Mix

I was drawn to this crust because of it’s unique ingredients – whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, whole grain millet, whole grain sorghum flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, evaporated cane juice, xanthan gum, active dry yeast, sea salt, guar gum.

• NO fava bean flour. I’ve found this gives gluten free breads a sour, fake taste.
• NO corn starch. Potato starch is used instead, and is a healthier alternative to corn.
• Whole grains. Meaning each of the grains were ground in their whole state, bringing all of their accompanying nutrients with it. This pizza mix has what it needs to have to get the job done and doesn’t include empty ingredients.

Details and recommendations

• Needed: 2 eggs, and 2 tablespoon of oil
• Comes with a packet of yeast
• Requires that the whole bag be used. Although I’m sure you could divide the yeast, eggs, and oil and keep 1/2 of the mix for later [which is what we’ll be trying next time]
• Vegan. If flax is used instead of eggs – to use flax, combine 2 tablespoon ground flax seed with 6 tablespoon water. Let sit for a couple of minutes before using
• Dough must rise for 20 minutes, which gave us enough time to prep all the toppings
• Will easily make enough food for a family of 4-6 depending on the toppings used
• You don’t need a pizza pan for this! We used a silpat covered cookie sheet – parchment paper should work too
• Make sure to spread the dough thin enough [1/4 of inch at the most]. Remember that it rises!

Our feelings Taking the first bite…was AWESOME! It was so comparable to regular gluten crust, I had to pause for a moment to collect myself. [Kevin’s diet is a mix of gluten-free and gluten-full and he agrees with me 100%] The crust was fully cooked, had a squishy dough texture, and was incredibly filling. It was perfect. We decided to make a vegan pizza and a meaty pizza, a bit for everyone. Even though I ended up eating most of the meat pizza… oh how the tables have turned!        

This entry was tagged: pesto, pizza